NockerGeek's Journal

This morning, I got tapped by an SUV on my way in.

I was on one of the busier stretches of my drive (I-435 between Wornall and State Line, for the locals), and traffic suddenly shifted from moving smoothly to stop-and-go. The red sports car in front of me suddenly decided that stopping was the order of the day and slammed on their brakes. I followed suit, hoping to avoid a crash, which I did... with them. The SUV behind me also slammed on their brakes, but not quite fast enough. I saw them rapidly draw close in the rearview mirror, and then heard (more than felt) a "THUMP". We pulled over through two lanes of traffic, threw on our hazard lights, and got out to inspect the damage.

Apparently, our two vehicles were moving at such speeds in proportion to one another that the "collision" was more of a "love tap". No denting, no cracking, no bending of any parts visible, either on my car or theirs. The only sign that there had been any impact at all was a brand new clean spot amongst the dirt and schmutz that's accumulated on the car over the last couple of snows, with a tiny scratch in the paint where his license plate frame lightly kissed my bumper. No harm, no foul, no point in reporting that since it'd be well under the deductible. Since all was well, we mutually decided to just move along. The rest of the drive (minus some heavy traffic further along) was uneventful.

So, yeah, very, very thankful that I got rear-ended by an SUV and have nothing to show for it. Easily the most exciting non-event I've had in a while.

My car has, over the last few months, developed a noticeable wobble in the front axle, and with winter coming up before too long it was high time to get it looked at. Fortunately, even though the car's original warranty ran out 24,000 miles ago (or 27 days ago - shame that I hit the mileage cap first), the extended warranty covers pretty much any non-consumable/non-wear item (hoses, fluids, tires, etc.), so I dropped it off at the dealership this morning.

Around 10 or so, I got a call back on what they found - the center support bearing for the suspension had gone out, and the tires had gone out of balance and were all chopped up where they hit the inside of the wheel well. The former was covered by the warranty (after a $100 deductible); the latter was not. Fortunately, the tires were only a year and a half old, so I figured I could work out something with the Firestone shop that sold them to me. The dealership took care of the suspension, and then it was off to the tire shop in the afternoon. They took a look at it, and apparently Ford Focuses have a issue with putting too much tension on the tires and pulling them in slightly at the top (negative camber). This is aggravated by the squared corners from the tread to the sides that many tires have these days; they angle in, and that corner starts getting chewed up by the wheel well. The original factory tires and the replacements I got last year? Square corners. New tires were a must, but the guys at Firestone took about $250 - about 45% - off of the price as a "customer satisfaction" discount.

About an hour or so later, I was back on the road with a wobble-free car and around $460 less in the bank than we had in the morning. Still, the costs could have been much worse, and we had buffer in the bank to cover these kinds of things, so I'm counting my blessings where I can. Instead, I'll just be happy to not have that annoying oscillating sound and extra vibration as I drive.