Bent rim in San Jose, glad I bought the wheel insurance

[aaronw]

A few years back Tesla briefly offered tire and wheel insurance. I immediately jumped at it since I have the 21" rims and drive in San Jose, who has some of the worst roads in the country. Anyway, I'm glad I did. Only a few weeks later they sadly dropped that option. Early Saturday morning I was driving home from work on E. Tasman Road just past N. First Street when I went over the steel plates where they're tearing up the road. It felt like I hit a curb and shortly thereafter my low tire pressure warning came on. I pulled into the first driveway I could find and called Tesla. It took around 20 minutes to get through (this was at roughly 4am) and they sent out a tow truck with a spare wheel and tire. My rim was clearly bent. The tow truck put on a loaner wheel and tire until I get mine taken care of.

I spoke with them today and am scheduled to have my rim and tire replaced under the insurance. I still think it would make sense to go after the city of San Jose rather than have my insurance pay for it because the city was clearly at fault. I spoke with the construction crew and a police officer who was right where it happened on Monday but they seem to have a hard time believing that it happened. It's not the first time I've felt a sharp bump when driving through that location either.

I will try and get the old rim back and tire back if the tire isn't damaged. I think the rim may be repairable. Hopefully they carry the Michelin Super Sport tires.

 

[retinaguy]

The police and road crew work for the city and I'm sure their supervisors wouldn't like an admission of guilt!

 

[yo mama]

Pffft. San Jose is San Francisco's Tijuana.

 

[aaronw]

I looked over at the spot today on my way to work and I could clearly see a nice big gap in places between the road surface and the steel plate.

 

[Frank the Tank]

If you are going to claim through the city, make sure you take pictures of the pothole and your damaged rim. I had ran over a very deep pothole that damaged two of my rims in San Francisco almost two years ago and was able to successfully claim through the city's construction insurance. Sadly a few days ago, I hit another large pothole on 101S by Brisbane....potholes galore that day. I took pictures of the pothole the next day and have since gotten my car fixed. Hoping Caltran will pay for the bill this time...

 

[Ulmo]

If you are going to claim through the city, make sure you take pictures of the pothole and your damaged rim. I had ran over a very deep pothole that damaged two of my rims in San Francisco almost two years ago and was able to successfully claim through the city's construction insurance. Sadly a few days ago, I hit another large pothole on 101S by Brisbane....potholes galore that day. I took pictures of the pothole the next day and have since gotten my car fixed. Hoping Caltran will pay for the bill this time...

This is great news to me that people actually go after the people maintaining our roads with our ample tax money for their failures. I just eat the costs. Just yesterday, my wheels were in for tire replacement, and I found two had bent rims, so there's another $600 chomp of my money for bad road repairs for new rims and tires. Some of it is seasonal: these rains have jostled loose a lot of pavement.

I have this fantasy that if I were a road maintainer, I'd have every square inch of road under my control robotically checked and repaired EVERY NIGHT, with the highest quality stitching and materials appropriate for each repair (no asphalt in concrete or concrete in asphalt garbage). Big road signs would warn drivers for many miles ahead of the typical time and place of road repair to prevent accidents. My theory is a well maintained road needs less overall maintenance than a poorly maintained road, but I'm sure I'm 100% wrong about that.

 

[aaronw]

I don't think I can do anything since Tesla replaced the tire and wheel free of charge. I have the 21" rims and according to Tesla since they are cast aluminum the rims cannot be repaired but must be replaced. If I didn't have insurance, the cost to replace the rim would have been $1100. Back when I got my P85 there was no difference in cost between the 19 and 21" rims.

I would gladly pay a fee to see that our roads are better maintained. Most of the damage is caused by trucks. One fully-loaded 18-wheeler causes as much damage as 9600 cars. Trimble road has a LOT of trucks on it since there's a major refueling station nearby so there's a constant stream of gasoline trucks. There are also several warehouse operations nearby as well.

In this case they've been tearing up the road to repair pipes (I think). I could see how poorly the steel plates lined up when I drove by on Friday. I now take it slow when I have to drive that stretch coming home. If anything should happen again I'll also be sure to make my dash cam stop recording afterwards and save the data.