Bottoming Out - 2

[Struja]

There is another thread on this but the focus of the thread was "damage to the battery", where as my focus is more about "other problems".

This has now happened to me twice in two days and 3 times in total. The last incident happened less than an hour ago.

I was driving through a parking lot at no more than 4-5km/hr (walking speed - maybe even slower) and I went over a pretty high speed bump at a very slow speed and after the front tires went over it, I got a pretty good thud and scraping sound.

My car had bottomed out over the speed bump. I was going VERY slow... almost annoyingly slow (meaning if this was a car in front of me I might have been thinking..."oh come on, hurry up").

I do NOT have the adjustable air suspension. I have NO alterations to the suspension.

My tire pressure is perfect and I am on 19" Wheels.

Worth a visit to the SC or just avoid similar speed bumps? (This speed bump seems to be a bit higher than what I would say was normal).

 

[shonline]

This happened to me as well. Same suspension as you. Looked under car and saw no issues. It is low rider for sure....

 

[jelloslug]

It as happened to me before as well with no issues.

 

[jjh1234]

There is another thread on this but the focus of the thread was "damage to the battery", where as my focus is more about "other problems".

This has now happened to me twice in two days and 3 times in total. The last incident happened less than an hour ago.

I was driving through a parking lot at no more than 4-5km/hr (walking speed - maybe even slower) and I went over a pretty high speed bump at a very slow speed and after the front tires went over it, I got a pretty good thud and scraping sound.

My car had bottomed out over the speed bump. I was going VERY slow... almost annoyingly slow (meaning if this was a car in front of me I might have been thinking..."oh come on, hurry up").

I do NOT have the adjustable air suspension. I have NO alterations to the suspension.

My tire pressure is perfect and I am on 19" Wheels.

Worth a visit to the SC or just avoid similar speed bumps? (This speed bump seems to be a bit higher than what I would say was normal).

What was the other thread called?

 

[GWord]

Last weekend I was going to visit the Tesla design center near my location. The entrance to one of the parking lots is underground and had a pretty severe transition to the down ramp. I was traveling at a good clip (probably 10mph), because the entrance is right after a left turn through an intersection. Man, I absolutely nailed the car on it. I don't see much in the way of visible damage (some scarring to the plastic underneath) but I'll probably have the service center inspect next time I'm in for something else.

 

[Zaphod]

There is another thread on this but the focus of the thread was "damage to the battery", where as my focus is more about "other problems".

This has now happened to me twice in two days and 3 times in total. The last incident happened less than an hour ago.

I was driving through a parking lot at no more than 4-5km/hr (walking speed - maybe even slower) and I went over a pretty high speed bump at a very slow speed and after the front tires went over it, I got a pretty good thud and scraping sound.

My car had bottomed out over the speed bump. I was going VERY slow... almost annoyingly slow (meaning if this was a car in front of me I might have been thinking..."oh come on, hurry up").

I do NOT have the adjustable air suspension. I have NO alterations to the suspension.

My tire pressure is perfect and I am on 19" Wheels.

Worth a visit to the SC or just avoid similar speed bumps? (This speed bump seems to be a bit higher than what I would say was normal).

If it's a "pretty high" speed bump as you say, not much you can do. Possibly try going over at a slight angle, but that usually only helps for driveway entrances. Might be difficult to go over at a reasonable angle in parking lots unless there are no cars coming the other direction.

Problem is just that the S is fairly long wheelbase and fairly low to the ground and you are "high centering" the vehicle. You are not bottoming out, which would usually imply going over bump at speed. High-centering really has nothing to do with speed, it's just that the break-over angle is too shallow for the bump you are going over. Since you don't have air suspension, not much you can do other than be aware and either avoid or go over at angle if possible.

 

[Struja]

Hey guys. Thanks for the responses, that was very reassuring.

I will try different angles in the future.

 

[Dameon]

Unlikely the angle will matter on a speed bump.

 

[scottm]

There is something you can do.

Complain to the owner / operator of the parking lot that the bumps are too high and it has possibly caused damage to your car's undercarriage.

The parking lot of the grocery store that I frequent, and once bottomed out on, has since replaced their speed bumps with much lower and broader ones. I don't bottom out there anymore.

Upon inspection of my undercarriage, there was not even a scratch present on the underbelly panels after bottoming out there. Thankfully. It seems the side rails around the edges of the battery took the hit and held the car up preventing the battery pan from making contact.

 

[Olle]

Happens to me too sometimes but the battery seems to have pretty nice protection rails along it. Going diagonally certainly helps for me, especially on these short tall yellow bumps where the front wheels fall down once they pass.

 

[scottm]

The other thing I do, which seems to work really well, is when there's a gap in the middle of the speed bump (to accommodate a gutter down the middle the road) steer that side of the car's wheels through the gap. Only the other side of the car drives over the speed bump.

Or, sometimes I steer the right side of the car around the end of the bump near the, when there is no gutter gap in the middle.

This keeps the car suspension from compressing down as much after an axle has gone over the bump. So you keep your ride height up as much as possible.

 

[zentage]

This is one of the main issues as to why I said bye to my 1k deposit and ordered a new car this summer after the air suspension was made standard.
Tesla has been lowering their cars with standard suspension over the years.
My 2014 S60 had ground clearance of 155mm and when I checked this summer standard suspension was as low as 134mm.

I've only bottomed out once with my S60, but the thought of getting a new car with a lower suspension was giving me the creeps (especially for norwegian pothole roads).

With air I can now raise the car to 160mm when needed.

 

[CHG-ON]

What helps with this issue is to try to go over the bump at an angle. I don;t have a problem with my car (SAS), but I always had it with lower sports cars.

 

[b team]

Unlikely the angle will matter on a speed bump.

Angle absolutely helps.

 

[David29]

My sister and i were exploring a nice neighborhood in one of the wealthier towns around here this week, and decided we wanted to see some houses that were on a road that was marked as "Private Road, No Through Traffic." We ventured in anyway. (We like an adventure now and then, and subscribe to the theory of "Nothing ventured, nothing gained.".) The road was fairly new, in good condition, but narrow and twisty and hilly. And as it turned out, there were high speed bumps about every 100 yards or so -- probably 8 or 10 of them in a half mile or so. I hit the first bump going a bit too fast and was shocked at the crash! feeling as we hit the speed bump. (My var has steel springs, not air suspension.) After that, I crawled as slowly as I could, but we still hit every speed bump pretty hard. Once we got part way in, there was at least one car behind us, so we kept going, and continued to experience what seemed like severe impacts at each speed bump. In a couple of instances when I could manage it, I took the speed bump at a diagonal, which did help some.
I had visions of warning lights popping up to tell me that the battery had leaked its fluid or something and that we'd need to flatbed out of there, but the car made no complaints.
For the rest of our drive, we took no more roads marked "Private," believe me!
Everyone in that neighborhood must drive an SUV with good road clearance!
It is reassuring that others have had similar experiences with apparently no damage.

 

[Knightowl]

My sister and i were exploring a nice neighborhood in one of the wealthier towns around here this week, and decided we wanted to see some houses that were on a road that was marked as "Private Road, No Through Traffic." We ventured in anyway. (We like an adventure now and then, and subscribe to the theory of "Nothing ventured, nothing gained.".) The road was fairly new, in good condition, but narrow and twisty and hilly. And as it turned out, there were high speed bumps about every 100 yards or so -- probably 8 or 10 of them in a half mile or so. I hit the first bump going a bit too fast and was shocked at the crash! feeling as we hit the speed bump. (My var has steel springs, not air suspension.) After that, I crawled as slowly as I could, but we still hit every speed bump pretty hard. Once we got part way in, there was at least one car behind us, so we kept going, and continued to experience what seemed like severe impacts at each speed bump. In a couple of instances when I could manage it, I took the speed bump at a diagonal, which did help some.
I had visions of warning lights popping up to tell me that the battery had leaked its fluid or something and that we'd need to flatbed out of there, but the car made no complaints.
For the rest of our drive, we took no more roads marked "Private," believe me!
Everyone in that neighborhood must drive an SUV with good road clearance!
It is reassuring that others have had similar experiences with apparently no damage.

ashamed to admit this but a couple years back on a roadtrip from CO to FL, I was at a superchager in TX parked along side a narrow curb jutting out into the lot next to the last supercharger stall, I had been too long on too little sleep and forgot the curb was there when I pulled out after my charge was done turning over the curb and completely destroyed it under the car, as in pulverized it into chunks I thought for sure I really messed up the car and battery, but surprisingly no damage at all to the car. Luckily none of the state troopers parked nearby saw this and I made a quick getaway after a check under the car.

 

[Naekuh]

Happens to me too sometimes but the battery seems to have pretty nice protection rails along it. Going diagonally certainly helps for me, especially on these short tall yellow bumps where the front wheels fall down once they pass.

Should note going diagonal only helps by reducing the downward recoil force on the car as it goes over the bump.
If the bump is high to the point where your middle is scraping and not tapping like a bang, its pointless trying to drive like that.

It reminds me of my ricer days in highschool, having a car lower then legal, and not even being able to get out of a decient driveway.