Wednesday morning, on my way back from dropping my daughter at work, winter finally arrived. Our first storm of the season moved in Tuesday afternoon, and it didn’t take long for the roads to turn slick. It was that heavy, wet snow mixed with dropping temperatures overnight — the perfect recipe for a sketchy drive Wednesday morning. This was taken from our kitchen window a mer hour after the snow had started. The transit bus is stuck, a 2 car accident at the bottom of the hill, nd just out of site on the right of the lower street is a 4 car pile up. The roads did not improve over night.
I decided to take her in with the Volvo (XC70 AWD), thinking it was the safer choice. On my way back home, a car pulled out in front of me. Honestly, I still don’t know how we didn’t collide. I hit the brakes and steered away, but that pulled me into the unplowed lane. I ended up catching the curb with the right front wheel.
The damage? The rim lost about a 20 cm section of the safety bead, and the tire looks like it has broken belts. I managed to get the full-size spare on to get home, then moved the spare to the rear so the better tires were on the front.
Now that I’ve had time to inspect things, it’s looking like I’ll need a new rim and at least one tire — likely a full set, since none of the local shops have my brand or size in stock. With AWD, you can’t really mismatch tires because of the 5% rolling diameter limit, so it’s safer to replace all four.
Initial cost is shaping up to be around $1,200… which also happens to be what I get per month on disability. So out comes the credit card, just so I can get back on the road and back and forth to the property.
Verdict
Rim, tire, wheel bearing, redneck alignment(magnetic Camber Tool) is looking like $600.
Proper 4 wheel alignment $300
Tires $189 + 15% tax and $30 mount/balance each, hoping I can source 1 in my brand/size.
Life tosses us little hiccups — I guess just to keep us tested.
