Damage to shocks over speed bump

Question

There was a poorly marked speed bump on the way into the mall and I hit it going probably 15mph over the rated speed. It was a small speed bump (not those humps that induces rocking, ~1 feet in diameter) and I do believe that the car bottomed out however none of the underside seems to be damaged.

EDIT: It did sound like the front suspension was completely bottomed out but there was absolutely no damage to the undercarriage/skid plate. The rear ones did not seem to have bottomed out but I was accelerating and my trunk had a lot of boxes so I would assume that the rear wheels would have been more compacted at the time.

What damage could this have incurred? (Model: Acura TSX 2012).

Also, where can we find information about the Acura TSX suspension travel distance etc (google is failing me right now and the manual does not contain this info)?

Answer 1

At most, you may have knocked the alignment out, however you probably didn't damage the suspension otherwise. If the shocks are really old, they can start to leak if you hit the bumpstops hard, however you probably didn't do much to the car if you didn't notice the suspension instantly collapse downwards or make noises/knocks/etc after you went over it.

Needless to say, it's probably not wise to do it again. hahah.

Answer 2

Relax!

Your car is designed to take MUCH MUCH more substantial punishment than what you have explained here.

It is very difficult to determine the suspension travel distance of a particular car but be rest assured, since you have a fairly new car this small incident should not be something you should be worried about.

For instance, I have almost done a rally car type jump on one of the monstrous speed humps with 5 passengers on my 2002 small cheap hatchback with everything bottoming out, I pulled aside and checked, everything was good, no damage done.

My car looks like this:

Answer 3

It is very possible to damage the struts and shocks on a small vehicle hitting a speed bump. It is more a vehicle weight, speed of impact issue and reaction time of the shock to absorb that energy rather than size of speed bump. I blew 4 MacPherson struts on a Toyota Corolla and the struts were after market replacements (Munroes).

I doubt very much that alignment would affected in any way. In order to affect alignment the lower control arm and or ball joint would have to have subjected to an impact. If she nailed the curbed at the same time she nailed the speed bump..then definitely...otherwise not.

Edit: One the reasons that the front end bottomed out was because of the weight of the engine, transmission, and related components was close to about 400 Lbs plus about half of the weight of the car body. The poor struts and springs are saying "I'm dying over here" as they are trying to compensate for a rapid up and down motion in response to the speed bump. How heavy were the boxes in the trunk?

Answer 4

There probably isn't a lot to worry about from hitting a speed bump at 15mph over the recommended speed. The shocks are designed to take a beating. Over time they do wear out but since they are still relatively new I would doubt you'd see much damage from a single incident.

The bottom line is that anything and everything on the car could sustain damage from a serious impact. Frames can bend, bolts can break, steel rods can bend etc. To remove all doubt, take a look underneath the car and check for damage, but if you don't spot anything, and the car seems to be driving fine, and you know you didn't scrape the bottom of your car, and the of course if the shocks are still responding well while driving and when you push down on the vehicle, then there is probably nothing to worry about.

Also, to get the specs about the shock travel, your best bet would probably be to call the dealership