Hey,

You guys know the tire tread that fall off those semi trucks? Well about a week ago I was driving my brand new used 95 Nissan Maxima to work... A van in front of me ran over the tire tread (about 8 inches+ long and about 5 inches wide) and it flew back heading to my maxima, my dad said I could have moved out of the way, but as a beginner driver I didnt know what to do (I didnt want to swerve into the other lane). The tire tread smashed pretty hard into the front bottom of my car, knocking the drivers side foglight out and leaving marks of rubber on the car, got most of them out though, then went under the car and hit under the car once pretty hard (hard enough to hear it).

My question is could any internal damged be caused by this? Any damged under the car from the tire hitting under the car? Any damged under the hood from the impact of the tire onto the front end?

 

I hit one of those re-treads last year and it smashed the plastic shroud behind my right-side wheel. It protects the side of the engine and all the belts & pulleys from rain, snow, etc. Just put the car up on ramps and do a thorough inspection underneath. Odds are you're going to be fine. Good luck!

 

^^ +1

I hit a retread about a year ago and only got the rubber marks. Loud clunking underneath but I checked under there and everything was ok.

 

I've hit one too. It made my bumper light fly out. Other than that the car was fine.

 

i hit a pipe at 80mph. was on the turnpike. no damage underneath, just a very much needed alignment. lifetime alignment at firestone is fun.

 

I hit a piece of plywood once doing about 75mph. It cracked the front bumper, broke the orange corner lights, and sounded like a shotgun went off. It flew across the highway like a rocket.

 

Sorry, but your dad is a moron. You did the right thing keeping straight and not swerving. At that speed you'd rather hit a piece of rubber than another car, and a broken headlight isn't worth potentially losing control and going off the road.Could, yes. Likely, no.Probably not. Get on the ground and look but it probably didn't do any damage.Extremely unlikely.

Keep an eye out for leaking fluid, but other than that fix your car and thank your driver's ed. teacher for training you not to swerve in the other lane.

 

I hit one of those things at night... thought it was a giant bat.
it smashed the headlight, dented the crap out of the hood and cracked the windshield... plus it scared the hell out of me. bats should never grow that big.
$1300 in damage... all cosmetic.

 

Cosmetic is nothing under the hood or anything just exterior correct?

 

Seems to be a trend since I ran over the same thing last week. Was loud as hell and though I might have bent a rim or something. Jacked it up and noted no problems.

 

Right... Mechanically it was fine; except for the headlight.