Loud "pothole impact" sound over bumps normal?

[prime8evolved]

Well, while this is less than pleasing to hear, I guess I am relieved that I am not the only person dealing with avoiding small cracks and holes and puckering up when I cannot.

 

[ATR]

Don't use comfort mode on crap roads. I've noticed that my car will bottom out much harsher in comfort mode then in normal or race modes.

Just in case my post got lost in the shuffle...

I repeat, if your car has DCC don't use comfort mode unless the roads are smooth. As odd as that sounds, think about it for a second...

VW's damper tuning turns the dampers down to super soft in comfort mode (allowing easier full strut travel). This in turn or big dips or harsh potholes will allow the struts to hit the bump stops easier.

As noted before, keep it in at least normal mode or even race mode if you encounter rough roads and want to avoid hitting the bump stops.

 

[al3xh]

Well, while this is less than pleasing to hear, I guess I am relieved that I am not the only person dealing with avoiding small cracks and holes and puckering up when I cannot.

Puckering is exactly how I'd describe it. Good to know we all experience the same thing

 

[riceburner]

Just in case my post got lost in the shuffle...

I repeat, if your car has DCC don't use comfort mode unless the roads are smooth. As odd as that sounds, think about it for a second...

VW's damper tuning turns the dampers down to super soft in comfort mode (allowing easier full strut travel). This in turn or big dips or harsh potholes will allow the struts to hit the bump stops easier.

As noted before, keep it in at least normal mode or even race mode if you encounter rough roads and want to avoid hitting the bump stops.

i did miss that before - nice tip! i will certainly give that a shot; normal is not a bad mode to stick in anyway. sports not even all too bad.

 

[hopelessfish]

"17 Skoda Octavia RS with DCC joining in... I too have had this problem from day one. Our country roads in Australia are pretty woeful and any sharp edged impacts (of which there are plenty) result in a huge bang which sounds like the dashboard has been sent into orbit. I find the DCC mode doesn't make much of a difference to the bottoming out problem. Does anyone know if the problem remains with aftermarket coilovers?

 

[NopeR]

Coilovers help. Just get high quality ones with match spring/damper rates

 

[riceburner]

FWIW I did put my dcc to sport mode yesterday, seemed that a few potholes/transitions that often WHACK were much subdued. Though the ride is more bouncy in general i may just keep it in sport for a while and see how it holds up!

 

[riceburner]

just checking back in. after driving a tank of gas on my typical routes where i'd usually hit atleast one bad pothole/transition, i'm happy to report leaving the DCC in SPORT left me with ZERO harsh impacts! not saying it's impossible to ever 'bottom out' again, but overall i'd say problem cured on my end!

 

[ATR]

just checking back in. after driving a tank of gas on my typical routes where i'd usually hit atleast one bad pothole/transition, i'm happy to report leaving the DCC in SPORT left me with ZERO harsh impacts! not saying it's impossible to ever 'bottom out' again, but overall i'd say problem cured on my end!

This is why I typically keep DCC and normal mode at the very least. Very rarely do I ever keep it in comfort.

great to hear that the tip worked out for you.

 

[prime8evolved]

No DCC mode is going to save you in a situation like this though. This happened in Iowa. The highway helper said I ripped a chunk of the road up. I asked to go get it. That chunk cost me $2k for tow, trailer to home, rim and tire. I drove by it the next day and they filled it in. I was a day early clearly.

 

[JC_451]

^
Good argument for having the spare. Especially on 19's

 

[Gimpster]

I just moved back out of Iowa after living there for quite some time, some of the worst roads in the union.

No DCC mode is going to save you in a situation like this though. This happened in Iowa. The highway helper said I ripped a chunk of the road up. I asked to go get it. That chunk cost me $2k for tow, trailer to home, rim and tire. I drove by it the next day and they filled it in. I was a day early clearly.

 

[spessx]

Hey All,

I figured I would "bump" this topic to the top.

Has anyone who's add the bottoming out issue managed to resolve the problem? It seems like firmer shock settings for DCC cars seems to help. Would firmer shocks/struts help on Non DCC?

-s

 

[Al_in_Philly]

Hey All,

I figured I would "bump" this topic to the top.

Has anyone who's add the bottoming out issue managed to resolve the problem? It seems like firmer shock settings for DCC cars seems to help. Would firmer shocks/struts help on Non DCC?

-s

I can't speak for non-DCC shocks/springs, but since replacing my stock DCC shocks/struts with Bilstein B6 DCCs (kept factory springs) I haven't hit anything, potholes, railroad tracks, etc., that haven't been taken very smoothly--a note though, very slight bumps and such are somewhat more noticeable at low speeds. Bilstein does make a non-DCC version of the B6, but I have no idea how its valving compares to the DCC version.

 

[Bobby Boucher]

Glad I saw this thread - new R owner here of 1 month. I experienced the exact same thing with my wife a couple of times - once over a cattle grid, and once over a railroad crossing. Wasn't going terribly fast in either scenario, so both of us were pretty alarmed. Surprised it's prevalent enough for for someone to make a thread on it, happy to see I'm not alone.

Second time this happened, I actually stopped the car to look at the railroad crossing and it was FAR from what I'd call severe. Car was in comfort, but honestly - if I had to pick between an alarming thud vs. increasing the probability of bending my 19" Pretorias, I'd pick the former.


One thing I'd like to know - I spent 10 years in a BMW E46, and among its many quirks was "mushrooming" strut towers... Do any such problem(s) exist on the MK7s? I did a search & found nothing, so that's a good start.


Also - for what it's worth - since the car is effectively brand-new & I'm paranoid and HATE bent wheels, I went as far as checking the runout on all 4 wheels & everything was well within spec. For other anal people:

Keep in mind that this is assuming the wheel is properly bolted to a tire balancer (i.e. not with a conical lug) - so the tolerances could arguably a bit bigger when mounted on the car.