April 08--As Chicagoans rebound from winter to construction season, along come potholes.
Instead of avoiding the pockmarks on city streets, one car is aiming right for the steel-quaking, back-breaking scourge: the Pothole Dummy.
Part social media publicity stunt, part educational campaign, the Pothole Dummy is a marketing blitz by Advance Auto Parts to raise awareness of how to prevent or minimize the $3 billion spent annually on pothole damage to cars, according to AAA estimates.
"We're here to talk about preventative maintenance and show how pothole damage affects the car," said John Gardner, host of Tech Garage on Velocity TV and spokesman for Advance Auto Parts. "A healthy car means a healthy life."
If that's the case then the car we're riding in, a blacked-out 2007 Dodge Charger with over 100,000 miles and equipped with new McPherson struts and replaced shocks, needs to see the car doctor.
Or at least take a break from Daniel Strauss, a comedian from Second City whose exploits behind the wheel as the Pothole Dummy are being live-streamed and live-tweeted as he picks up media personalities and veers into potholes through Friday.
At the end of the first day driving on Monday, the Pothole Dummy hit 208 potholes. As of this writing, the Pothole Dummy in-car counter has registered 800 hits.
The goal is to see how many potholes one car can take.
While the Pothole Dummy campaign is exclusive to our pothole-rich city, the Dummy may be disappointed. Pothole pickings are relatively slim this season due to the mild winter. In January, 40,262 potholes were repaired in the city, compared with 94,307 in January 2014, the Chicago Tribune reported in February.
"With the weather being as warm as it is, we've been good," Randy Conner, first deputy commissioner for the city's Transportation Department. "We've been able to stay in front of the potholes and even catch some additional ones."
Potholes are caused by moisture seeping through cracks and holes in the road surface. The moisture expands and contracts as temperatures rise and fall, causing the pavement to break, buckle and erode. Add the weight and movement of bus and vehicle traffic, and potholes form.
So the Pothole Dummy is making potholes bigger. In the name of science. And marketing.
The upside is the folks at Advance Auto Parts and Gardner have tips to minimize and identify pothole damage to vehicles.
First, make sure tires are inflated to the PSI listed in the owner's manual or on the sticker in the door frame. Do not use the PSI listed on the tire; that number is the maximum pressure for the tire, not the car.
Second, if you hit a pothole and detect damage once your teeth stop rattling, there are a few tests you can conduct to determine if your strut and/or shock needs replacing.
Bounce test: Push and release each corner of the car and see how it responds. If it bounces once or twice, it should be fine. If one corner is bouncier than the others, the strut or shock is likely busted.
Check alignment: If you put two fingers on the bottom of the steering wheel, and can feel it pulling, Gardner says, then the steering needs to be realigned and the suspension should be checked out by a technician.
Check out the video for more tests you can do to determine the health of your car's suspension, or read Bob "Motormouth" Weber's advice on minimizing pothole damage to your car and your bank account.
Editor's note: The city has a pothole damage reimbursement claim form at chicityclerk.com/community-affairs/claims
rduffer@tribpub.com
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