My family and I were in our Countryman S All4 driving down a two-lane highway when an oncoming pickup truck pulling cattle had a transfer case explode. I've never seen anything like it. The trailer and backend of the truck caught a little air, and metal was flying everywhere. I had a few seconds to dodge everything I could, and I just felt fortunate that nothing came through one of our windows. I ended up running onto the shoulder, but a shaft from the t-case shot into the wheel. It gashed the sidewall open, but it also hit the wheel. I'm hoping his insurance covers everything, but we need a functional car for the time being. (Our only other car is our two-door Mini Cooper S, but our car seat doesn't fit in it.) I checked the wheel, and it's damaged. It looks mostly cosmetic though. (The side of the car is scuffed as well.) I do not see any cracks, which is honestly surprising to me, because it took quite a hit.

I have some extra tires from when we got a nail in a tire. They had 20K miles on them, so we had to replace them all. (Our current tires also have 20K on them, so it works out.) I kept the good tires for a moment like this, and I was just going to run it over to a local tire shop to get the wheels swapped out. However, my concern is that the wheel might be fractured or weakened and us not know it. With this being our family car, I cringe at the thought of us having a wheel fail on a highway. We have a 6-hour drive to make on Friday. Is it possible these wheels are strong enough to take a hit from a t-case shaft and not be cracked or weakened in some way? It's shocking to me, because it felt like a tremendous impact.

 

I’d make sure no suspension bits
got bent in the process as well
(at least a quick alignment check
and a good visual exam).

 

Thank you, Cristo. His insurance should call tomorrow, and I assume they'll come look at it. Once they've done that, I'll take it to a local shop and get one of our old tires put on to get us by until the insurance does what it needs to do. I'll have the shop check everything out.