Rear Tyre Scolloping

[jonathanfenton]

Had an issue on the rear of a bearing like drone. Figured the car has done 189,000 miles it was probably due some bearings. Changed them (one was fine but changed anyway and one was worn and probably on its way to being ready for changing) and the drone wasn't much better. Took the car to get the wheels balanced as figured that it could only be that as can feel a slight vibration through the seat and the guy took the first wheel off and said its not balancing its scalloped on the inside. He put it back on and checked the other rear and that was the same. So took it to my usual garage and had 2 new tyres put on and he said that scalloping is normally due to worn shock absorbers? As i've just spent £300 on new bearings and tyres I'm dubious to throw more money at the problem as the car handles fine and isn't showing any obvious signs that the shocks are finished. I've had loads of tracking issues in the past with uneven wear as this car seems to be quite sensitive to toe and camber and normally 4 wheel alignment has solved it but never have I had this scalloping.

So my question is has anyone else had this problem and how did you resolve it?
Thanks.

[HAWKS]

I have had it on my old A4 1.8T, and it was a rear shock gone bad. Changed them both with 2 x tyres and never had anymore issues for 8 years after that.
Get them checked out first.

[zollaf]

190,000 miles and you wonder if the shocks are worn out ??

[Gazwould]

If they are not weeping they're good for another 100 years .

[Rob69]

If they are not weeping they're good for another 100 years .

Maybe not - just this weekend I noticed a weird drone slight rattle and back end shimmy on my 135k passat. No sign of rear shocks leaking and went through mot last month ok. Today I got my missus to drive with me hanging out the rear passenger windows like a mad dog watching the rear wheels. Nearside rear was bouncing and skittering along. New shocks to be fitted in a few weeks, car off the road until then as the back end is too loose on bumpy roads.

[zollaf]

i have replaced plenty of dampers that arn't leaking and look otherwise fine. its only when you get them off the car and find they have no damping left at all. recently followed at least a few cars that have had a rear damper not doing anything. makes you realise just how much work they do. one wheel just following the road, the other bouncing everywhere.

[Rob69]

You see cars driving along the motorway with a wheel bouncing like mad, wonder if the driver realises somethings wrong or just turns the radio up!

[zollaf]

'they all do that sir '

[jonathanfenton]

You may scoff but it's not obvious that they are worn out, its mostly motorway miles and i've done the lift and drop and also bounce "test" and it seems normal to me. It's also just passed its MOT.

[zollaf]

no one is scoffing.. problem is, you drive a car for many miles and dont realise things are wearing out as it happens over time. a damper has a life expectancy of 60,000 miles. anything after that is a bonus but the internals will be worn and not operating as efficiently as a new damper. my 80 recently started to feel a tiny bit loose. an inspection noted some slight misting to a rear damper, not enough to make much difference but enough to allow me to feel it. still good for an mot, still good for many m,iles, but i will replace the soon, maybe..
i bet if you took your rears off you would find them very worn.

[jonathanfenton]

This is true, sorry I got my backup a little bit its been a really crap day. Thanks for your replies. Will get some shocks tomorrow and put them on. I presume the springs albeit softer/lazier than a new spring will be ok unless its visibly corroded or a piece snapped off?

[Gazwould]

Maybe not - just this weekend I noticed a weird drone slight rattle and back end shimmy on my 135k passat. No sign of rear shocks leaking and went through mot last month ok. Today I got my missus to drive with me hanging out the rear passenger windows like a mad dog watching the rear wheels. Nearside rear was bouncing and skittering along. New shocks to be fitted in a few weeks, car off the road until then as the back end is too loose on bumpy roads.



Lol , I was being flippant , Rob .

[HAWKS]

Like Zollaf has said.
Take them off and test them.Visual checks dont always tell the whole story.
It would be a shame to not change them and waste your new rear boots...

[jonathanfenton]

Like Zollaf has said.
Take them off and test them.Visual checks dont always tell the whole story.
It would be a shame to not change them and waste your new rear boots...

Just this second ordered some for collection tomorrow, Sachs were the best I could find to collect without having to order and wait an age for delivery. Suppose I better get it 4 wheel aligned as well once I've changed them.

[zollaf]

sachs,,, thats probably what it left the factory with.. about as good as you can get.

[HAWKS]

Zollaf,i see you only have the 80 in your sig strip?

[zollaf]

yeah, sold the s4 before i lost my licence.. want another one ..

[jonathanfenton]

Sounds good to me, obviously be hard to tell if its made a difference until the tyres have done some mileage to check the wear.

[zollaf]

but what i really want to do is build an 80 quattro with the s4 v6 bi turbo engine ... then wide arch it..

[HAWKS]

:drive:

[zollaf]

Sounds good to me, obviously be hard to tell if its made a difference until the tyres have done some mileage to check the wear.
you will probably feel the difference after about a mile.
funnily enough i mot'd a customers b6 a4 the other month, and it felt quite unstable compared with the last time i drove it which was 6 months or so ago. passed the mot no problem but i swear its got one or two dodgy dampers. it felt fine but just not as planted as it should. time will tell, he will be booking it in soon enough.

[jonathanfenton]

Would you recommend changing the springs and front as well then?

[zollaf]

springs no, they dont really deteriorate unless they snap, front dampers, yes. they have done the same work as the rears.

[HAWKS]

If it aint broke, dont try an fix it.
leave the fronts for now.
If the rear springs are really rusty or snapped change them out.

[jonathanfenton]

Fair enough, will get some fronts in the near future as well then. I did front and rear shocks and springs on a mk4 golf that kept smashing stumps and remember it being night and day on ride quality. Just a PITA to do the front, looking at the Haynes it appears that they are pretty much the same in terms of procedure drop bottom ball joint drive shaft out then then drop top mount and remove from hub.

[Rob69]

A good comment made a few posts back about creeping deterioration of dampers not being that obvious to the regular driver - I go for periods of weeks of not driving my passat due to working away but my wife clocks up some miles in between, first time I'd driven it in a 3 weeks last weekend and it had done a 700 mile round trip towing a boat since I last drove it. I drove it this weekend along a stretch of potholed rough road and thought it didn't feel the same. Also noticed the back end chattering about when taking right hand bends on the same rough road, that's what got me sticking my head out the windows like a dog staring at the rear wheels to see what was going on. I'll find out for sure when i get to change the rears in a few more weeks.

[jonathanfenton]

Well I’ve done the rears and after I took them off I pressed them in my hand and they felt like the new ones so wasn’t holding out much hope. Took it for a test drive and the rear of the car feels so solid it’s quite remarkable how you don’t notice how soft your suspension has got! So I’m off to get the fronts tomorrow. Read somewhere that rather taking the centre hub nut off just take the drive shaft out from the inner joint instead so you dont have to replace the stretch bolt which i thought was a really smart idea. Will order new bottom ball joints as well as when ever I go to undo those 3 bolts one always shears off.

[jonathanfenton]

Just had an oh ******** moment. Realised that when I torqued the shock to hub bolt I did it with everything hanging down forgetting to set the height of the hub to 365mm from the centre of the wheel arch.... Do you think it possible to need to take wheel off again and loosen, reset and then tighten the both up? Suppose if I don't the bush in the new strut will destroy its self... Any quick fixes?

[jonathanfenton]

Well I managed to back them off and re-tighten on some little garage ramp things that you drive up onto. Got the fronts but they are the wrong ones even though they look the same. God only knows why there are so many different variations so had to order them and will change them next week.

[jonathanfenton]

Changed the front shocks and found front anti roll bar drop link boots perished so replaced them too. Got it four wheel aligned this morning and light adjustment on offside rear and near side front and it’s all in the green again. Drives like a new car. Thanks everyone for your input.

[Rob69]

Changed my rear passat B5 shocks yesterday, 40 minutes to do both sides + a bit faf about, wheel cleaning etc, much improved handling. old shocks piston rod chrome was all pitted and air in one of them, although no obvious oil leakage and mot passed a few months ago.

[jonathanfenton]

Well 10k later, perfect even wear [emoji1303]