Rear Tyre Scolloping

[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.