Scalloping front tires. HELP!

[DCColegrove]

Push down on them, and look at the rebound... Its not precise but its easy. And check for oil on them

Kind of hard to do with stiff ass coil-overs...

[Danny]

<3

[asubimmer]

but I do notice that the suspension bottoms out more easily than I think it should for being set as stiff as possible. AARRG. I have about 5K miles on this suspension since buying it used.

My goodness, does noone know what the adjustment for koni's is? Its rebound. I am willing to bet that you don't need to be running them all the way stiff. Your best bet is to sell your koni's and get good shocks. I would suggest bilstein's...

[Stephen]

My goodness, does noone know what the adjustment for koni's is? Its rebound. I am willing to bet that you don't need to be running them all the way stiff. Your best bet is to sell your koni's and get good shocks. I would suggest bilstein's...

Thats what i was thinking, Maybe try taking it down a notch or 2?

[deansbimmer]

I'm starting to suspect the shocks. I'm aware that the setting is for rebound. Duh- springs are for compression. I'll clarify. When I had installed the suspension it was pretty good. Recently however, I have noticed that the front is bottoming out more often and bouncing around on the road a bit (minimal, but I notice out of paranoia). I set the damper stiffer and then to stiffest, but the difference was not as I expected. (Edit: very minimal difference was made by the adjustment)

What do you have against Koni?

[jlevie]

As I recall, scalloped tires are caused by bad shocks. And what you describe would tend to add evidence to the shocks being the problem.

Koni's are fine, if used correctly. Many people make the mistake of setting them stiffer than they should be in a misguided attempt to get better handling. Since the adjustment is only for rebound damping (how fast the shock extends after being compressed), you want to initially use the softest setting that you can for the springs in use to maintain the best contact patch over rough surfaces. As the shocks wear, you can increase the damping to compensate for wear. In this case I'd guess that a good initial setting for new shocks would be 1 to 1-1/2 turns from full soft.

[deansbimmer]

The trick is obviously figuring out how "soft" is just right for the springs used. I had it set softer, but it didn't feel right so I stiffened it. Thats all I know about how to find the right adjustment. I don't know how to "properly" set it to have correct dampening for the 450lb springs.

Everyone I've talked to has indicated the shocks as the culprit though. The car is parked until I pull them out. What should I look for when I inspect them (besides obvious leaking oil or broken parts)?

[deansbimmer]

Ok, I've got the shocks out and they seem ok. They rebound by themselves and have plenty of "dampening". What else should I check for?? I thought I'd find something obvious, but they seem perfectly fine- Certainly are not so weak as to allow the spring to bounce the wheel up and down...

Gotta say, I'm disappointed with my findings, I thought it was going to be my culprit.

[87e30]

Is camber wear a complete myth?

[deansbimmer]

This kind of wear doesn't come from camber. But accelerated wear on the inside will result from camber.

[NetoTun]

blown shocks....bad balance doesnt affect tire wear.

[Griffin]

Are both tires scalloping evenly? How are your wheel bearings? Its caused by the tire being able to wobble duing some portion of its rotation. I bad tie-rod end, ball joint, control arm bushing, strut or wheel bearing can all cause similar results.

[deansbimmer]

Both tires are wearing the same. The wheel bearings are good. They were replaced a few thousand ago. Everything is new and tight, no wobblies anywhere.

The shocks are good according to Koni NA. So I'm back to square one. All I can think of would be that them at full stiff may have had something to do with it :(