GTA_Driver

The shocks are stock, at 90K miles now. The front tires were loud at highway driving, then I rotated them (threw the front to the back, and vice versa), and the front got quieter. Now the front is getting noisier again.

Then I looked at my rear tires (which came from the front), and noticed the cupped wear pattern.

jamesm0913

If the tires are not too heel-toe worn, you can run them in the opposite direction and wear off some of the high spots. Have you been marking the tires at the end of the winter season and putting them back on the same corner, or have you moved them around each winter?

As for the alternating dark and light patches, I did have some of that and I see it all the time on other cars on the road, usually on the rear non-driven axels. It is the starting indication that your shocks are no longer up the challenge of keeping the tires on the road 100%. While you can ride on them this way for a while longer and it will only cause mildly uneven wear, it means that shock replacement is now inevitable. IF this pattern is only happening on the inside or outside shoulder of the tire, then your camber alignment is also off. If aligned correctly, both shoulders should take equal amounts of the excess bounce not absorbed by the shock, thus distributing the force across more area and slowing down the presence of the uneven wear.

jamesm0913

You may also have an issue with the lower front control arm, because it attaches to the shock. There may be play in the ball joint and bushings that don't allow the shock to keep the tire under control. I'm having that problem right now and first though that my shocks were the problem.

I can move the control arm by hand on both ends of it, and when I hit a bump I can feel the second and third bounce.

GTA_Driver

I am experiencing a second bounce and even a very slight third. I thought that's air suspension for you, but if it's not supposed to be so bouncy, then i'm afraid we both need new shocks.

09mehashaw

1: After about 80k your shocks are dead. That's just how it is
2: I've never heard of this problem on an allroad TBH
3: Your control arms may attribute to this, but of course check them
3a: Same thing for the TRE's.
4: You don't need to go with 2Bennet. So long as your source a C5 A6 part out (shouldn't be hard) you can purchase the front hat or whatever and use any coil over you damn well please. Or even stock A6.

Look a this and read it!

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...r-Build-Thread

GTA_Driver

That's true, but I don't want a slammed look. The guy on Audizine was dropping his AR to about 2" off the ground.

Maybe a sport suspension off C5 A6 4.2 would do well. Maybe... I'll look into it.

09mehashaw

Yeah, he's nearly scraping and I don't dig that look, but some people do.

Regular A6 looks like a drop because of our fender flares, but it's hardly a drop.

GTA_Driver

Don't forget, the A6 sits at least an inch lower by default since the Allroad has 2.5cm spacers between the subframe and the body.

jamesm0913

I did replace my front shocks, and although it did help the bounce problem somewhat it did not cure it. I will be replacing my lower front control arms next week when UPS delivers them. Sandy delayed them a week.