quickarl

I have 2001 S4 and I'm having problems with my tires cupping both front and back. Fronts are worse. This is the second set of tires with the same problem-plenty of tread left only 1 year old and 12,000 miles on tires. The tires are Yokohama avid w4s in stock size. When I had them installed I had the car aligned and was told that shocks were fine (they are original stock shocks). It has 86,000 miles on it. Tires were rotated about 7,000 miles ago. What up with this? No one can give me an answer. Ironically I had the same exact problem with my old '94 Jetta GLX. Do I need new shocks and the shop was wrong? This is the only thing I can think of.

donromani

Doubt it's the shocks, more likely control arms, tie-rod ends, that kind of thing.

quickarl

But isn't cupping caused by the tire bouncing excessively?

donromani

Typically it is caused by bad alignment.

PA:CasaS4

Wow - same exact tires here, similar miles, and exact same issues. Cupped to all hell and loud as can be. I rotate every 5,000 miles and it's both the front and back. What tires were on your last car? I'd be curious to know if this is a tire specific issue. My shocks are a little worn, but the car is not at all bouncy. TREs and CAs look ok. I had the car aligned right after getting the tires, so that's not it either.

Dave

shawnoc2003

Concur with Don, Have the same problem and the 2nd dealer that I took it to for an algnment told me the upper control arms are shot. Not sure why the 1st dealer didn't catch it since I had them align it to factory specs 3 times due to wheel bearing failures.

Just waiting for another $500 so I can buy the control arm kit and we'll see if it fixes it. I also went with a set of Michelin Pilot all seasons to slow down the wear.

quickarl

They were Dunlops-I forget what model-Ultra high performance all season. I think SP8000?

PA:CasaS4

Ok. It was a stretch that it might be the tires, but our similarities were such I thought I'd ask. Good luck and if you get it resolved, let us know. I'll do the same.

Dave

mxp

If the tire wear is "uneven" across the wheel, it is definitely shocks. I have had this issue before. If it "even" wear, it could be a number of things from alignment all the way to what the other posters are suggesting.