New rear struts at 46K?
 

Hi all,

I just got new conti DWS's at 46K to replace the ones I put on at 6K when I switched to all seasons. When the tech had the rear wheels off he showed me the insides of both rear tires. The best way to describe it is "choppy" on the inside of each tire. Clearly this caused more noise. Now that the new tires are on it is much quieter. The techs said this is an indication that the struts are going bad, and need to be replaced. Is this true at 46K? Car has titanium package, so it has sport suspension and 19 inch wheels. This was not at an Audi dealer ( local dealer wanted $70/tire more). Car has been babied it's entire life, and suspension is stock.

I did a search and came up empty. Is this something that should be covered, since I only have about 3500 miles to go before it runs out.

Not sure what you mean by inside and choppy. You have the sport suspension that has a negative camber and wears tires more on the inside edge. I had that with the same tires. I had also alignment done to keep the camber in check. There are better a/s tires than these for a reasonable amount of money. I'm very impressed with the eagle f1 asymmetric a/s i got after the dws.

To clarify, by choppy I mean that if you looked at the profile of the tire the tread looked like a saw blade. By inside I mean the right side of the left tire, and vise versa. It only occurred on the rear tires. Fronts wore evenly. As for the dws, 40k seemed pretty good to me, and I had to stay with them, since 1 tire was replaced under the tire and rim protection I bought with the car, and had to stay with the same tire. 1 tire the dealer did, then the remaining 3, 4 days later. Worth the hassle of going to 2 places since I found the tires so much cheaper not at the dealer.

Cupping is usually caused by a bad shock absorber, but other bad actors can contribute. The sway bar bushings could be shot or frozen. The trailing arm pivot can be sticking. The spring can be broken or not seated properly.

If your car is a quattro you need to use caution when replacing tires individually. The Torsen differentials don't like it when the tires are different in diameter by more than 1/8th inch.