replaced rear tires, and now my car's pulling right. So here's my next batch of questions...
1) when I hit a hard bump, my shocks make a "whoosh" sound. Does this mean the struts are going out?
2) 80mph vibration is still there, albeit at a lower level. I'm going to do a alignment, mostly to rule it out. At this point, I'm beginning to suspect early stages of DRC death, worn front suspension bushings, or both?
3) No wonder the steering feel is a bit numb - there are so many damned mushy bushings EVERYWHERE in the suspension links. btw, why must front control arms be replaced? Why not replace just the bushings?
4) list of parts to do a complete rebuild of the front suspension? the vibration, as light as it is, definitely absolutely comes from the front.
5) don't tell me that the DRC parts are only warrantied for 12 months....are they??
6) I've done some searching but haven't found a definitive answer: what if I just want to replace the struts, put my H&R springs on those, and bolt them in? At this point I know I should have just bought coilovers, but when I ordered my H&R springs, my DRC had no issues.
So is the "whoosh" when hitting hard bumps a warming sign? Do people generally just replace the control arms, or are there complete bushing kits to replace all the bushings? Or...could it be a problem with the engine mounts?
Best sport struts to use with the RS6?
Or maybe my other Continentals are bad? They're balanced, but maybe one of them also is developing sidewall damage?
FINALLY...how does the car tell you that it's not happy with a wheel diameter difference that exceeds tolerances? The Nissan Skyline (I know, I'm always referring back to this damned car), is essentially rear-wheel drive, and a gauge indicates how much the fronts are engaged via a computer-controlled 14-plate hydraulic clutch. If the rears are smaller than the front, the car interprets this as the rears spinning slightly, and the AWD gauge will show the front wheels progressively engaging slightly. For that car, if one pair is slightly bigger than the other, the smaller wheels go up front to avoid pissing off the AWD computer.
But with the Torsen system, how does the car tell you it's not happy? I think I'm within range - my front Continentals have 9/32 tread depth, my brand new Hankooks 10/32. But I know that Hankooks tend to run a little smaller in diameter. I'm going to measure the wheel diameters unweighted, but some insight into this would be very helpful, as our center diffs are working 100% of the time.
Thanks for reading my ramblings...(if you've read down this far :P)