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My car was serviced and a Warrant of Fitness issued in December. It was recommended at the time to replace the L/R shock absorber, which was carried out. At no stage was replacing both rear shock absorbers ever discussed.
In early January the L/F tyre 'blew' and a AA roadservice officer who changed the tyre said the faulty tyre should have been picked up at WoF time. I discussed this with the company who performed the service and WoF and also a tyre company employee. As a result of those discussions both front tyres were replaced and I was assured that the rears were OK.
The car wasn't 'riding' very well so I had a balancing check carried out. I was told that it wasn't a balancing issue, but a shock absorber issue and the two rear tyres were scalloped.
The end result was that I purchased another two tyres for the rear.
Is it normal for only one shock absorber to be replaced or should both have been done together and could this have caused the scalloped tyres?
I still have one 'old' shock absorber on the rear, should this be replaced?
Christine
From the "Ask Jack" archives - 29 August 2009
Scalloping of the tyres is, the majority of the time, a result of weak or faulty shock absorbers and once a tyre has developed this pattern it is virtually impossible to remove. A new tyre is the only fix.
To answer your question then; it should have been strongly recommended that both rear shock absorbers be replaced instead of just the one. Especially if the car is reasonably high in mileage.
Road handling and ride comfort could be compromised by having one new and one old shock absorber on the vehicle (front or rear).
To be fair to the repairer, scalloping of the tyres is sometimes very hard to pick up unless you are looking for a specific problem. A tyre in this condition could easily pass a Warrant of Fitness inspection.
Sometimes a repairer can have the best intentions in the world and will try to help keep your maintenance costs down by only spending money on what is absolutely necessary and very obvious.
Maybe your repairer deserves the benefit of the doubt in this case, you will be the best judge of that.