i have yokohama Yk420s

(i think theyre nondirectional, how can i tell for sure?)

and from my last alignment i have more camber with a certain wheel compared to the others.

i lowered my car with eibach prokits about 3 years ago(2004) but diddnt change the shocks.

i have 2 questions:

1) the manual includes both pics of rotatiing the tires in an X pattern, and the front to back pattern. if i have camber on just one wheel and the rest is ok, cant i just alternate between the front-back and X -diagonal (do a different rotation pattern each time) rotations everytime i rotate? soemone at the shop told me to just stick with front-back , wouldnt i even the wear more by giving each tire more time on the other wheels? i would think the X pattern would cause that diagonal pair to wear more than the other diagonal pair . and the front to back will cause the single side to wear more than the other side.


2) i think my shocks have gone bad by now cus i hear a loud noise even when i press down on my hood when it is parked. but it is only from the front 2 shocks that make sound when i do this "pressing down" on the hood/trunk thing. it sounds like bad brakes. im worried that this will cause extra wear on tires, would it? when i brake, and the weight tilts to the front of the car, i hear something that sounds like tires rubbing (rubbing the fenders?) but i am not exactly sure what it is. would this change toe/camber? if i get new shocks what should i do, get oem ? or aftermarket?

 

stock shocks?

 

yea i never had the money to get aftermarkets along with the ssprings

 

anyone?

 

could be bad shocks is the car bouncy? also to tell if they directional they will say what directions they spin on the the sidewall (i.e rotation -> or <-). did you ever get an alignment when you lowered your car?

 

dont you get an alignment AFTER you lower the car?

 

yea i got the alignment after i lowered it, but later i got into an accident and had to realign it and theres camber that they couldnt fix, before the accident it was still in good range and i didnt have to get a camber kit

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EvenStar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dont you get an alignment AFTER you lower the car? </TD></TR></TABLE>

didnt i say that?

 

Directional tires will have an arrow in the sidewall saying 'rotation' or something like that. Look for that, because sometimes the directional features in the tread are subtle. Or tell us what kind of tire it is (exactly).

If it's not directional, the X pattern should work. You cross the rear tires diagonally to the front like an X. But then you take the front tires directly to the back on the same side.

 

i dont know why the guy at jiffy lube told me to only do front and back then lol

 

For years the tire industry said that about all radial tires, even those without directional tread pattern. The conventional thinking was that tires 'take a set' in one direction or some such story. That's not the case any more (if it ever was).

 

thx guys i guess ill rotate it more often for now while i save up $ for the shock replacements or something

 

yeah bad shocks will make your tires wear faster. Have you replced the upper ball joints yet? bad ball joints will make noise as well as put wear on your tires. if you ever decide to put a camber kit on, progess makes an adjustable upper ball joint. You can kill two birds with one stone. As for replacing the shocks, go aftermarket. The price you'd at the dealership would overrun the price of aftermarket shocks. Kyb gr2's work great. Usually their cheaper and you get better performance than stock. Otherwise if you feel like dropping a little extra money tokico illumina's or koni yellows are always a good choice as well.