Great advice...all of you!

 

That sucks what happened, I feel for you.
If you haven't had your car corner weighted and aligned then you may as well get it done now.
I had my 3.2 carrera done and it felt much better afterwards. It is one of those jobs that I wish I had got done sooner.
Get them to check for any damage first though.

 

Thanks, Nathan, I will look into that one!

 

Morning update:

I put my original Fuchs back on early this morning...more on this in a minute.

While I had my car up for the tire change, I looked at everything pretty closely and could't find any breaks or bends or cracks in the suspension components. I know this still doesn't mean that my alignment isn't wacked!

While I had my passenger front off (the corner that hit the curb), I checked it carefully and it appears that I have a flat spot! . Hence the change back to my old Fuchs as they still have tires on them. And of course there is tons of life left in these flat spotted Pilot Sports on my SSRs! Can a flat spoted tire be fixed or is it toast? The flat sport seems to explain the sh!tty ride, cause it's much smotther now with the Fuchs.

 

sand_man,
Depends on how bad the flat spot is. To fix it usually involves shaving the tire until the flat spot is gone. Most good tire/alignment shops can do it. The problem is it removes a lot of miles from the life of the tire and, if the flat spot is so deep its into the wear bars/cords, its worthless anyway.

The bad thing about flat spots is they grow. Under hard braking the tire will always rotate around to the flat spot where it'll stop again and get worse until it final eats through the tire. At least its only the tire.

 

If he shaves the rest of the tire down to the flat spot depth, it would seem that it would affect the ride too- having three normal sized tires and one "smaller" one.

 

Good points, gents. I'll just enjoy my Fuchs for a while. They're so nice and light anyway! As I've always stated, the previous owner purchased these SSRs and they wouldn't have been my choice...but they sure look good! Ideally I'd like BBS LMs or Lindsey P2s in RSR finish. Maybe get the 11s in the rear and 8s or 9s in the front. Maybe now I'll considering selling the SSRs.

 

Do people still shave tires? I know that was an option back in the day but haven't heard of it for quite sometime. Just wondering?

 

How's about a shaved re-tread! HAHAHA!

 

Yes- I know some serious track guys who still shave tires- mostly for SCCA competition where you have to use "stock" tires.

 

Learn something everyday on here!

 

Yep, we still shave tires. On the SRF in SCCA competition we used to shave the Yokohamas we ran to 1/16 for "dry" tires and left them at stock for "rain". Keeps the heat from building up in the carcass of the tire and causing it to fail.

As far as affecting the handling, I think you're changing the circumference by such a small margin that with all of the other tolerance build-ups from all of that steering and suspension gear you'd be hard pressed to feel it.

 

I have always wondered if a flat spot could be "sorted" by burn outs ? Put the front wheels on the back and light them up. Won't this make the tyre perfectly round again ?

 

 

Nathan,
Depends on how good you are at burn outs. Any "axle hop" or other chattering of the suspension, tire out of round/balance would probably negate any benefit you could possibly gain. Its much more precise to shave it. But, if you were replacing them anyway why not have a little fun?