98 Corolla tire suspension issues (HELP! PLEASE)

[renee99]

Hi,
Long story longer...
1998 Corolla CE 50K bought last summer. Started to hear noise coming from rear right, kind like a thumping. Found it was the tires seemed to be worn (back tires) more on the inside of the tire than the outside making it uneven. Was told I needed new struts. Had semi professional install new struts and within same week, I got new tires and an alignment. Turns out that the tires I had were 185/75/14 and they are supposed to be 165/60/14 ( I think). Anyway, they replaced the rear tires and did the alignment. I picked up the car and it was still making the noise and was handling worse than it was before. I brought it back told them about the tires and complained also of a grinding noise when turning right. I got the car back and they had replaced the FRONT tires with the correct size and put the old front tires on the back. Car now looks ridiculous. Problem now is a very rough ride. I was told that the new struts and the new smaller tires, properly inflated that was causing rough ride, very loud. New struts by KYB.
Ok, fine. Still not satisfied that car has been properly repaired. Why? What was once an infrequent, barely audible clicking noise coming from rear, has gotten increasingly worse, happening more frequently, like all the time, but of course more so going over bumps. Ride can also be wavy but just for a second, grinding noise from bottom of car, can feel in floor and on accelerator and additional scraping, rubbing noise coming from rear.

Brought to Toyota dealer and they said that I needed new struts and new bushings and should get my brakes done because my rotors are bad. Brakes are another story, they are very grindy but there is nothing wrong with them but it shouldn't sound as bad as it does.

Two other professional friends of mine both said that the car is handling find, feels ok, maybe I need new bushings but can't understand why I would considering age and mileage of car. When struts were replaced, something was done to the coils but I couldn't tell you what because of course I can't get a hold of the guy that did the work.

I know that there is something wrong with this car. I currently have no radio and that's how I can hear all of this activity going on with the car. No, I don't need to get a radio to fix the problem either. I can't afford to take it to the dealer after I just spent so much to diagnose this problem, replace struts, buy new tires, and alignment.

I just want to be able to bring it somewhere and say "This is what is wrong, please fix it." without any run around or unsound advice.

Thanks for reading and for any help that you can give.

[Corolla_Dude]

Try anouther Toyota Dealership or a Toyota Specialist
This is my guess. Were the struts from Toyota or Aftermarket

[Chris Corolla S]

One thing I can say is that your stock tire size should be 185/65/14.

[renee99]

Originally Posted by Chris Corolla S

One thing I can say is that your stock tire size should be 185/65/14.

Chris,
That's not what it says in the glove compartment of my car. And that's it? no other advice? how about a reliable shop that I can take my car to that won't rip me off. I'm in Oakland, CA and I see that you are in SF.

R.

[Chris Corolla S]

Originally Posted by renee99

Chris,
That's not what it says in the glove compartment of my car. And that's it? no other advice? how about a reliable shop that I can take my car to that won't rip me off. I'm in Oakland, CA and I see that you are in SF.

R.

I supose it's possible that the base model has 165s, but the 2000-2002 which has the same size wheels has 175's on the CE and 185's on the S and LE, I thought it would be the same.

I have never taken a car to any shop in the Bay Area so I can't suggest one to go to.

I'm not sure why you would be having a rough ride unless the KYB struts are just taking some getting used to compared to your blown stock struts. You should definitley have 4 tires of the same size on the car, and having different sizes certainly won't help your ride and handeling.

As for the breaks you probably need pads and shoes but not drums and rotors. At the most if the breaks were abused by running worn down pads for a long time they might need to re-surface the rotors. They cannot be worn down enough to replace, but they could be warped if they were abused. You can ususally tell warped rotors because the break pedal pulses on hard deceleration.