I have an 87 turbo wagon. Had an air strut go bad so replaced the air struts in the rear with regular struts from a wagon in the junkyard last year. It lifted the car a bit I could tell, maybe a couple inches? After a year or so I've just noticed the inside 1" of the rear tire treads are both worn off slick. Did I need to get an alignment? I gather from other threads here there are several different length stuts? Would I be better off to find some that are closer to the original height or just go with an alignment?

Thanks for any help.

I would have had the alignment done.

 

I'm a firm believer in having all 4 corners aligned from time to time. With the amount I drive (60,000 km/yr), once a year seems about right.

I agree... my Brat's a bit "dink-toed" \ / since the strut and shocks were replaced...it also raised it a couple of inches. It's going in as soon as we get the rest back together.

Thanks Gerry and Seahag. Well it's confusing to me that the inside edge of the tires are worn off slick. It seems like that struts that lift the car would, as Seahag says about his, make it dinktoed \---/ and wear the outside edge instead. I'll try the alignment and also see if they think the wear pattern I got is what they'd have expected to happen.

Actualy its not an alingment. Its the toe in. I replaced the front air on my XT6 also and noticed that the bracket on the struts had to be massaged to fit the hub. This certainly changes the toe in and may need to be adjusted. Hopefully they can do it right at a shop for you.