Before I start replacing the whole back end of my car can someone please give me the lightly causes of an uneven ride height.
The car is lower at the back on the OS than the NS
The distance between the top of the wheel and the arch is a couple of inches different
Hi
It must be out by the same amount at the front as well, either that, or you have a twisted shell caused by accident damage! Most likely cause is a broken spring.
Alan
Your car is only five years younger than mine, but five years ago when I checked mine I had the same “problem” and was told by Tony at WIM, I think, that the amount it was different was acceptable and don’t forget most sports cars get driven with the driver in, so the near side springs etc don’t get quite as much use. Something I found out by accident was that if you jack up the car at the front and the back on the off side and leave it for a while then let the car down onto the ground again there wasn’t any difference to speak of, until I had driven it again. The other thing to remember is that you are measuring from the centre of the wheel to underneath the wheel arch, which to me isn’t a good datum to work from.
I would have thought 2" (50mm) was a lot - rather more than most people would regard as acceptable. That is, after all, twice as much on just one side than the amount by which people are willing to pay £300 or so to have the whole car lowered.
And as another poster has said, if it isn’t equally lopsided at the front, is the shell twisted?
A broken spring or a duff damper (the compression force of most dampers contributes to the spring force) sound like likely candidates. Does the car “bounce” equally on each side at the rear when you push down on the car?
As for datum: what better datum than wheel-centre to top-of-wheel-arch? Where else would you conveniently and consistently measure ride height?
Sorry I misread the text, must stop replying to posts while I am full of cold.
Can you give the distances (in cms) between the centre of the wheel and the edge of the wheel arch for all four wheels? Measuring from the top of the wheel can introduce errors. It also enables you to judge whether one corner is too high or too low. You can find the normal ride heights by searching this forum.
Just a few thoughts - are all your tyres the same size and profile?
-does one spring look newer?
- is yours a 96 model? For some reason they rode higher than usual, and the wrong spring may have been fitted on one corner.
-have you checked the suspension bushes? If one side is bad it may show as a lot of negative camber which affects ride height.
Hi Dulux, if your car has had any suspension work in the past (bushes etc), it may not have had the fixings torqued up with the weight of the car on the suspension thus giving the car a jacked up look. This will have put a pre-load on the suspension bushings and can wear them quicker. The solution is to loosen the inner and outer wishbone bolts and anti-roll bar droplinks then, with the car on ramps at the back, torque them up again to the correct value. Be aware though that the wishbone bolts can rust badly and be very difficult to release. If you undo the inner bolts you will also need a wheel alignment done afterwards. Check that the coil springs haven’t broken while you’re there.