Gangsta Lean :/

superdan · Post by **superdan** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:51 pm

Today i noticed that my drivers side was sitting a lot higher than my passenger side. I have megan coilovers and right before winter hit i raised them up about an inch (ride height was at about a 1 fingers gap or so) and now as you can see from the pictures below it is definitely not a 1 finger gap anymore

It doesnt seem like one or the other is blown when driving. Cant really tell if there is oil leaking out since it is currently raining at the moment and i dont have anywhere to take the front wheels off either right now.

I do know that my LCA bushing are shot and possibly wheel bearings, tie rods, and ball joints all need replaced at the moment due to some sort of noise i get when i turn hard enough or have the wheels cut all the to either side (but im more worried about why my car is lop sided right now)

anyone have any ideas or anything i should look at as to why this is happening?

passenger side (also what i had the coils set at before winter)

Drivers side

also want to point out that the road has no effect on this. My street isnt sloped that much to make it look like that.

thanks for any help guys

hansken_yo · Post by **hansken_yo** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:16 pm

Could be a couple things. I suspect that it was still higher before hand, but is more noticeable now. My driver side sits higher cause it is balanced for my weight, so when I'm not in it it will be higher, this could be a situation that you are running into. How did you measure the amount of height gained? Was it on the coilover? Or the body of the car? If it was the body there could be some things slightly off which aren't as clear until such instances. I wouldn't worry about it other than to make the adjustment so it looks even.

superdan · Post by **superdan** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 6:24 pm

when i raised it up for the winter i used a tape measure and measured both the coil and height of the wheel gap...today, when i noticed it, it was just visually higher obviously. I havent measured it to see how much higher it is now.

When i had the height adjusted on the coilovers i made sure i had the same ride height all the way around. Which is what it worrying me being that its so lop sided now

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:50 pm

I didn't realize you raised them... my guess is you just didn't measure them well enough.

superdan · Post by **superdan** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:54 pm

Its possible but there is no way I was off that much though. I guess I will just have to get the car up in the air and find out what's going on...

Time to bring out the lumina

OB · Post by OB » Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:37 am

I'd agree that a visual inspection and remeasure is probably a good idea.

And for the record, bad dampers won't cause a change in ride height. You could take the shock right off of a vehicle and the height wouldn't be affected at all. If there was a change it would have to be related to the spring or the strut body itself. I guess if your LCA bushings were bad enough they could cause the arm to shift significantly enough to change ride height. But not by inches...

superdan · Post by **superdan** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:11 am

thats not good news

time to dress warm and get my hands dirty my next day off...

sidepipe87 · Post by **sidepipe87** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:22 am

Im sure you just didnt measure well enough and the amount of difference between the 2 wont correlate 1 to 1 with the resulting height based on suspension geometry. Aka set that side so the wheel gap matches the other side and see what happens.

OB · Post by OB » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:38 pm

Indeed, you should measure based on the curb height (i.e fender to ground) rather than match the actual measurements of the coilover bodies themselves. There are differences in frame design from side to side on the front of these cars, as well as weight differences, that cause a difference in actual height relative to coilover adjustment.

But if this problem developed on its own, that is a different story.

srtjesse · Post by **srtjesse** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:59 pm

somebody stole your drivers side coil overs and switched them with lowering springs on struts and they are coming for your passenger side later lol

superdan · Post by **superdan** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 1:35 am

OB wrote:Indeed, you should measure based on the curb height (i.e fender to ground) rather than match the actual measurements of the coilover bodies themselves. There are differences in frame design from side to side on the front of these cars, as well as weight differences, that cause a difference in actual height relative to coilover adjustment.

But if this problem developed on its own, that is a different story.

Hm never thought about there being differences in the frame design. I was looking at pictures of my car with the 5 spoke r/t wheels and the drivers side is slightly higher, so maybe my measurements were off and with the smaller snowflakes being on just makes it look more extreme.

Donkeypuncher · Post by **Donkeypuncher** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:31 pm

My friends megan coilovers did something similar, but it was the passenger side that would always work itself down lower. Ended up using some loctite to keep the rings from moving.