ir0cz

I noticed this past weekend that the passenger rear of my car sits up WAY higher than the driver side. I just took another look at it, and it sits a good 2-3 inches higher judging by the tire lip clearance. I've always thought that there was a little difference, but it was such a small difference that i could have been imagining things...but now its VERY noticable if you're behind my car. I've done NO suspension work.......i did have my gas tank out recently, but everything went back together like its supposed to i'm sure. It rides just as smooth as ever. Also, just so you know....the lower side is normal ride height....the high side is just EXTRA high.....nothing saging. What could it be?? thanks guys.

urbman

Well I would say take a good look again.

If you took the tank out... you dropped the rear end
or some such.

1. Take a close look at whether the coil spring isolators are still
there.
2. Are they symmetrical?
3. Are the ends of the coil springs still facing the same way ?

racereno

...and check all bushings for bind... Front and rear.

ir0cz

I didn't have to touch the springs to drop the tank.....i had to remove the exaust, heat shield, track bar, track bar brace...that's it. I didn't take the tank totally out, just lowered it and turned it enough to get to the pump. But i'm not sure it even has ANYTHING to do w/ me changing out the fuel pump....cause i think it just started leaning like that recently.....cause i swapped the pump over a month ago, and i'm sure I would have noticed it before now.
I too thought it might be something w/ the springs....but they wouldn't cause one side of the car to sit 2-3 inches higher would they?

urbman

Well...
1. Isolators are present and don't look out of whack
2. springs are in and straight

Put the car up on jackstands

jackstands on the axle

measure the the height of the springs...

88 IROC BOB

I'm in the same boat too. My front left is really sagged down, and my right rear seems very high too. I've got a Prokit and some kyb shocks coming to set things straight.

Bob

P J Moran

FWIW, I installed the Eibach Pro Kit because the left side of my car has been sitting 1/2" lower than the right side. After the swap, that is still true! I checked the old springs and they're exactly the same height, side-to-side (so, they're probably actually OK).

However, the front is clearly lower than before. The rear appears to be as high or higher than before! So, I pulled the rears back out, cut just over one coil and reinstalled them. The rear is about right, now (about 1/2" higher than the front).

The stance is very good, but I'd have to say the ride is a bit rougher. And the left side is still 1/2" lower than the right side. I don't know what to do about that. I'll either take the car to a body shop and see if they can find any "frame" problems, or I'll install a 1/4" shim on top of the left front spring in attempt to raise that corner 1/2". As an experiment, I drove the car onto a piece of 1/2" plywood (left front tire only) and that leveled everything out perfectly. The shim thing sounds kinda kludgy, but may be the most expedient solution.

Point is, new springs may not solve your problem!

urbman

I agree with PJ that this problem could be more
complicated. I think that you need to do some
basic measuring and gather some data.

The Helms manual has some pretty good
frame alignment stuff, if you get that far...

As far as PJ's shimming suggestion goes
thats how "low budget" corner weights
get set :-) ( a good thing )

Chickenman35

One other thing to look at is the shocks, particularily if it's
the rear that is higher. A stuck or blown shock can drive you crazy. Back of these cars very light. If you jack up the car regularily, say to change tires for Autocrossing, one side may not settle until cornering loads are placed on it. Could be anything from a bent shaft to a bit of dirt in the main valve. You may not notice any difference in normal driving, BTW.

ir0cz

So this could be caused by a back shock? I've been hoping that the shock is the problem...that will give me a reason to put some KYB or Konis on I crawled under there to take a quick peak the other day, and NOTHING seemed out of whack. I haven't gotten a chance to get an in depth look though. Anyone else ever heard of a shock doing something like this? Thanks

racereno

Alright guys, If you changed your front springs recently you probably felt the "tension" of your front a-arm bushings as you let them, hopefully, fall away to release the stock springs. (If you haven't there is no way to tell visually, you got to take it apart!) If they were fairly free in resistance to movement you're OK, if not you might have a problem. Could be a bad a-arm bushing or an a-arm bushing pivot bolt that was not properly tightened (around 60 lb/ft at RIDE height). I had a stuck bushing (had to lightly force the a-arm to move and then it had a spring-like resistance) that caused my corner heights to be off as you described. Replacement of a-arm bushings, or in my case a switch to tubular a-arms with new bushings, solved the problem.

Now the same theory can be applied to rear lower control arms so that when the diff is lowered, one LCA might have a "stubborn" bushing and resist a move back to it's former position. This is usually why when you have a problem like this the opposite corner will reflect/magnify the symptom.

ir0cz

So you're saying that a LCA bushing could cause one corner of the rear of my car to sit up 2-3 inches? Makes since......I'll check it out. Thanks.

Chickenman35

Simple way to find out. Take both rear shocks out and compare them side by side for compression and rebound. Any binding in travel is definately a problem. If car settles to normal height woth rear shocks out you've found your culprit. Bad front shocks a bit harder to diagnose but test them out of the car.

BTW, you didn't state whether it was the front or rear ( or both ) that was high.

racereno

Yes, it is possible.

ir0cz

Well hell, if i'm gonna go through the trouble of taking the shocks out, I'll go ahead and put new ones on....i heard the KYB gas-a-just are good. And yes, it's just the rear passenger side.

Chickenman35

Spend the extra money and get Koni's. You'll be glad you did. Particularily if you autocross your car.

Christobal

Have a similar phenomena with my thirdgen. The left side of the car ws about 1/2 inch lower, biggest difference at the rear of the car. That was with factory 9 bolt and suspension pieces all around. Since then the car received all new springs, Koni yellow, Traclink, new rear control arms, aluminum suspension bushings all around, new aftermarket rearend, new tranny and fabbed crossmember.

When I had the car on the rack to have the SFCs welded in, I had the car checked for straightness. The car was in tolerance for many different reference points. The only one out, and out by a seemingly excessive degree, was the two front shock towers as referenced to each other. They said this was not uncommon from the factory. Didn't surprise me to be honest. Also didn't worry me. I would road race my car come home and check the alignment and it woul the same. I don't believe the towers move on an event to event basis, though they may flex, and possibly migrate over time.

Anywho, I ended up placing a 1 inch spring spacer between the chassis and the left rear spring. It very closely evened out the stance of the car and slightly lifted the rear. I have never been able to find a reason for the problem. The rear shock mount location were within 1 mm of spec on the lazer frame alignment equipment.

Chris

luca

i had the same problem i tried everything
the issue was the font sway bar ,it was bent half an inch
the front was the same height but the rear right side was way higher
new sway bar fixed the problem

427seven

If you think it might be a sway bar, just unhook the end links and bounce around in it fer awhile, see where it settles out....

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

One corner of the car CANNOT POSSIBLY sit up higher than the other 3 while those 3 are straight, unless the chassis is bent.

THIMK: the 4 corners of the car are all supposed to be in the same plane. If one corner sits high, the opposite MUST sit low, if all 4 are still in the same plane. Meaning, if the RR corner is high, the LF MUST MUST MUST MUST be low. If not, … the 4 corners of the car are no longer in the same plane.

Might want, just for the halibut, to take it to a frame shop, and have em tram the car, and tell you if the chassis is straight.

Instinct tells me you will find the car is twisted, which means it has been wrecked, BAD, somehow; and not completely repaired.

Of course, the problem might also be the fenders, and not THE CAR at all. The fenders are just some tin-foil trim hung out in space out there somewhere. "Measuring" the fenders, and projecting whatever garbage you come up with to THE CAR, makes just about as much sense as measuring the pictures hanging on the wall in your house with a level, and using that "data" to conclude that your house isn't straight. However the factory usually got them symmetrical within an inch or so, usually within ½"; but then, that leads to the car having been wrecked, or at least rebuilt (maybe from rust?) improperly. You can measure THE CAR instead of the fancy trim, by checking the height of some convenient gauge surface at each corner off of the ground.



This is what a frame shop would work off of. You can check it yourself if you're careful about how you go about it.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

Could be that they figured it out by now - 17 years later. OP's last login date of 2005.....

GD

NoEmissions84TA

iTrader: (1)

21 posts and nobody mentioned that the driver might look like the Michelin Man.

WildCard600

People are going for the record of oldest thread dredged up from the graveyard. I bet we will see something from the time of the Clinton administration soon.

NYMike

Need some help. After changing my hatch struts, the left rear of the car sits about 14” higher than the right front. I changed the metering rods in the qudrajet, but only helped a little. I will order a 1LE hood latch to see if that helps. If not I will try corvette center caps . Any ideas please chime in , see you in 20 years .

luca

what is so funny if some one post a solution
there are people who have this problem today and search for a possible cause
i only can tell that the car is now on one level it worked for me to change the front sway bar

427seven

This is what to expect from someone with the interest level here that it takes to post twice in 3 years

ResIpsa

iTrader: (1)

I was interested in this thread. Didn’t notice how old It was. My 87 formula I purchased last week sits about 2 inches higher on the passenger side.

jworks

iTrader: (1)

look at the positive side, this is proof that people are using the search tool to find answers instead of starting a new thread, the cars and the problems have not changed in the past 17 years but maybe the solutions have.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Actually, not necessarily. With the update to the vBulletin infinite scroll is defaulted to "on" for everyone. So some people will just be scrolling on and will will make an old *** thread the next one and people don't look at dates and post in them.