recently i noticed the front passenger side of my car was about 1/2" lower than the driver side. i replaced the springs and the difference was stipp about 1/2". so i got one of those rubber discs to place between my spring and cross member. ride height issue solved. however, now the passenger wheel looks like it extends 1/4 to 1/2" further out under the fender. i;ve got a million ideas on what is causing this, but i'd like to hear what you guys have to say.

 

The wheel is in the right place. It defines "the right place".

The fender is just a non-functional piece of trim; it is not part of the actual "car". If it bothers you, shim the fender.

All this assuming of course, that you don't have one front and one rear wheel on it, or something goofy like that.

 

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to take it to an alignment shop and have them see if anything is bent.

Has the car been in any accidents? A trip to a body shop to check out the frame would be next on my list.

I wouldn't go shimming fenders, (if the gaps are good in them at least) if anything run a spacer on one wheel so it looks good.

 

is it possible the cross member is off center? i've noticed that my engine is not in the center of the engine bay, i know they're offset slightly but how much is normal?

 

Make sure the Engine is or isn't centered, and it just doesn't look this way. Start measuring. If your engine really isn't centered, and your passenger side suspension doesn't appear to be correct, it is possible the vehicle was involved in a heavy front end accident. How long have you had the car, and do you know it's history? If the spring/strut tower was bent in an accident, and not properly re-aligned, you need to take it to a frame shop.

 

No it is not possible for the K-member to be off-center.

The K-member IS the center. THe rest of the car is built around it. Once there's a car there, you hang fenders onto that.

It is however very easily possible for trim pieces, like fenders, to be "off center".

 

As far as I know GM always used a difference in height instead of throwing the engine off center. I'll say it's possible that your K-member is bent up along with your frame if your engine is off center. I'm with 85Iroc, start taking measurements. After verifying if the engine is in the correct spot, use the symmetrical holes and see if you come up with the same numbers diagonally and front to back.

 

The engine is not centered in these cars anyway; it's off to the pass side a bit.

It's possible for the K-member to be "bent". On the other hand, it's the main structural element for the front suspension. It's EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to change its width, or to bend the control arm mounts INWARD or OUTWARD; it's also EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to change how long a control arm is from bushings to ball joint; therefore, extremely unlikely that any of that can be "off center".

Given that the K-member is made of metal about .100" thick or so, and the chassis of the car is about half that thick, it's unlikely that the K-member can be damaged without also traumatizing the rest of the car much worse.

It's possible for the entire car to be shifted slightly to one side or the other on the K-member: the bolt holes where the chassis bolts to the K-member have some slack in them, maybe 1/8" max.

It's MUCH more likely that your car has been bumped into something on the front down low, and the fender on one side bulged out. A tall parking lot curb or the like will do it. It's very easy to puff out a fender above the wheel well that way and not even scratch the paint on the bumper cover.

 

If things are misaligned and it is structural...not just cosmetic, I would be looking at the tower that the strut bolts to and also the area where the spring sits. That is the area that would be damaged if a truck t-boned a Camaro.

Maybe it is just cosmetic, and panels need to be re-aligned. But doesn't that mean that someone did a poor job of lining things back up in the past...which is why I would think there may have been an accident?

WHERE to go from here...you said you added a rubber spacer (spring isolator) to the one side so it sits level. Did it not have anything before, because it should have a factory spring isolator. Do you now have a spacer on one side and not the other, or just on the one side you added it to? By the way, when you add an isolator, you are changing geometry and really should have it re-aligned.