I have noticed that my camaro was leaning but thought it may just be unlevel concrete. Today I was at the muffler shop getting my Powerstick welded in and asked them to take a quick peek. They measured the heights while the car was on the lift and the driverside is about 3/4 in lower than the passengerside in the rear. They said the front was spot on but the rear was leaning.

You wouldnt think 3/4 would be much but it is embarrassingly obvious when you look at the rear of the car...

Previous owner installed bolt-in SFCs, and installed new springs and shocks all the way around. What should I be looking for to correct this unlevelness... Not sure where to begin... I searched a bit and read to check rear springs for wear, but as they appear new, I did not think that was the culprit.... Please help guys...

 

Were the rear springs (both) properly "indexed" in the rubber isolators on top??
EDIT: You can see if you look close at the pic, where the end of the upper coil is supposed to sit....

 

I am not sure since I did not install them. I may pull the springs off the rear and check them and the isolators just to be for sure....

 

Yeah, unfortunately you're gonna need to do some "exploratory surgery" to find out whats up....I'd start on the high (Passenger side) first myself, if there's nothing obviously wrong with the DS....

 

the way the rear suspension is set up with the panhardbar makes the rear end raise and lower in unison. i had this same problem on my 91 Z28 i sold (only it leaned on the passenger side). i replaced everything: springs, spring insulators, shocks, struts, new rear end (as my passenger side spring perch was bad), i put a rubber spring spacer in, and even took it to multiple paint and body shops and had it put on a frame machine several times. funny thing with mine is if you lifted up on the side that was leanings front wheel wheel the back leveled out.

i never did figure it out. after i sold it, it was mentioned that perhaps the front strut mount was bad.... i never thought of it and told the guy if it turns out to be that i'd buy him a beer as i spent 6 years trying to figure it out.....

i look forward to your resolution.

 

I have this same issue right now. except my drivers side is 3/4 of an inch higher than the passenger side. I think it is something to do with the axle not centering because of lowering and it kicks one side higher putting the panhard bar under tension or somthing.

 

The panhard has nothing to do with ride height. If the car is that far off chances are you are missing a rear spring isolator, have a broken/damaged spring, or chassis damage

 

mine did it before lowering (as i was hoping the springs would correct it).

i never said the panhard bar had anything to do with the ride height of the car only that it makes the back end raise and lower in unison. for example. go out to your car.... lift the passenger side rear wheel well.... both sides raise equally and not independently.... because it prevents the axel from shifting left or right on the body.

as i said before i replaced insolators, springs, and took it to multiple body shops to check frame misalignment... all clean.... and mine had a deer mysteriously fall out of the sky and land on the passenger side fender, shatter the windshield roll off the roof down the passenger side door window. i spent years chasing this problem on mine and took it to alot of paint and body shops and paid the $500 frame fee .... ALOT, and no one found anything wrong with it....

 

Mine leans a little... I dont really worry about it anymore. Changes depending on how the car was turning/leaning whatever before parking. Handles fine and from what I can tell was never in an accident. I cut my factory springs some, it still leans, but not exactly the same as it did. It just requires a bit of trial and error to get it to sit even once you're cutting springs... not an exact science. I've deviated from stock so it's no longer a GM problem. I think aftermarket springs probably vary a little too. That combined with the fact that all of our cars weigh different amounts at different corners (I imagine this is why theres all that "computer selected spring" nonsense on the SPID codes, and those springs are old by now, some may just sag more than others), and aftermarket springs are pretty much one size fits all. Not really that surprising. I would just trim the springs down to make the car sit even (any custom hot rod guy does this... Foose included, to get the stance the way they want it). It's perfectly acceptable to cut a half coil off the front and a 1/4 coil off the rear (Im talking factory GM springs) with good shocks. I'd not recommend more than that. I'd also recommend keeping each side as close as possible.

An even better idea if you're scared to cut springs (which is silly, but I can understand the apprehension, and for a 3/4 inch difference, just trimming would get you pretty unbalanced spring rates I imagine) I bet is that of those Ground Control weight jacks. They let you control the ride height and the spring rates independently from each other from what I understand. That means you can balance out the spring rates to the correct amounts, and balance out the ride height at the same time.

http://www.ground-control-store.com/...hp/II=20/CA=67

I dont know why they call it a coil-over setup... the description explicitly says it's for situations where coilovers aren't allowed, because it's NOT a coilover setup... A lot of guys run those here... I'd love to have them.

 

I'd certainly do a visual to make sure both isolators were present and in place.

JamesC

 

Look at the spring installation and if it all looks good just swap the springs and see what happens. All you have to do to remove the springs is disconnect the shocks and let the rear down enough while supporting the body.

 

Sorry for the quick thread hijack but your 'vert looks pretty sweet!

Ok, back to tech help.

To the OP, I'd swap the springs side-to-side and see if your problem moves with it.

ramey

 

Idk sorry i assumed if the car was lowered and the panhard bar doesnt change length then the axle is over to one side. So since the bar is attached

at the top point on one side and the axle on the other maybe it would shove weight in one direction and make the car unlevel? thats all i was thinking,

but im wrong. Either way i just ordered an adjustable founders panhard and lca's with relocation brackets just trying to fix my ride height. Ive checked

everything 4 times. Swapped spring sides measured moved the isolators in different orientations but the rear never sits level.

 

UPDATE..... I went ahead and replaced the rear springs as I dont trust others work if I didnt see it done.... I installed the Moog CC635's and swapped the rear isolators side to side as they still looked good.

No change... driver side still appears to be way lower than the passengerside. Here are a few pics I took... crap quality...sorry...

I do not know if it is related, but the driverside tire looks to be sticking further out than the passengerside, may just be my eyes, but idk.... Help guys....

 

my 89 has the exact same lean. has had it for 7 years. i ended up putting load leveler airbags in the spring with about 10 psi it now sits fairly level, and not ******* high in the rear.

 

an adjustable phb will center the axle. I think not having it right puts it in a bind somehow not letting one side go down all the way

 

Interesting suggestion Kees... might have an effect, but I still think it wouldn't be that much.

Weight jacks would solve the problem, it's a shame they're expensive.

 

IDK, I am still scratching my head trying to figure out the leaning issue... I hate to do it, but I may remove the passenger isolator and use heater hose on that side and see if it compensates for the leaning... Guess I will also need an adjustable panhard bar to adjust for the uneveness on the tires.

 

Thats what im going to end up doing if the phb and new springs dont work for me, Im beginning to wonder if my rearend isnt bent

 

Has the car ever been drag raced? I ask because my 69 camaro sits high on the rear passenger side while the front is just fine. The car body is twisted... My 69 had been drag raced and the torque of the engine on launch lifts the front of the car and pushed the passenger rear down. (check out some drag racing clips) When the car sits level, the back corner is now pushed up. Do this enough and the car body twists.... permanently. I had to have my 69 on a frame machine to try to pull it back as nothing else worked. I had replaced the entire suspension (front coils, rear leafs) on that car. Also, that car has a big block so I am not certain a third gen has enough power to twist the car but I am also not convinced the body is that strong either....

Just something to think about.... Its not uncommon in older muscle cars....that have been driven with a heavy foot...

 

Hey I know this is an old thread but I couldn't find anything else newer on here and do I'm having the same issue, mines leaning to the passenger side in the rear. I'm wandering if you guys found a good reason why it would be doing that. I took it to a body shop to get checked out and they said everything was good. I went and good it aligned and everything was good there to. I checked the suspension and it looked good but maybe I need LCA relocation brackets because it's lowered and they did not put them on.

 

Body shops aren't really going to know what is going on with these cars, unless they put in on a frame machine. Even that will only tell you that the unibody is "square". As Sofa said the people who assembled these cars are gone, the people who sold them are gone, and the people who serviced them are gone (or going). You say it's lowered? We need some info on what was added to lower the car. Pictures and some measurements too would make our guessing game a little more entertaining too. Any changes? and Work recently done (besides a front wheel alignment)? 2012 , eleven years, start a new thread with the info and we can all take a look..

 

Ace is right, I've said that many times.

If the unibody is "square" and also infinitely stiff, then there's NO WAY one end of the car can be level, and the other not. Obviously "square" is at least close to attainable, but there's no such thing in the world as "infinitely stiff", FWIW.

That said, there's a couple of things to think about:

First and foremost is, JUST EXACTLY HOW are you measuring "level" and "centered"? Are you using the fender lips? That's WRONG. You DO of course realize that fenders and quarter panels are just random bent-up sheets of tinfoil TRIM hung out in space somewhere, and only LOOSELY associated with the CAR? If you're doing that, then you're doing the equivalent of concluding that your house is "leaning" because one of the pictures on a wall doesn't look straight. You have to measure THE CAR, not the foil TRIM. For that, you have to start out with the car parked on a flat level surface. Then, to determine "level", measure to the ground at the front upper control arm bolts for the front, and the place that the rear control arms bolts bolt to, for the rear. To determine "centered", measure between some part of the rear axle, and the rear control arm bolt location. You may well find out something COMPLETELY different from what you thought by looking at the wheel openings.

Second, there's the matter of weight. That requires something a bit more complicated than a tape measure or a piece of string. You need a scale, and some blocks to put the other 3 wheels onto that are the same height as the scale. Unfortunately scales are a bit $$$ so you might have to get a bit creative... you'll need something that can measure up to about 1500 lbs. Maybe a shipping scale from at work like they'd use for pallets, or maybe you can find a trailer place that will do it. Just be CAREFUL and SAFE however you do it. You should come up numbers something around 1200 on each front and 700 on each rear. Get the 4 corner weights and see how close the lefts are to the rights. You may well find that the extra stereo eqpt, junk in the "trunk", etc. is causing one side to be markedly heavier than the other.

Once you've got that under control, you can kinda divide your "problem" in half. How much of it is because THE CAR is out of tolerance some way or other, and how much is because THE TRIM isn't hung correctly?

If THE CAR isn't straight, then you can take it to a frame shop, and have them tram (measure all its various data points) and straighten it as needed. It may have one corner that's bent with respect to the other 3, it may be "diamond", it may be totally wadded up into a ball and beyond all reasonable hope, you never know until it's measured. I posted the FSM pages with all the measurements here https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...t-install.html a long time ago.

Then once you have a KNOWN STRAIGHT "CAR", it's time to go to work on the suspension. First thing to check is rear alignment: i.e. how close the rear is to being centered on the front, and the wheelbase the same on both sides. If the CAR is straight, then you can adjust the Panhard bar to center the axle on the frame. Once again, this may or may not result in the wheels "appearing" centered in the wheel wells; if not, time to go to work on the sheet metal, NOT the springs, PH bar, control arms, or ANYTHING ELSE about the CAR. Which is a WHOLE SEPARATE ISSUE, that I can't help with. You need a body man for that.

 

Thank you a lot for the replies!! And I did make sure the guy I had do it put it on a frame machine and measure everything and he said it was all in spec. Also when I am able to I will measure it the way you suggested as that sounds a lot better then what I initially did lol.

And my plan was to make a new thread but as I am fairly new I'm not sure how to make one yet so if you guys could bare with me and guide me on that I would appreciate it thank you!

 

And I know it is probably super nit picky but I'm going to be welding in sfc and want to make sure everything is right.

 

I have been doing nothing but frame repair for almost forty years now. The most common reason i have found for a car leaning (other than springs and isolators) is the front swaybar, disconnect both sets of swaybar end links, front and rear, and remeasure the fender heights. Roll the car forward and back after settting it down from the jack stands.

 

Hmm I might try that I noticed my passenger side is ever so slightly lower than the driver side