Suspension lower on front offside

[DanA 0]

Just walked towards my car and noticed the front didn't seem to sit level... measured both sides from the top of the tyre to the bottom of the arch and the offside is 20mm lower than the other!! Its original suspension and has done 53600 miles and as far as I can tell the shock dosen't appear to be leaking at all.... Is this bad news ???

 

 

Cheers,

Dan

[PhatVR6 0]

the spring may have broken. what are the roads like where you live?

 

mega low mileage though, nice one!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Could be uneven wear in the top mounts? Tyres at the same pressure?

[Roger Blassberg 0]

anyone in the passenger seat?? :lol:

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist it...)

 

Best wishes

 

RB

[DanA 0]

Thanks phat, i'll jack it up and have a closer look at the spring.... The road are pretty bad around here and I have to drive down a bloody cobbled road to get to my house :x so it wouldn't supprise me if somethings broken!

 

Can shocks fail but not be leaking anything ???

[DanA 0]

anyone in the passenger seat?? :lol:

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist it...)

 

Best wishes

 

RB

 

Ah, thats the problem.... hehe

 

Actually i think i've mixed up my offside\nearside..... its the drivers side shock, which ones that :oops:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Offside = driver

Nearside = Passenger

[DanA 0]

Could be uneven wear in the top mounts? Tyres at the same pressure?

 

Hmmm interesting... what should all the tyre presures be ?? Just looked in the manual and it says 2.5 front and 2.2 rear. Looks like all my tyres need topping up then, hope this solves my problem!

[dinkus 10]

DanA, if you're tyre pressures are even side to side then you should be ok.

 

To check your top mounts, put your car somewhere flat. Then pop the bonnet and get someone to move the steering lock-to-lock. If the top mounts move enough to get yer finger in there then they need replacing. Similarly, if one moves a lot more than the other, then you need to replace both of them (always do things relating to suspension in pairs!).

 

Good luck. If you do need to do your top mounts it's not a hard job and they're only £11ish each from GSF, I just did mine and it'll take you 3-4hrs tops with the right tools. PM me if you need help.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Thinking about it, I don't think you'll lose 20mm from a dead TM and unless you do right hand bends exclusively, they tend wear evenly anyway. Although a combination of a flatish tyre and 10mm wear from the TM could lose you 20mm I guess.

 

If the spring has bust, you will probably get a twang noise as you turn corners but at 64K, that's unlikely to be the cause unless you drove over a speed hump at 300mph?

 

Jack the car up and see if the spring is loose.

[DanA 0]

Right, jacked the car up and the spring wont budge at all so its not that. Shock seemed in good nick too with the protective rubber boot still in place. I checked the top mounts the way that dinkus suggested and I could get my finger in both of them.

 

 

Could this be causing the problem ??

[dr_mat 0]

Well compare - is one higher than the other?

We only have one picture.. :)

[DanA 0]

sorry.... forgot to say, both seem to be exactly the same.

[dr_mat 0]

Then there's probably nothing wrong with them.

Perhaps the offset is coming from the rear? Are both rears sitting on even ground, and at the same height?

[DanA 0]

Rears are spot on, exactly the same both sides.

[dr_mat 0]

And you're *absolutely certain* the ground is level?

Has to be either the ground, the top mounts or the springs, really!

[dinkus 10]

My top mounts were moving about as far as that and they had been listed as having 'excessive play' last time it was serviced, so I replaced them. I'm putting it all back together again tomorrow morning so I'll take pics of what brand new top mounts should look like with the same test.

 

I'd say it could be worth replacing the top mounts, but as kevhaywire says, they *should* wear the same on both sides.

 

Either way, if the top mounts are moving that much it won't be doing anything for your steering, mine was slopping all over the place so I'm hoping new ones will have fixed it.

 

I'll let you know the verdict tomorrow, 'haywire engineering' :lol: is taking a look at it tomorrow evening too 8)

[dr_mat 0]

The top mounts that were removed from my VR6 a couple of weeks ago were compressed by a mm at most, and that's over 120k miles. I REALLY don't think that could cause 20mm difference.

The only other thing the top mounts could cause though was if the mount dropped out of the centre of the tower - but you'd not be able to see the same amount of strut above both sides if that were the case.

I think it's either the ground not quite as level as you think or it's the springs.

[DanA 0]

And you're *absolutely certain* the ground is level?

 

God I'm an absolute halfwit... Just took the car round the front of my house and both sides are the same now :oops: I didn't realise such a slight slope could cause the suspension to be out so much just at the front! I suppose it must be the weight of the vr lump.

 

Anyway, panic over now... many thanks for your help!

 

Dan

[Will 0]

Stripped my front suspension down recently and the found the spacer was missing! Doubt this is the cause, would be worth taking them off, replacing the mounts and checking everything is assembled properly. Only going to improve the handling anyway and v.cheap for the mounts...