car sits lower on driver side
- Thread starter Heath
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Rear springs have isolators on top maybe the driver's side is missing or damaged, cheap/easy fix. Check the condition of your body mounts they could be worn out or missing. Do you have air bags or air shocks? If one of them has more air it will make it lean to one side.
Mine does the same thing and it's very irritating 
. New springs and shocks all the way around. It sits 7/16" lower on the drivers side rear. The front is pretty close left to right. If body bushings don't fix it, I'm considering rear coil overs to level it out.
. New springs and shocks all the way around. It sits 7/16" lower on the drivers side rear. The front is pretty close left to right. If body bushings don't fix it, I'm considering rear coil overs to level it out.turbofish38
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The correct way to measure is from a point on the frame to the ground. If those numbers are off than the frame is tweaked. Quite common on GM frames even when these cars were new and more so now that they are 20 years old. They also like to rust where the body mounts rub on top of the frame. When that happens the body sinks down at that point.
That rubber piece, on top of the spring, is what I am talking about. Jack up car, secure with JACK STANDS! so that both rear tires are off the ground. disconnect lower shock mount bolts. Rear should drop a few inches pry rear spring off pearch, it doesn't take much so don't be afraid. Its' not like the front spring not alot of tension once you drop the rear end. Use the jack to bring the rear back in place to connect the shocks.
By no means am I an expert. I'm just telling you the things I think it might be. If it is leaning alot and you are sure the chassis is strait it's probably the body mounts.
By no means am I an expert. I'm just telling you the things I think it might be. If it is leaning alot and you are sure the chassis is strait it's probably the body mounts.
Gary Wells
White turbo Buick trailer park trash
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------------------------YRUSOSLO said:
3/16 (.1875) is a pretty insignificant amount for anybody to be able to visually distinguish from nominal, so I would guess that you have other issues that you are holding the frame accountable for. What are you using to determine that the car is off visually from the rear, ie. top of fender to top of fender at rear, bumper, rub strip, ??.
turbofish38
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3/16" sounds normal. Especially if it is out towards either end of the frame rails. I like to measure these cars using the floor in my garage. Its the flatest, most level surface I have access to. I usually jack the car up with 4 of the same brand of jack stands sitting at the recomended jack points. Body mount positions #2 and #4 more or less. Than I start measuring the variances at those four points and at a couple of points out towards the end of the frame rails and at the front and rear crossmembers. Than I measure the body. I've never seen a frame perfectly square. And the bodies weren't exactly spot welded together with robots and lasers either so there is plenty of room for error here. 3/16" sounds normal under these circumstances.
Wells said:
My mistake, I meant to type 3/8" not 3/16" difference, based on the frame measurement with the car parked on a level garage floor. Measured at the rear wheel well opening it's 7/16" higher on the passenger side. The front is fairly close side to side measuring frame to floor and wheel well opening to floor. Visually it's most noticeable when you are standing directly behind the car. Walking around the car you can see a larger gap between the rear tire and wheel well opening on the passenger side compared to the drivers side. I plan on having the body bushings replaced and take it from there. If the frame is tweaked as Eric suggested, should I take it to a body shop or put rear coilovers on it? I want it to sit a little lower in the rear anyway and I figured I could use coilovers to adjust the ride height and compensate for the lean at the same time. Thanks for your input guys!
Gary Wells
White turbo Buick trailer park trash
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---------------------------YRUSOSLO said:
Oops, my bad. I thought that you meant that you can visually detect a 3/16's error from looking at the rear of the car, and I just don't think that is humanly possibly. It sounds like your measurement is detecting a 3/8 difference measuring off the frame, but when you visually look at the rear of the car, it appears more. I know that this is not the proper way to measure on a car, but have you tried measuring say, from very farthest highest point on each rear fender (end of car)? I still believe that it is very difficult to detect even 3/8" visually by just looking at the rear of the car, which tells me that the frame might be off 3/8", but there is a stack up of tolerances by the time that it translates to the outside of the car, which would explain why you visually see the non-parallelism with the ground. I measure mine from side to side at the very rear uppermost point of the rear fenders, and mine is better than I can actually detect any difference by measurement. Got a pic showing it's leaning condition, if so, can you e-mail; me a pic or 2 please.
I took a pic of it from the rear sitting in the garage but if the camera is not
perfectly parallel with the ground it's difficult to see anything. I'll take some pics of the wheel wells and then you will be able to see it. When I took it in to have the front end aligned, the tech noticed it when it was on the lift and he was walking up behind it. I suppose that even though 3/8" -7/16" doesn't sound like much the human eye can be more sensitive than we realize. I also think that there may be some "tolerance stackiing" going on as you mentioned; that's why I'm going to start with body bushings and hope that brings it close enough to level to make it unnoticeable.
perfectly parallel with the ground it's difficult to see anything. I'll take some pics of the wheel wells and then you will be able to see it. When I took it in to have the front end aligned, the tech noticed it when it was on the lift and he was walking up behind it. I suppose that even though 3/8" -7/16" doesn't sound like much the human eye can be more sensitive than we realize. I also think that there may be some "tolerance stackiing" going on as you mentioned; that's why I'm going to start with body bushings and hope that brings it close enough to level to make it unnoticeable.
Gary Wells
White turbo Buick trailer park trash
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Measuring the distance from rear spring perch to spring cup on each side might shed some light on the situation. Kirban's has always advised that some of these cars came out of the factory without the # 7 body cushion, which I believe is the last one on the driver side at the very rear of the car. I don't remember if the bumper has to be off or not, though.
I guess you might want to start looking at these http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/images/bushings.gif Has it been like that since you changed the springs? Is it more noticable in the front or in the back?Similar threads
