First, I know how to adjust coilovers, that is NOT what I'm asking.

I am attempting to get my car level (24.5"-25" from the top of the fender to the ground on all four corners) The problem is, there seems to be a huge difference left to right.

I counted the threads on the shock body to ensure they were even, but once installed the driver side (rear) sat much lower (1") than the pass side.

Oddly enough the driver side (front) sits much higher (3/4") than the pass side.

I raised the Driver side (rear) 5 turns and lowered the pass side 9 turns and the driver side is still noticeably lower. Now there is some slight damage to the driver side quarter panel, but it seems a bit much that there's already a 14 turn difference and its still much lower.

Is it normal to have to adjust coilovers that much differently from left to right?

 

Positive the ground you were on was level?

 

it was in my driveway, probably not perfectly level, but not off left to right , enough to cause that kind of difference.

I thought the sway bar might have been part of the problem so I disconnected it....no dice.

I lowered the pass side and raised the driver side AGAIN . Measuring from underside of the pillow ball mount to the lower lock ring its 11 7/17" on the driver side and 10 1/4 on the pass side and the Diver side is STILL lower....wtf?

 

Are you sure the springs have the same spring rate and free length?

What is the condition of the upper spring mount rubber?

FWIW you should disconnect both the front and rear bars if you think that is an issue.

 

Update:

I thought it may have been the sway bars so I disconnected them....no dice. Its still significantly lower on the driver side, despite adjusting that coilover to be over an inch longer.

I checked the springs and they are indeed both 7" 6kg springs (brand new).

There is no upper spring mount rubber, just a pillow ball mount.

I did make an interesting observation though. When the car is jacked up the Right side always comes off the ground first and it takes a couple pumps of the jack before the left side lifts up.

So I measured the Droop of the suspension and the Left side hangs 1" lower (6.5" from the fender arch to the lip of the wheel) than the right side (5.5"). However once lowered to the ground, the left side compresses to 24..5" (fender arch to ground) compared to 25.5" for the right side (which is 1" HIGHER!) Whats goin on here?

One thing I forgot to mention was that the subframe was just replaced when the suspension was installed, not sure how that would affect this just figured I'd throw that out there.

 

So to summarize

----------------------------Left Side-----------------Right Side
Droop.........................6.5"..................... ....................5.5"
Coilover Length...........11 7/16"...................................10 1/4"
Ride Hieght.................24 1/2".....................................25 1/2"

 

try putting the car on 4 jack stands and measure from the top of the fender to the ground. i did this and it turned out that my drivers side rear fender is indeed 1/2" lower then all other fenders due to body damage. so when i put my coilovers on and adjusted both sides the same, the drivers rear was still 1/2 inches lower.

 

Good point. I know for a fact that my driver side rear fender has been tweaked due to body damage, so I expected it to be a little lower when the two rears were adjusted the same.

The part that concerns me is the difference in droop. Assuming that the fender is indeed lower, then the droop should reflect that and when the car is lowered to the ground that should still be true. This is not the case.

When the car is in the air, the driver side hangs lower, which makes sense, because that coilover is longer. what doesn't make sense is that when the car is placed on the ground, the driver side compresses signifcantly (2" or so) but the passanger side does not (1/4" - 1/2") which results in the driver side sitting much lower, despite being adjusted to be higher. The fender obviously affects ride height measurement, but what is causing the difference in compression?

It seems ridiculous that my coilovers should have to be 2" longer on the driver side to get the car to sit level, ESPECIALLY when the driver side should be slightly higher in stock form.

 

FC? FD? is it possible one side suspension is binding? you mention changing the subframe, also possible something is bent?

and did you check to see if the ground is level, it usually isn't

um and you're moving the car between adjustments too right?

my friends FD, and my FB are different side to side, the FD is really different side to side to get it to sit level. the FB is too, although its higher cause the LF is the heaviest...

so a few turns different side to side and or front to back with driver would be totally normal

if you really get stuck you might wanna pull the springs out, and see if there is a longer one, and or even measure the rate (ive seen some diy spring compressors, with a jack a shelf and a scale..), springs DO have a tolerance. but this would be AFTER i pulled the suspension apart looking for bent, or misinstalled things (strut top built right? or the same side to side?)

 

Well, I was NASCAR'd by a ford explorer (drove down the whole drive side, big tire outline on the driver door, would "put me into the wall" if there was one ) My LR lateral rod was bent, but I didn't notice any other damage at the time. Since I was gonna have the diff rebuilt I decided to throw in a new subframe as well. All the mounting points are straight, I counted the threads on the mounting bolts and they're all pretty close. Also measured the distance between the subframe and the chassis at several points, so I doubt that's the problem.

Binding did come to mind, because like I said it seems like the driver side compresses much more when lowered, and that adjustments seem to have a slightly greater affect on the driver side by comparison. How would I check for binding? I don't hear anything as the suspension compresses...

This is apparently more of an issue than I realized, as everyone keeps bringing it up. My driveway is not level front to back, but pretty close left to right (which is the major concern)

Didn't know I needed to ... I made three adjustments last night, then test drove it and made 2 adjustments today.

yea, I measured the spring length but haven't tested rates yet....hopefully I'll figure this out before it comes to that.

What exactly do you mean buy "strut top built" ? They are the same side to side and they do not use any of the stock components....

 

hmmm....well I guess it would stand to reason that the FC is the same way...

What is "a few turns"? Cuz right now...

------------Coilover Length-----------Ride Height
LR...................11"............................ ....24 1/2"
RR...................10"............................ ....25 3/8"
LF....................11 3/4"..........................24 5/8"
RF....................12 7/8"........................23 9/16" (Major scrubbing ) changed to 13 1/8" @ 24 1/4"

1" on the coilover body is 13 threads/turns. Keep in mind that despite being adjusted 1" higher, the end result is a ride height that is nearly 1" lower.

Of course there's the dent in the fender, so if that accounts for 1/2" of the difference its still sitting 1/2" higher on the wrong side (if the driver side were higher that would be fine) . So to correct this Im guessing we'd be looking a a difference of 15-20 threads/turns.......Is that still "a couple"?

EDIT: Interestingly, the RF seems to compress more than the LF , just like the LR compresses more than the RR....gonna take a drive like this, and see if things settle down a bit...

 

binding, and or preload. the stock bushings don't move, the deflection in the suspension, is from the bushing twisting, so its a little important to tighten the suspension with the car on the ground.

front to back should be ok, side to side is ok too, but diagonal will throw everything off.

after you adjust something, you should at least roll the car a few feet in both directions, or drive it.

i suppose it would be possible to assemble the new strut tops wrong, ive even done it!

 

my friends FD, we tried to get 25.5" ride height, and i think we were limited by one corner, its all the way up @like 25" so the rest of the collars are kind of in the middle, so maybe that's 6-8 turns? they arent even side to side OR front and rear, even though its close at the fenders.

you may also wanna try measuring from someplace structural, maybe it IS just the dent in the fender?

 

Yes, further research and my recollection of the install lean heavily towards binding as the culprit. It would be easy to tighten everything w/ the suspension compressed on an alignment rack....don't happen to have one of those @ the house. What would be the best method to use @ home?

Also, care to elaborate on this part:

 

Alright, so it appears this is a common issue. Just seems counter intuitive since the sock suspension components are the same length with no adjustability, and I don't recaull stock cars sitting so uneven. Perhaps though its just that we're looking at a smaller threshold of "acceptability" the difference between 24" and 25" is huge, between 27" and 28".....not so much lol

Anyway, after driving around the suspension settled abit:

LF = 11 3/4" @ 23 7/8 (-3/4") ............RF = 13 1/8" @ 24 1/8" (-1/8")
LR = 11" @ 24 1/4" (-1/4") ...........RR = 10 3/8" @ 25" (-3/8")

The only interesting part is how far off the RF seems to be...is that the heaviest corner (due to the turbo perhaps) ? Whats relieving is that the LF had the biggest drop, so perhaps w/ the next round of adjustments I can get them to >1" difference.

 

if you've killed possible bind + possible preload/droop difference, then yeah... no car sits evenly with weight distributed properly front/back or side to side. if it did, coilovers / corner weighing / cross weights and all that would be pointless.

 

Haven't ruled out binding yet, as I have no way of tightening the suspension w/ it compressed.

The only adjustment I'm going to make is raising the LR to a reasonable level. Plus I'm getting tires tomorrow and perhaps an alignment, I'm sure the toe and camber are off in the rear.