Uneven ride height

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My 97 Subaru Impreza wagon's rear height differs by about an inch between left and right. Does that mean the spring on the lower side is sagging or could it be the shock?
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Front height is ok.
 
probably the spring. Jounce the car on both corners to make sure they bounce easily... this'll rule out a sticky shock (not likely).
 
Did anybody really heavy ride in that car? I'm not trying to be mean, but there was an incident I witnessed once. An incident with lasting effects...

I'd also make sure that all tires are properly inflated.
 
Shock absorbers don't support weight - they merely dampen oscillating motion. (except for air or spring loaded shocks of course) My dad had a '55 Plymouth that sat with one side of the rear about 3/4" lower than the other. The dealer replaced both sides' leaf springs. The car still sagged on one side. They finally determined that the frame was out of true. Their solution? A call to ChryCorp's area zone office for a rep to come have a look. He did and offered dad a heart-felt, "Tough noogies."
 
After owning my new 1997 Mazda B-Series pickup for a few months, I noticed that the body appeared to be leaning to one side when I looked at the parked vehicle. Not a lot, but just enough to notice; a number of my friends agreed.

Under warranty, the local dealer installed what look like a couple of large washers as shims under the front coil spring on that side. The service tech told me that this happens from time to time.
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That was it. It's never bugged me since, and it sits level now (to the eye, at least, which is good enough for me), so I don't really have any complaints.
 
Gavini,

How many miles on your Impreza? It is posssible that it is the struts (assuming the your Impreza uses struts front and rear, like the Legacy). They are gas pressurized and if they wear and loose the gas charge the car will sag. My 1995 Legacy wagon began to look a bit droopy on the front and I was banging the tow hooks on curbs more often. Replacing the struts restored the ride height. The springs were not changed.

Ed
 
What's the condition of the front strut bearings? If the rubber (in some-I don't know Subies) is shot, that can lose you a half inch or more. I had this problem in an old Golf I used to suffer with. What about any bushings for the rear struts-you'll probably have to pull a few trim pieces to compare. Have the struts ever been replaced, especially the back? The clown who did my Golf put the tapered top rubber bushings in upside down. Good Luck
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Thanks for the replies, I got the car about 4k miles back, currently 131k and don't think the struts or springs have ever been replaced. The car runs on 4 struts and only the rear is showing a difference in ride height.

Bounce test showed no signs of uneven recovery.

I'm contemplating whether to replace only the struts or springs first or both at the same time
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budget
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allowing
 
gavinl - Take a look and see if the lower corner spring has the same number of turns as the other side. It may have been replaced with a wrong part, been installed from the factory wrong, or has a cracked off end. Check the diameter, too. A wrong/broken shock/strut that isn't returning all the way is a potential problem.
Mercedes had different thickness rubber spring mounts to adjust ride height descrepencies - you may be able to fabricate/buy something similar to shim it up.
Most shocks/struts are gas filled now - we can't get anything else from our suppliers. There is a small amount of support from the shock.
 
I had an '88 Mustang that sat a little uneven in the back. Had the shocks replaced by Midas and it sat straight as an arrow afterwards.
?? I thought springs did most of that work.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Virtuoso:
I had an '88 Mustang that sat a little uneven in the back. Had the shocks replaced by Midas and it sat straight as an arrow afterwards.
?? I thought springs did most of that work.


In the double-tube design, which most shocks are, the shocks don't support weight.

But monotube shocks, the archetype of which is Bilstein, actually can change ride height since they support weight.

If you had a bad monotube, and replaced it with new shocks, you could have precisely the effect you saw.
 
the amount of 'lift' you get from a mono-tube shock is a function of the piston rod area multiplied by the gas pressure.

In a Bilstein, IIRC, they run approx 300psi, and the rod diameter is 14mm = 0.551" therefore the area of the rod is 0.238 sq. in. x 300 psi = 71.4 lbs of 'lifting' force.

The hard part to understand is that it dosen't act as a 'spring'.

By raising the vehicle, the 'spring' forces cancel out, and so no diffence is felt in ride, although the gas pressure does increase the forces needed to get the shock moving in 'bump', as the shock bump valving is on the piston. If the bump valving is totally housed in a remote canister, as in a very few race shocks, this 'nose' pressure is vastly reduced to basically zero.

Where it acts as spring pre-load is when the spring is trapped, as in some race cars that run 'nil droop'. If you add gas pressure here, you definately increase the suspension pre-load, and hence ride rate.

Regarding the inconsistent ride height and a spring sagging, occaisonally some get through with incorrect heat treatment, and can sag before their time.
Take both left and right out and measure their free length, then compare it to the factory spec.

Springs sagging is very common here in 4 wheel drives that do a lot of outback touring as they are usually very heavily loaded.

Land Rover until recently, specced a 0.5" taller spring on the drivers side in all their vehicles. This had a totally different part number, although the spring rate is the same both sides.

I'm not suggestin scooby doos are like this 'though.
 
I'm pretty sure the Scooby stock shocks are twin-tube type so the shock health at the sagging side is questionable...time to shop for KYBs after my next paycheck
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