What governs ride height?

[Atreus21]

Car has less fender gap on the passenger side rear wheel than the driver's side front and rear wheels. It's noticeably leaning to the passenger side.

I just changed both rear shocks, which yielded no change. The car is still leaning, and the passenger side rear wheel makes a loud "WOMP" noise when I hit any big, sloping bumps.

Do the springs govern ride height?

If so, isn't it dangerous to change out springs? I thought I read in the tech encyclopedia that that the residual pressure on the spring can kill you if the spring suddenly releases and strikes you.

help!

[BLLDOGG]

Re: What governs ride height?

Yes springs govern ride height in our cars and yes for an unexperienced person, the risk of being seriously hurt or killed is greater. Just do a lot of research and familiarize yourself with the situation and you should be fine. A lot of dumb people change them every day without dying.

[slow6]

Re: What governs ride height?

the front springs should be done by a professional
Its perfectly normal for the driver's side to be higher than the passengers.
Every f-body does that to compensate for the driver's weight.

[Atreus21]

Re: What governs ride height?

the front springs should be done by a professional
Its perfectly normal for the driver's side to be higher than the passengers.
Every f-body does that to compensate for the driver's weight.

That may be, but the passenger side rear is making the worst noise when I hit a sloping bump.

Not to mention, when I turn the car off and get out, I can smell something like burning near the passenger rear. The air around it is hotter than usual, and there's a vague burning smell.

I haven't the foggiest. Are stock springs expensive?

Looking around at pictures of the back ends of other F-Bodies, they're not leaning like mine. There's like an inch and a half difference between the driver and passenger side fender gaps.

[black98V6]

Re: What governs ride height?

if you are getting a bumping sound check the bolts on your lower control arms, I had one just a tick loose and man it made a godawful noise over bumps, the quick way to check is with the car on the ground get a strong grip on the control arm and see if you can make it move, just a slight twisting side to side with a little bit of a cluck with your hands will make a bunch of noise auctually driving over a bump.
I had this problem, just had to tighten the LCA bolts down and it was all good. It takes an 18 mm wrench.

you should be able to get under there and tighten it with the car on the ground. Don't do it with the car in the air and the rear end hanging this will cause your suspension to bind when you put it back on the ground.

On another note check your exhaust if it is loose it might be causing your noise also.

[silvachris1]

Re: What governs ride height?

Burning smell? And it's hotter around the right rear?

Looking at the car directly from behind, do the tires appear to be shifted toward the driver side? Like the whole assembly is shifted left? Hopefully not....

Take your passenger side rear tire off and check to see if it has been rubbing anywhere against the car.

[Atreus21]

Re: What governs ride height?

Update.

I've put on new springs. They're just stock replacement springs I put on from carquest. For some reason, the stock springs were slightly shorter than the replacements I got.

I put each of them on. The rear was higher in the air, and the lean was still there, albeit higher now. :(

However, I took her for a ride, and hit the right bump doing 15 mph over the speed limit and the WOMP sound is definitely gone. When I got out, the burning smell was gone, too.

So, something is making my car lean that's not my shocks and not my springs.

:( HEEEELP!

[StevenC]

Re: What governs ride height?

Springs sag after a few thousand miles. Your stock ones were shorter because they had sagged, your new ones will in time. Have you been in a wreck? Bent frame? The control arms, bushings, shocks, springs could alter your ride height at static. I'm sure if it was bent enough, the other components like panhard could too. One thing at a time, rule it out.

For your smell:
Make sure nothing is rubbing and examine your tranny/rear. Look at the cat and examine it, but don't touch it while it's hot. Other than that, it's a motor issue.

[Camaro Dom]

Re: What governs ride height?

i've heard of people taking the mounts off of struts and the springs putting dents in brick walls :eek: my advice would be to take the struts off as a unit and have a shop do it. less hassle and they have the proper equipment. plus its like 20 bucks or sumthing.

[Jared 3870]

Re: What governs ride height?

if you are getting a burning smell on your right rear, check to make sure your brake isn't dragging for some reason. I had one of the rears on my old car start dragging. for some reason whenever you would apply the brake for the first time, the pad wouldn't return to its resting position. it just stayed pushing against the rotor. It will ruin the pads on it fairly fast.

[BobbyZ72]

Re: What governs ride height?

i've heard of people taking the mounts off of struts and the springs putting dents in brick walls :eek: my advice would be to take the struts off as a unit and have a shop do it. less hassle and they have the proper equipment. plus its like 20 bucks or sumthing.

Best advice here! It took me 8 hours to change my front sturts doing it myself, plus using the weak hard to use spring compresser the auto parts loaned me my fingers were full of metal splenters and cuts. I went back with v8 springs which i could tell were much harder to compress. Next time ill have pepboys do it for 20 bucks, i wish i would have know about them doing it sooner.