Car not sitting flat!

[Alex@POD]

My mate's 306 D turbo 1998 is lower on one side at the front, and we can't figure out why... We've had a look and everything is in place and in good condition, the springs are not broken, seems the dampers are mounted the same... it is about 2cm down on the driver's side at the front, the back is pretty level...

Has anyone come accross that before? Also there is a wierd squeak/grinding noise coming from the back end on bumps, but again nothing obvious... Could this be related?

Thanks for your help

[oakdale]

The car can't be down on one side at the front but not at the rear unless the body has got a pivot in the middle or is very flexible .

Most likely a collapsed trailing arm pivot bearing on the rear.

[Alex@POD]

Thanks! The back is lower one side too, but only by a little bit compared to the front. What's an easy way to confirm the trailing arm pivot bearing is at fault? I don't really want to start taking his car apart for no reason

[odyssey2200]

If you take the springs off and measure them you will probably find that the O?S?F spring has sagged a bit.

The car always has a driver but not always a passenger, so it is common for the OSF spring to sag sooner than the OS.

[Alex@POD]

odyssey2200 said:

If you take the springs off and measure them you will probably find that the O?S?F spring has sagged a bit.

The car always has a driver but not always a passenger, so it is common for the OSF spring to sag sooner than the OS.

I heard about that, but I'm having trouble accepting the weight of the driver alone makes that much difference, specially as it's not really that common is it?

[oakdale]

Alex@POD said:

Thanks! The back is lower one side too, but only by a little bit compared to the front. What's an easy way to confirm the trailing arm pivot bearing is at fault? I don't really want to start taking his car apart for no reason

It can be difficult to detect play in the trailing arm bearings because the torsion bars tend to stop you from feeling movement when the car is jacked up, but if you hold the wheel top and bottom, and pull on the bottom and push on the top using quite a bit of force, you can usually detect it.

Also, with the car on the floor, look at it from behind to see if the wheel is at an unusual angle.

[odyssey2200]

Alex@POD said:

odyssey2200 said:

If you take the springs off and measure them you will probably find that the O?S?F spring has sagged a bit.

The car always has a driver but not always a passenger, so it is common for the OSF spring to sag sooner than the OS.

I heard about that, but I'm having trouble accepting the weight of the driver alone makes that much difference, specially as it's not really that common is it?

Yeah you're right!
What do I know

[Alex@POD]

odyssey2200 said:

Alex@POD said:

odyssey2200 said:

If you take the springs off and measure them you will probably find that the O?S?F spring has sagged a bit.

The car always has a driver but not always a passenger, so it is common for the OSF spring to sag sooner than the OS.

I heard about that, but I'm having trouble accepting the weight of the driver alone makes that much difference, specially as it's not really that common is it?

Yeah you're right!
What do I know

Don't get me wrong, I'm not ignoring your input or anything, I just haven't come accross that before. That was a genuine question too, is it really that common?

[PhillipM]

Yes, it is that common...

[Alex@POD]

Well, I stand corrected! What are the chances of it being the same if I get second hand parts to replace it?

[Mr2Mike]

Alex@POD said:

Well, I stand corrected! What are the chances of it being the same if I get second hand parts to replace it?

Quite likely! Always better to use new springs than s/h ones.

[Kozy]

I have the same problem on my Civic VTi, the NSF wheel is up in the arch, the OSF wheel has about 30mm clearance and the back sits off too but not as much.

I hit a big pothole in Jan and the problem started then, and has got worse since. The cars handles fine though and doesn't pull, I'm a bit baffled as to what it is.

I'll start taking it to bits soon to see whats up.

[leorest]

odyssey2200 said:

If you take the springs off and measure them you will probably find that the O?S?F spring has sagged a bit.

The car always has a driver but not always a passenger, so it is common for the OSF spring to sag sooner than the OS.

I would have thought the stresses imposed by haring round roundabouts would have had more of an affect, but as you say.. what do I know.

Just a small thought. Assuming the springs are interchangeable and they haven't sagged too much. Why not swap NS for OS?

[oakdale]

I've been in the motor trade for a very long time, and I don't think it's common for o/s springs to weaken due to the weight of the driver, but I do find that spring breakages are more common on the n/s.
I have always put this down to there being more pot holes on the n/s of the road.

[Kozy]

I swapped my springs/dampers over OS/NS this weekend and it made no difference? Eliminates those components as the problem them, but doesn't really answer anything.

[The Char]

its possible that the car is balanced as a LHD (how french cars are usually made)

But, when converted to RHD the balance is upset