uneven stance

[DeadGeneration]

blown strut then I guess? whats the mileage

 

[Sveivo]

blown strut then I guess? whats the mileage

88K miles on original struts. The mechanics I talked to swear up and down a strut cannot change ride height.

But when I jack up the car at the center point in the rear, I can tell that one side is a lot more "floppy" and decompresses quickly, whereas the opposite side stays tight up in the air.

Kind of like you can 3-wheel with true coilovers. Isn't that due to extreme strut stiffness?

Also, maybe it's strut mounts? Doubtful though, since they looked fine to me.

Any thoughts?

 

[aMaff]

It's not the mounts. Do you see any fluid or excessive grit buildup around 1 of the struts?

Kind of like you can 3-wheel with true coilovers. Isn't that due to extreme strut stiffness?

Um...who says you need coilovers to 3 wheel? You can do it on stock MSP suspension. I've done it. And I've seen a 99 Civic Si w/ shocks and stock springs on race tires do it lol.

Essentially, the front dives more than the rear droops.

 

[Sveivo]

It's not the mounts. Do you see any fluid or excessive grit buildup around 1 of the struts?

Um...who says you need coilovers to 3 wheel? You can do it on stock MSP suspension. I've done it. And I've seen a 99 Civic Si w/ shocks and stock springs on race tires do it lol.

Essentially, the front dives more than the rear droops.

I most certainly DO see a lot of oily buildup near one of my front struts--and that corner sits lower than it should. So I am betting on a blown strut up front.

BUT...

Rear shocks are gas filled, so you can't really see if it's blown, can you? The biggest problem is one of my rears is way low. (nailbyt)

Thanks for the input.

 

[DeadGeneration]

hmmm... I wonder if it's possible to jack your car up off all 4's or get it on a lift with no wieght on any of the wheels and try and push up on them and see if any of them are easier to compress? I am not sure how much pressure is supported by the springs and how much is supported by the strut. With my coilovers the strut does a huge portion of the support and when it's jack up it does 100% of the support so I can definitely tell, not so much sure about your set up though.

 

[Sveivo]

hmmm... I wonder if it's possible to jack your car up off all 4's or get it on a lift with no wieght on any of the wheels and try and push up on them and see if any of them are easier to compress? I am not sure how much pressure is supported by the springs and how much is supported by the strut. With my coilovers the strut does a huge portion of the support and when it's jack up it does 100% of the support so I can definitely tell, not so much sure about your set up though.

Hm. I think that would be pretty tough to do, since once the car is jacked up the springs extend and fill up the space between the upper and lower mounts. I think yours might be different. So in my case it would be like compressing the springs manually.

Check this out though. I did a little experimenting and noticed that the struts that I suspect to be blown extend immediately and a lot more compared to the struts that are still in good condition. This leads me to believe that once some struts lose most of the stiffness, the ride height is affected.

In other words, if a strut is new and stiff, it will not allow the spring to extend quickly (or at all). And if the strut is blown, the spring will overpower it immediately, once the car is off the ground.

I swear there's got to be a correlation between ride height and the condition of struts. (scratch) BUT... I'm too poor right now to really find out for sure