ride height issue

[MMamdouh]

i did a comparative measurement for my car's ride height and i got a discrepancy...

my car is a 2001 1.5 SOHC lanos with 94k kms on it and the ride height measurements were:

front left: 36.50 cm
front right: 38.00cm
rear left: 34.50 cm
rear right: 35.00 cm

the difference is some 0.5 cm between all wheels except the front right... it is 1.50cm off

i did the same measurements on a friend's car... it is a 2002 1.5 SOHC lanos with 98k kms on it and the ride height measurements were:

front left: 36.00 cm
front right: 35.00cm
rear left: 34.00 cm
rear right: 35.50 cm

the differences on my car were:

front left: + 0.50 cm
front right: + 3.00 cm
rear left: - 0.50 cm
rear right: + 1.00 cm

now the left side difference is +/- 0.50 cm which is too small to worry me... the right side measurements is not so good

the front right of my car is 3 cms off my friend's car... ok his front right is 35 cm as supposed to the average 36 cms yet this will make a difference of 2 cms which is still too much, also the rear is 1 cm off but i am not worried about that for now

what can cause the front right to be so high on my car??

what is the right highest of every one else?? by ride height i mean the distance from the center of the wheel axel going vertically to the wheel arch as marked in red in the below picture



MMamdouh

[MMamdouh]

any feedback??

MMamdouh

[Rodd1s]

remind me in a week when i'm back from holiday, cos i'm in turkey until next monday.

[MMamdouh]

OK

MMamdouh

[daewoomofo]

i would help you but my car is lowerd and it will have very different numbers

[Rodd1s]

i would help you but my car is lowerd and it will have very different numbers

oh yeah, that goes for me too. mine's lowered 40mm... still want the measurements anyway?

[MMamdouh]

well... if you guys know how much lower your springs are compared to the OEM springs then we can get an estimate to the "pre lowered" state of the car

i also remember that Johnny C told me that his car was 34.50 in the front and 32.00 in the back... seems it is 2.00cm lower than our cars both front and rear... i still don't know what is the correct riding height for the lanos

i think i am the only guy here that can verify the correct ride height for a lanos as we still have brand new lanoses here... OK it is now a chevy lanos but we all know it is the same car

also does anyone have a logical explanation to the reason why my front right is 3.00cms higher than the left side?

MMamdouh

[daewoomofo]

the only reason i can think of is that for some reason springs arent wearing evenly. maybe the previous owner (s) were very hard on the car. thing with my lowering srpings is that i know they dropped my car more they listed they would, so i really dont think my measurments would be accurate. but if you still want me to i will measure for you, just gimme the word

[MMamdouh]

well... since you don't know the actual drop value then we will go no where with the current ride height

if you do still have the OEM springs though then please measure them and tell me whats their height... i got a set of 1.6 lanos springs but one spring is 1 cm longer than the other so i wanna know whats the correct value

MMamdouh

[wolfsreign]

i have a stock lanos... but i have had body dmg to both rears thus most likely stressing/pulling the metal, anyway.. my 2 ideas are that you didnt measure them in the same place, thus allowing for a small dip under the tire. or i would go with mofo about not wearing evenly. as say you drive on the left? so thus more pot holes and disasters on the far left of the road, making ur left front and left side just totally abused. (idea)
~wolf

[MMamdouh]

we drive on the right side

also if this is the case then both wheels on one given side should develop the difference... right??... i have a problem on the front right only

MMamdouh

[Rodd1s]

sorry for it taking me an absolute age to get these measurements... but here they are (to the closest 0.5cm):

front-left: 31.5cm
front-right: 32.0cm
rear-left: 32.5cm
rear-right: 31.5cm

all are within 1cm.

differences to yours are:

front-left: -5.0cm
front-right: -6.0cm
rear-left: -2.0cm
rear-right: -3.5cm

[MMamdouh]

is your ride lowered?? if so then how many mms does your springs lower the car (based on spring manufacturer statement)

MMamdouh

[Rodd1s]

i would help you but my car is lowerd and it will have very different numbers

oh yeah, that goes for me too. mine's lowered 40mm... still want the measurements anyway?

Spax SSX spring kit, stated to lower the car by 40mm (4cm) - although it lowered the front more than the rear, it wasnt a level drop, so the 40mm may well be the average between front and rear (eg: 20mm rear and 60mm front gives 40mm average.)

[2woo4you0]

The position of the springs can probably change the height a little, like how they're turned. Maybe not front but rear I can see that making a difference up to maybe 12mm. Probably not as much as you're experiencing but I'm sure there are many little things like that that add up.

With my Reno when I lowered coil-overs 20mm the car lowered 15, but when I lowered coil-overs 40mm car would only lower say 25mm, and so on. I think the sway bars and I'm sure other things started supporting more weight as the car got lower.

Also, I helped a friend install lowering springs on his car while we did my Lanos...same springs. His sat much lower after even though he barley had more miles. We realized his shocks were much much softer than mine even though we both had OEM shocks. He had his Lanos from new and drive hard, I had bought mine recently from a girl that I doubt was hard on the car.