dreamhope

Hi,

I accidentally noticed that the front passenger side sits about 1/3 lower than the rest of the car. Is this a cause for concern?

I noticed it when I checked the CV joints and control arms - the CV boots seem fine, and there's no free play with the control arms. I checked those because on sharp left turns (in parking or at tiny roundabout, when the steering wheel is turned to the end) there's slight knocking.

Could it be the spring?

I did hit a speed bump hard about three weeks ago. It was supposed to be a 30 km bump (speed bumps in France can be half a foot high at the highest point), and I probably hit that one at 60.

silverd2

I'd start with a close inspection of the ends of the springs. Some front and rear D2 springs have been prone to breaking at the last coil, but remaining seated. I broke one of my rear springs at the last (bottom) coil and it reseated itself on the suspension arm and I didn't even notice it at first...steering wheel was off a little from the change in alignment, but I didn't find the problem till I was trying to track down a noise there...it was the spring seat bouncing around inside the spring coil!

dreamhope

My paranoia. It's the ground that's not even. Measured again from the centre of the wheel to the fender, and the heights are identical at both sides.

Still don't know where's knocking comes from though. It comes in under light throttle when the steering wheel is turned over half to the left. The CV joints/axles look new. Seems like the previous owner had them changed not long ago.

Guess I'll check the hydraulic fluid and alignment. If nothing is obviously wrong I'll just keep it as it is until something breaks.

silverd2

Unfortunately, the previous owner probably made the mistake the VAST majority make...even otherwise intelligent people: When all that was needed was to replace a ripped boot ($25 kit) on a high quality OEM undamaged CV joint, they did dumbest thing that can be done...the replaced the entire axle shaft with an aftermarket (less than 1/5th price AND quality of OEM) and did away with a $600 OEM axle shaft, thinking (or being lied to) that it's just as good as the original...business is business, you get what you pay for.

These cheap aftermarket (or reground) CV joints are notorious for what you describe when doing anything but rolling straight...the precision and quality of material the OEM joint had is NOT there. It may even feel good for the 1st few miles when new, but cheap manufacture often shows it's face soon after, due to premature wear of the inner tracks/***** of the joint (metal not hard enough) or was never cut correctly from the start...within "specs", but not the near perfection of the originals.

The above is just a guess, but if they look relatively new but display those symptoms, chances are good that you're feeling a previous owner's ignorance or a dealer/mechanics lack of ethics.

dreamhope

Could be. It actually makes a lot of sense. I'll probably just leave it at that till it breaks.

Thanks