Leaning Camaro
 

I noticed yesterday while walking up the driveway that the Camaro seamed to be leaning.
I measured the ride height at the wheel openings and the Drivers side rear is 30.25 inches and the passenger side is 31.125 inches.7/8th's difference.
The car is a 2010 ,1 week old.515 miles. Tire pressures are equal.
Any thoughts would be great ,I am taking it in this week to the dealer to have a crease removed and wanted to get this looked at also.
Thanks in advance. Gary.
Also the front measures out ok.

Gary, this is not totally uncommon due to the large variation in production tolerances on spring free lengths. Also there are any number of contributing factors involved in a suspension settling at a static height, things like fuel load, pitch/roll of the driveway (even a small amount can affect it), combined with a slight difference in spring free-length from the factory, can all add up to the 7/8" difference. Although, I will admit, it is a lot.

Typically we have been contacted by a few customers who install our lowering springs, and say that they didn't get the "drop" that they were expecting. In every case, this has been a cause of production spring tolerances being on the low side to begin with. This can account for .5" from our experience. So, it is not uncommon. For good measure I would still have them check things out though.

Thanks for the info.I will let the dealer check it out and post their response.Gary

Gary,

An inch is a lot by any standard. In addition to coil height, alignment can also impact ride height. Take your car back to the dealer and have them check both the ride height and alignment.

As Pete said, you need to take it back to the dealer. GM measures ride heights quite differently than everyone else does. But traditionally, measuring it the way you did, it will fail their test if you are off as much as you indicate when they test it. GM says it is traditionally acceptable to have up to 5/8 or so difference as being OK. Another thing I want to stress is your driveway. If your driveway is not level, it can create a significant side to side variation. The best place to measure is on a drive up alignment rack. These are 100% level. Check your tire pressures as well.

Camaro ride heights can change substantially with the alignment, thus the reason Pete recommended it and to have them check it out. .5 to .75 degrees camber change can change your ride height approximately .5 inches

One thing everyone should do prior to installing any drop coil. They should put the Camaro on a very level surface, and do a pre measurement of all 4 corners. We have seen well over .5 inch plus variation from identical Camaros, and is more common to see the side to side variations in the 5 to 8mm range than being equal. Springs will usually not fix this

thanks
mike
dms

Gary, I am checking to see if your problem was corrected when you went to the dealer?

I didn't notice a difference in height with my car but when I installed my Pfadt lowering springs on Saturday, I noticed that the rear passenger spring was not sitting inside the shock properly. I don't know if it came out of the perch when my car was on the lift when it was serviced......but I don't think that is possible because when I removed the stock coil spring it still had some tension with the shock fully extended, so I don't see it falling down and out of the recess the spring is supposed to be in.

I took some pictures but my camera is home, I will post these up later.

If I were you, I would take a look at it and see if that's your problem.

As promised....

When I went to the dealer they wanted me to wait till I had a few miles on it before they attempted any repairs.I just turned a thousand miles so I am thinking about going back and see what they say.Gary

:confused0068:

wow. Good thing you caught that! Can't say I have seen that before!

So what did the dealer say was the cause?

Yeah that was some weird sh..!

There are only a couple of possibilities -- assembly error or a coil out of spec.