Uneven ride height - Reasons?


Not noticeably no. Both sides perform the same when compressed, the car still tracks in a straight line, and there is no discernable difference in cornering response/grip in left and right bends. The guy I bought the car off had a look at it and said it's definately not right, I trust his judgement having owned the car for four years previous to the one I've had it. It never used to be that low on that corner.
 
Hmmm, the only other thing i can think of is i remember RagingAngel once said if you have a blown shock it could cause the corner to droop a bit, if its in the rear you may not notice since there is hardly any weight in the rear of the ek/ej chassis, i have had a blown shock the right rear corner before and i only knew cause i could see the oil, other than that it drove pretty good surprisingly...

What ever it is all i can say is i hope it turns out to be a inexpensive repair :)
 
blinx9900 said:
What ever it is all i can say is i hope it turns out to be a inexpensive repair :)
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So do I, I have heard horror stories of the turret welds tearing away from the inner arch before! Got me worried because the guy this happened to had the same symptoms! :nono:
 
Kozy said:
So do I, I have heard horror stories of the turret welds tearing away from the inner arch before! Got me worried because the guy this happened to had the same symptoms! :nono:
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wait, what? I am not sure i follow what your saying but it sounds horrible!! What and where exactly is the turret welds?
 
Where the front suspension turrets are welded to the inner arch? The force of the pothole physically ripped the welds apart and you could see day light in the arch around the strut.

It's this kind of damage/subframe damage I am concerned about!
 
Honda EK's are made very strong in that area, if you're talking about the shock tower when you say turret. Your car isn't heavily rusty right? That's the only time I've seen a shock come through the tower, and it was not on a Honda.

First you should eliminate any variables with the car's weight and suspension.
-Remove stuff from the car if you carry anything significant.
-Even out your tire pressure all around.
-Set all your bushings correctly, because a bushing that is binding will affect the suspension tightness. This is done by putting the car up on four jack stands with the rear tires still on. In the front corners, put the jack under the LCA and raise it until that corner comes off the jackstand (putting that corner at ride height). Now loosen and re-torque each bushing to spec, the fork to LCA being most important but you might as well do all underbody bushings to be sure that they are not under load with the car at ride height.
For the rear you can put the E-Brake really tight and put the jack+wood under the wheel or use the rear LCA. Do the same procedure with the rear bushings as you did with the front. Since it's best to torque them to spec with a torque wrench, find a Haynes or Helms manual if you don't have one.
-If you have adjustable endlinks, while the car is up on stands, preload both wheels (front or rear) so that end is at ride height. Adjust the swaybar endlinks so there is no twisting in the swaybar.

You may want to have a friend see if the heights change with you in the drivers seat, or vice versa.

Another option is to swap the shock+springs left to right. Not too bad of a job and it might make a difference. If it worked and made you happy then you would be good to go. If it did work, and nothing else you've done has had an effect, then your shocks and springs especially aren't in even condition, either from wear or manufacturing defects.

But, keep in mind that these car's do not weigh the same at each corner. To make the weights more even (and totally nullify your current problem) you would have to buy adjustable coilovers and corner weigh the car, which involves changing all ride heights to slightly different heights to even cross weight percentages.
 
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Well I am going to get new springs anyway as the Tanabes do not match the roads I drive on very well, and while at it, I'll get the front polybushed and see if it makes a difference.

Cheers for the advice there, good post!
 
Kozy do yourself a favor and buy some GroundControl coilover sleeves, please trust me on this, even with perfect suspension springs alone will always be somewhat uneven, i learned this the heard way :(
 
I am looking into it, had a lot of reccomendations for these! :nice:
 
Had another look under the car this evening, and found just one thing that looked out of place. There are marks on subframe where something has been rubbing on it...

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At first it looked like it could be the steering arm while it was up on a jack, but after putting the wheel back on and dropping it down, there was plenty of clearance between the two. Unfortunately it had got too dark by this time and I couldn't really see anything so this will need a closer look on a proper ramp.
 
Swapped the dampers and springs over side to side this afternoon, no change. Still sits low on the same side so I guess that rules out any damage to those parts!
 
this is surprisingly common problem on ek's (99% of time its driver side that sits lower), seems to happen once car gets quite old

ive looked into it and no one seems to have ever figured out problem

(on ek9 at least the front shocks are side specific)

i have same problem and done following (not dont to resolve problem, simple case of replacing old items for new to get car fresh)

front upper arms are new
new lower ball joints
all lower bushes replaced even compensator arm bushes
tried different shock/spring setups
tyre pressures always fine
new wheel bearings
car has never been in accident or even taken slight knock
had alignment done several times over the years


items that are original from factory and never been changed -

tie rod ball joints, surprised how they held up along with tie rods
front subframe (changing to ek9 subframe soon)
front lower arms (changing to ek9 oem arms soon which will be rebushed before they go on)
arms that bearings are in (these will not be replaced, have new oem bearings in)

i run oem ek9 suspension but switching to coilovers soon so once car is corner weighted and aligned problem will go

problem has had me baffled and doesnt affect handling on road or track (it will but not noticeable to me)
 
Interesting stuff IceMan, nice to see someone else has had the same problem!

Maybe I'll just go ahead with the original plan to put some Ground Control hieght adjustable springs on it to even it out!
 
^I already told you that this is s common problem on EGs & EKs. Try this trick, untightenend all bolts on the suspension specially on where the bushings are placed thenleave the car on a flat surface and let the suspension settle then tighten the bolts. Better do it on a flatbed lifter so you can do the bolts from below. We done this on an EG sedan and it worked.
 
Did you remove the rear lower control arm's while putting the springs in? If the arm was put back in the wrong side up (it will fit both ways) the car will sit higher on that side. My G.F's civic used to be like yours sitting high on one side and it took me ages to figure what was wrong until one day while looking under it I noticed the arm was the wrong way up so pulled it out and turned it right way around and bingo it sat even. If you take a pic from back of car looking in at the lower control arms and post it up I can tell you if there in correctly or not.
 
Vtec6000 said:
Did you remove the rear lower control arm's while putting the springs in? If the arm was put back in the wrong side up (it will fit both ways) the car will sit higher on that side. My G.F's civic used to be like yours sitting high on one side and it took me ages to figure what was wrong until one day while looking under it I noticed the arm was the wrong way up so pulled it out and turned it right way around and bingo it sat even. If you take a pic from back of car looking in at the lower control arms and post it up I can tell you if there in correctly or not.
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I'll check it tomorrow, we did take them off to fit the ASR rear ARB. This week I'll also be changing the bushes on the front to see if that solves it. Cheers for all the advice guys!
 
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jdm 101

i always ensure suspension components are pre loaded where required before torqueing bolt to spec

my rear lca are fitted right way both side, for original poster, no harm in checking though
 
Kozy said:
I'll check it tomorrow, we did take them off to fit the ASR rear ARB. This week I'll also be changing the bushes on the front to see if that solves it. Cheers for all the advice guys!
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Defiantly worth checking. Its hard to spot it on the stock LCA's as they look pretty much the same turned either way up however the shock will be higher up when the arm is on the wrong way hence the overall ride height for that side will be to higher. Just incase you didnt know its the same arm used on left side as right just turned the oposite way if you get me. So one side should look like you have the arm facing the wrong way when looking in at the both from the rear. If you have any doubt's just post a pic up and I can tell you by viewing that. GL.
 
Vtec6000 said:
Did you remove the rear lower control arm's while putting the springs in? If the arm was put back in the wrong side up (it will fit both ways) the car will sit higher on that side. My G.F's civic used to be like yours sitting high on one side and it took me ages to figure what was wrong until one day while looking under it I noticed the arm was the wrong way up so pulled it out and turned it right way around and bingo it sat even. If you take a pic from back of car looking in at the lower control arms and post it up I can tell you if there in correctly or not.
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I think we have a winner! One is definately the wrong way up, lets hope turning it over solves the problem!
 
Kozy said:
I think we have a winner! One is definately the wrong way up, lets hope turning it over solves the problem!
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+1 on the rep meter for me:D Id say that is defiantly it. Car should sit nicely once you have it turned the right way. Let us know how you get on:nice:
 
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