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Suspension Damage?

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Old Aug 24, 2007 | 10:24 PM
  #1  
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Default Suspension Damage?

Is this caused by suspension damage? I was just checking my car because it's still pulling right and my steering wheel is tilted to the left after getting an alignment done.

The left is about 1/2" lower than the right. But why is my car pulling to the right if the right side is higher?

I also checked the rear wheels and the gap is the same amount as the front right wheel.

Below is a pic of the front right (passenger) wheel.
Attached Thumbnails Suspension Damage?-right.jpg  
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Old Aug 24, 2007 | 10:26 PM
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Here is the front drivers side (left).
Attached Thumbnails Suspension Damage?-left.jpg  
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Old Aug 24, 2007 | 10:28 PM
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I was resting the end of the measuring tape on the end of the rim. It's not just floating on the rim.
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Old Aug 25, 2007 | 12:15 AM
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Theres no suspension damage its just the weight of the driver sets it alittle lower through time. Its normal but its tough to tell by the naked eye. The steering tilting to the left might be an alignment issue so get it checked out again and ask for the before and after specs of the alignment.
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Old Aug 25, 2007 | 09:52 AM
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That method of measuring doesn't say much at all except how well positioned the body panels are. Ride height is measured from the ground to a point on the suspension underneath the car, that way any variances in body panel fit are ignored.

Your pull to the right is likely because one tire is new and larger in diameter than the others. In circle track racing it's called stagger (unlike the marketing world who misuse the term to describe different diameter tires on different axles.) The whole reason circle track cars use stagger is to make the outside (right side) tires larger than the inside (left side) tires to promote turning left. In fact, it is a real challenge to drive a circle track car straight because their geometry and chassis setup is entirely compromised for dealing with left turns in every way possible.

In your case, you have one tire on the left larger than the tire on the right, so it will tend to pull until the tires are worn out or of equal diameters (not likely at this point - the new tire should have been shaved to the same tread depth as the used tire if you wanted it to drive straight, but no one will risk their tire shaver on a used tire because embedded rocks and metal will kill the blades).

So you can either get another new tire to match the one on the left, or experiment with tire pressures until it drives straight, or you can just be aware it is an issue and deal with it.

Ride height alone will not change whether the car pulls or not.
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Old Aug 25, 2007 | 10:11 AM
  #6  
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my car pulls to the left,and the driver's side is a bit lower than the passenger's , just like yours.

i think many owners have this issue(driver's side lower)? so is it normal?
i didn't do an allignment though.
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