Vehicle Height

I got just a little too aggressive with my 03 Cab this weekend and spun it out. The good news is that no one was hurt, I didn�t hit anything bud did land up with a small tear in my rear bumper cover and did something to the rear suspension. The rear vehicle height is one inch higher on the right vs. left. When I slid off the road, there was no curb and essentially slid across a lawn and into a shallow culvert. The car slid in from the right side; the right rear tire taking the brunt of the force. The rims aren�t bent and the car doesn�t pull to either side. I have the rear wheels off now and am inspecting the suspension components and can find nothing out of wack (at least that�s obvious). Do you think I bent the frame? The car did stop abruptly when I bottomed out in the culvert. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Pics would be a great help.

If there is a particular area you want me to zoom in on, let me know. I can't see anything unusual with the inner support or knuckle assemblies.

When you say higher, are you measuring from the measurement points under the car, or at the wheel well, or what?

If you visually look at the back of the car, the right side is higher. I took a measurement from the pavement to the horizontal seam where the bumper cover connects to the body. It's about 25" on the right and 24" on the left. I wonder if I'm barking up the wrong tree and have a lazy strut on the left side? I plan on putting blocks under each knuckle and then measuring the strut length on each side next.

With the knuckles on blocks, the right strut measures 18" from the top to the center of the strut bolt at the knuckle. The left is 17.25". Lazy strut left or bent strut right? Any thoughts?

Quotes source post: 9541833

I think most owners are so proud of there 996 that they take many photos. Do you have one taken from the rear before this accident that might show how it looked before. Then you could park up in the same spot, take another photo and compare them to see if there is a positive differance. I mean it may have been like that before the accident (but still needs attention anyway). Just a thought.

Any signs of leaking oil on the lazy strut behind the boot?

Check the front suspension too. If something is damaged in the front, it could cross-load the suspension and force one of the rear corners up or down.

If you can't fix it you can always just let some really fat lady ride in the passenger seat.

yeh balance it up a bit hahaha

Thanks for the feedback. I will check the front also since I know the front right did take some of the stress. There are no oil leaks coming from the left rear strut. I'm not a very large person...but having a fat lady riding shotgun is not an option (LOL).

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I would most certainly check the drivers side thoroughly. When you hit the culvert it may have made the drivers side suspension expand so much that the force made something go haywire. Did either coil spring pop off its perch?

In the second to last photo, there is a really clean spot on the shock, where as everything around it is dirty. Don't know if that is just from have the car in the air or if it is a clue.

I'v measured the struts, springs and and clearances to the ground and my conclusion is that the right strut is extending about .75 inch longer than the left. I verified the right one is not stuck and was able to compress it shorter than the left one. I'm going to do a strut upgrade, Bilstein HD, and keep my fingers crossed.

Could very well be a blown shock. I've had a shock go bad before on one of my Audis that instead of getting bouncy and soft like you would expect instead "locked up" and couldn't be compressed. I actually had to cut it out when that happened because I couldn't compress it enough to get it out of the fender well!

Sent you a PM on shocks. -Shawn

Might be a good idea to take this to an alignment shop and have them look at it before you buy struts to cure a problem you arent sure about, also it is possible that the car was like this before, and you didn't notice it, often there is a bit of difference in height between sides

I completed the strut upgrade and also took the opportunity to change the left inner rear carrier since the previous owner chafed the bottom of it near the rear control arm. I also found a bowed upper rear control arm on the left side and changed it also. The car is better but still 0.5 inches higher on the right side. I will now take it to a frame specialist / alignment shop.

Shock top pushed up or bent. If replacing to HD Bilsteins just replace tops when doing the struts, check top brg at that time as well.

Thanks. The tops looked perfect. I did check the spring height on each and they were the same out of the car. I'm told, maybe the springs are the culprit when they are compressed. Hindsight being 20/20, I should have swapped the springs from side to side.