Ride height change after being on lift for 2 weeks ?

NoLift911 · 11-29-2004, 03:11 PM

I have an 84 Carrera that had some work done on my front bumper (cosmetic, no suspension work) and the car was on a lift for a couple weeks.

I noticed that the front end rides about an inch or so higher than it did before. I have the bilstein HD's up front - they are low miles maybe 5000 total so I think they are in good shape and no leaking.

I took the car for a few drives and let it sit for about a week but it is still on the high side. Does this sound normal? Does the suspension just need to settle out?

Anything else to look for or check?

-Jeff
nolift911@hotmail.com

klaucke · 11-29-2004, 03:22 PM

Did any of the bumper work include using new, lighter parts, or removing some older unneccessary items?

NoLift911 · 11-29-2004, 05:56 PM

Unfortunately no...unless they used super lightweight paint ;-) which I doubt...it is high on both sides evenly.

I am fairly certain it is the struts, but thought it would settle out by now...

-Jeff

ZCAT3 · 11-29-2004, 06:24 PM

Jeff - I recently put a set of new Bilstein HDs on my 993 and it took a good 500 miles over about 3-4 weeks for everything to fully settle in. Since it is so easy to adjust front ride hight on a Carrera you may want to just lower it now and raise it later if they do settle in some more.

NoLift911 · 11-29-2004, 06:45 PM

Yeah I thought about that but I just had it lowered and corner balanced to euro spec

so I didn't want to go and screw around with the ride height...I guess I will wait if out for a bit and see what happens.

I may jack up the rear and put some weight on the front for a few days to get things to settle back out.

If that does not work it needs to go back to the alignment shop anyway after complete removal of the A/C components, lightweight battery installed rewired and moved to the smugglers box and removal of all stereo equipment. In addition I have a GTP brake kit to install as well. All of that will affect the corner weights anway.

ZCAT3 · 11-29-2004, 07:25 PM

Jeff - I should add that my car was on a lift for about 7 weeks while it waited for new turbos. This definitely caused the shocks to push out and the car to sit high for much longer than if it had been sitting on its wheels. The car also felt loose in the front for a bit until they settled back down.