Weird RAS problem

[Pantherfreak]

Greetings folks. I've got a few odd things going on with the rear suspension on my 170 000km '04 and thought I should run it past the experts for some input. I have spent several hours searching the forum, and will continue to do so, but maybe someone can point me in a specific direction.

First, I started to notice that the back end of the car is SUPER stiff on any road surface. I drive the car a few days a week, and it hibernates in the winter, so it took me a little while to realize how stiff it had gotten. I have ADDCOs front and rear, as well as Metco CAs and Watt's link, but those have been on for 5 or 6 years and the stiffness has only gotten worse this year - maybe part of last year. Second, the rear shock on the driver's side has moisture around it at the bottom eyelet.

And now, I've noticed that the car is sitting lower on the driver's side in the rear by about an inch. The front is perfectly level side to side. I checked things out underneath, and nothing related to the RAS seems out of whack. Everything is still connected, and nothing appears to have moved. However, the driver's side shock IS compressed 1 inch more than the passenger side. The compressed area is somewhere within the rubber boot.

So, is it possible that the driver's side shock has failed somehow and perhaps gone past an internal stop within the shock body, resulting in the super-stiff ride and lower ride height? Does that make sense? I had a similar thing happen to the front shock on a bike I had which made hard contact with a curb (long story), but this is a different animal, of course.

The RAS system itself seems to be working just fine - the compressor runs when I would expect it to, doesn't run any longer than it ever has, and I sometimes hear it settle when I shut the driver's door.

Sorry about the length of this post - better to give more detail than not enough, right? I've read through the RAS section in my Helm manual and to be honest, it's pretty detailed.

If anyone can point me in some kind of direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

[1Marauder]

I've seen many posts on this. My black 03 sits lower on left side as well. If there is a way to balance the rear... Many will want to fix with you.

PS, I have new KYBs in rear, so not the shock.

[Zack]

Uneven ride height can be caused by uneven tightening of sway bars end links

[RF Overlord]

I have new KYBs in rear, so not the shock.Shocks have no effect on ride height anyway.

[Turbov6Bryan]

Greetings folks. I've got a few odd things going on with the rear suspension on my 170 000km '04 and thought I should run it past the experts for some input. I have spent several hours searching the forum, and will continue to do so, but maybe someone can point me in a specific direction.

First, I started to notice that the back end of the car is SUPER stiff on any road surface. I drive the car a few days a week, and it hibernates in the winter, so it took me a little while to realize how stiff it had gotten. I have ADDCOs front and rear, as well as Metco CAs and Watt's link, but those have been on for 5 or 6 years and the stiffness has only gotten worse this year - maybe part of last year. Second, the rear shock on the driver's side has moisture around it at the bottom eyelet.

And now, I've noticed that the car is sitting lower on the driver's side in the rear by about an inch. The front is perfectly level side to side. I checked things out underneath, and nothing related to the RAS seems out of whack. Everything is still connected, and nothing appears to have moved. However, the driver's side shock IS compressed 1 inch more than the passenger side. The compressed area is somewhere within the rubber boot.

So, is it possible that the driver's side shock has failed somehow and perhaps gone past an internal stop within the shock body, resulting in the super-stiff ride and lower ride height? Does that make sense? I had a similar thing happen to the front shock on a bike I had which made hard contact with a curb (long story), but this is a different animal, of course.

The RAS system itself seems to be working just fine - the compressor runs when I would expect it to, doesn't run any longer than it ever has, and I sometimes hear it settle when I shut the driver's door.

Sorry about the length of this post - better to give more detail than not enough, right? I've read through the RAS section in my Helm manual and to be honest, it's pretty detailed.

If anyone can point me in some kind of direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry to quote all that folks
Where are you parking the car at when you notice it's leaning?

Every car I park inside the garage at either house seems to look like it's not sitting right

Take the car on a flat surface, measure wheel well fender height to ground

It's most likely a bad front spring, if it's weak the rear looks much worse than the front. Please try it before y'all think I'm nuts

[EMAS]

Where you park the car can cause the system to ride unlevel from side to side and get "stuck" that way. When the system fills both bags are filled with the same pressure. If the car is on a surface that is not flat the suspension may be compressed on one side and extended on the other. So you are putting the same pressure of air in two different volume containers. Getting that to settle out through normal operation can take several cycles. The system always vents and fills both simultaneously. So when the combined height is right it shuts off even if it is still not level side to side.

If you have two jacks you can "reset" your car.

Find a level surface shut off the car and close the doors and trunk, but leave the window open for later. Measure the height from the fender lip to the ground on both sides. Average and record that reading. Pop open the trunk and turn off the suspension. Now jack up both sides of the rear to ~1" over that average reading. Pop the trunk and turn on the suspension.

One it stops venting carefully lower the car so that it is ~1/2" below that average reading. Now turn on the suspension, close the trunk and reach in and start the car. Watch the car lift it self off the jacks and then measure the height. It should now be equal side to side assuming that the front doesn't have a weak spring that is causing that end to list from side to side as well.

[MOTOWN]

I had that issue on the Silver car , turns out one of the front shocks were bad , I installed the Ridetechs , and the leaning issue was solved.

[Turbov6Bryan]

I had that issue on the Silver car , turns out one of the front shocks were bad , I installed the Ridetechs , and the leaning issue was solved.

Meh. Give us the before and after heights buddy

But I agree. The front makes the rear twice as bad

[hotford]

Meh. Give us the before and after heights buddy

But I agree. The front makes the rear twice as bad


This would be correct.,great advice.

Ive seen this scenario lots of times

[Pantherfreak]

Thanks for the input, guys. Come to think of it, I believe my garage floor IS uneven. Now that's embarrassing - should have been obvious. I'll measure the ride height in the garage at work to get a real measurement. Either way, I still have one leaky rear shock, so replacements are on the way, but if the ride height checks out okay, that's one less thing to worry about.

[MOTOWN]

Meh. Give us the before and after heights buddy

But I agree. The front makes the rear twice as bad

There was right around a 1.5" difference in the rear after I installed the Ridetechs.