help if anyone can

[O3 pharoh]

i noticed my front strut went bad, and my left rear shock also went bad at 80k miles. Before everything started going bad, i noticed that the car was not sitting level. I know that it is supposed to ride higher on the driver side, but mine was opposite. I just replace practically everything up front and the rear shocks as well. I have stock strut replacement, insulators, bushing kit, outer tie rods, ball joints, and the rear shocks. The car still sits higher on the passenger side. It was really bad after the front struts went in. Better with the rear shocks. But still sitting about an inch higher. I replaced my ride height sensor about 2-3 months ago. Anybody have any ideas at all of what could have gone wrong?? Im stuck as stuck gets?? thanks -t :shake:

[O3 pharoh]

could this be the air springs gone bad? and how would i check it?

[GreekGod]

...where do you get the idea " it is supposed to ride higher on the driver side"?...if you had a shop do your work, they should be answering your questions.

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[O3 pharoh]

i have actually read it here about the ride height! when the car sits parked, it is higher for the compensation of the driver in the car. Also has it on the limo's my buddies shop works on but i cannot get a hold of him. so i am here for help. i did the work on the struts and shocks myself. but the car was like that before i started. the shocks really helped but still riding about 3/4 in. or so higher on passenger side.

[RF Overlord]

Neither of my cars rides higher on the driver's side...unless it's by such a small amount that I never noticed.

[Marauderjack]

1/4" or so higher on the driver's side on mine measured at the rear wheel wells!!:cool:

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

The car is not SUPPOSED to sit higher on the driver's side. No idea where you heard that from.

My car sat 3/4" lower on the driver's side than passenger's side, with nothing wrong with the car. I found out that the airbags deviate a bit on how tall they will be when inflated to the same pressure. The air bag is a rubber bladder crimped around a foot, so it the rubber is not exactly the same length, when inflated the difference in length from left to right will get even larger.

I sourced an extra set of low mileage air bags and I swapped in different L&R bags until I got the most equal ride height. I am guessing this is the same problem with all of the other cars that have nothing wrong with them, but won't measure quite level either.

Feeding two mass produced crimp locked bladder air bags, the same pressure, is not a particularly good way of arriving at exactly the same ride height side to side. Just the way the system is going to be with only one ride height sensor.

You can do what I did and get another set of good bags and swap them in one at a time and measure and see how that affects the ride height differential.

[O3 pharoh]

The normal way it should sit is pretty darn close to level, mine is sitting way off. Nasty wheel gap on the passenger side. That is my main concern. getting the mm back to the way it should be with a better ride with the new parts. Just wish it would level out. From what i have been researching it seems that the problem is in the front strut or spring. just can't figure out what it is. Possibly the alignment just needs to be put back?? I don't know. Had me baffled the last couple days. Guess have to take to dealer and see what they find. Hopefully something simple.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Struts don't affect ride height much at all. A gas charged strut will want to expand slightly and exert a very slight upward force, but not enough to do what you are describing.

[O3 pharoh]

mmmmmmmmmm. This sucks. wonder what it can be. Is there a way that the air ride could have gotten off balance when i had it off for the work. Is there a way to drain the system and then let it reset itself with no air? Could that work?

[GreekGod]

Do you have a Ford shop manual (obviously not)?...they are a necessity when doing any complicated or dangerous work, such as you have described.

They are very inexpensive on ebay.

[O3 pharoh]

i have the cd version of our shop manual. have the diagrams. obviously the stuff i fixed was needed, just have more broke that i wasn't aware of. Have done all this work on several different cars. just havent run into this kind of trouble before.