BN7877

Hey ya'll!

So in the past few weeks I took the time to change out my shocks, strut mounts, control arms & tie rods on my 2007 GT/CS because I noticed the drivers side was lower compared to the passengers side. No matter what I installed, the height at first would look even but driving a few blocks and the height would return to the uneven state. I can fit five fingers between the tire & fender on the passengers side but I can only fit 3 on the driver's side. Is there something I'm missing or does it need to be professionally checked? Heck even the tires are all the same size!

Thanks in advance!

08'MustangDude

Shocks do not control ride height, the springs do. You probably just need
new springs, may as well do them all. IF the car was owned by someone
who really never had a passenger, the left side springs are worn. It happens,
not a CAN happen, it does happen.

SO, rear springs, and new loaded front struts or front springs should fix it.

BN7877

Hmm....I think you got a point. The previous owner beat the crap out of the suspension and had 20" tires that were running thin. Plus it had that "off road" feeling when driving.

Now that you mention springs. The passengers side was harder to compress than that of the drivers side. But since I put on tokico HP shocks, can I reuse the nuts it came with?

08'MustangDude

I reuse nuts and bolts all the time, even torque-to-yield bolts, but not more than three times...
Torque to yield are the ones that say tighten to x ft-lbs, then an additional xx degrees. VWs
are riddled with them... Most head bolts are these type...

The shock and strut top mount bolts are nothing special, so you can reuse those, as the
bottom bushing bolts & nuts on the rear shocks. The service manual will say to use a new bolt,
or nut when required, but I never do unless I replace the part again, but that's me...

You should not reuse those nuts that HAVE to be wrenched on, they have that slightly
ovaled hole, so once they're on, they stay on, and once they're off they will not go
back on tight. Should not reuse nylon lock nuts either, split beam, or distorted thread
lock nuts.

Mechanically, nuts & bolts may be reused provided the bolt never exceeded its yield point: a simple
enough definition, but it is nearly impossible to verify if a they have ever been tensioned past their yield
point. This is even more important with torque to yield fasteners.

Upon reuse, a nut and bolt combination will require an increased torque value to reach the same
clamping load. This is because of the slight deformation of their threads. This is also more true with
torque to yield bolts. I will go like, another 5-degrees. My VW front hubs have never fallen off, and I
am on my second set, so...

BN7877

UPDATE: So I put in OEM springs on both sides of the front end and at first it looked even. However after a 5min drive, the car returned back to the same thing: sagging from the drivers side.

So am I doing something wrong? It has new springs, new shocks, new control arms, new sway end bar links. Everything is tightened accordingly.

hotrod69boss

hey guys-just bought a 2013 gt/cs-driver side rear is 1 inch lower [28"] other 3 corners are [29"] . car is factory stock with 59,000 miles-adult owned-very nice- i can not stand or accept the uneven ride height. it looks worse than a pimple on a good lookin girls nose-my eyes seem to notice the difference right away. I have not had a mustang since a tornado tore up my 69 boss 302. Kids and grandkids and wife and life in general seemed to take all my money. Back then I would have just replaced the springs--problem solved most likely. I would think new springs would correct my problem now. Money still being scarce, I do not not want to do something that would not help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Norm Peterson

That leaves either a soft left-rear spring, chassis distortion of some sort, or possibly one or both stabilizer bars being under preload (they shouldn't be under any).

Hopefully a dumb question, but are all four tires the same size?


Norm

pascal

Me think the car might have been in a wreck and you have some kind of distortion like Norm mentioned.
From a 5 finger gap to 3, it sounds like you have over an inch difference. Depending on the size of the fingers. A 16 year old girl fingers won't measure the same as the ones from a rugged lumber jack dude.
Inspect your shock tower caps for stress since the previous owner abused the car.
A good alignment shop will find the culprit...

hotrod69boss

Hey guys thanks for the input on my 13gt. I have been all over and under the car and can find no evidence of an accident. All body fitment is near perfect. No paint overspray no nothing. I 'lean' towards a soft spring and was going to put lowering springs on then take it to the frame and alignment shop but was told I would need a panhard bar and bracket, new shocks, caster camber plates, etc. Any info?? Thanks for listening --- Rod

Norm Peterson

Maybe for a next zero-$ step make as many measurements of the right-rear and left-rear springs as you can, and compare them (looking for differences). Wire diameter (use vernier calipers or a micrometer for this), space between as many pairs of adjacent coils as you can get at (car weight on its wheels), loaded spring height (if possible). You'd be looking for evidence that either the left-rear has sagged or that the rear springs might not even be the same.


Norm