Broken suspension?

[lynda]

Betsy Belle is leaning with the back passenger side down by about 10cm (4"), is there an easy way to check if the suspension is the problem? I realised she'd been running with a 165 tyre when all the others were 155s - oops. I've had her since December.... I've now changed it to the right tyre, but that doesn't seem to have helped.

I had great fun spraying the replacement wheel on Saturday evening. Thanks to whoever gave the tip of putting Fairy Liquid round the tyre to make the overspray easier to remove - it really helped!

[simmitc]

Hi Lynda. If it's that dramatic then it has to be either suspension - broken leaf spring, broken shackle pin; or chassis - spring hanger or rear mounting rusted away. The only other idea is a flat tyre, but you'd have spotted that! BTW, tyre width (165 vs 155) won't (significantly) affect the height of the car. Best thing is to have a quick look undertneath the car. The diffeence between the bad side and the good side should be obvious. Hope it's not raining too hard up there whilst you're lying on the ground. Obvious safety issue, don't crawl underneath, you should be able to see from beside or behind the car.

[bigginger]

Surely you're fine crawling underneath if the car isn't jacked up - though, as Simmitc says, don't unless you're either 100% sure of your handbrake, or the wheels are chocked. Please feel free to correct if that's dangerous advice, BTW

[simmitc]

I'd normally agree with you Andrew, but my concern was that if it is a chassis / rust problem then is anything else about to collapse. Lynda's a lovely lady & I'd hate to think of her getting squashed....

[bigginger]

I've never met her, but I'd hate for her to get squished too...

[bmcecosse]

It's illegal to run with different size tyres on the same axle - they must be the same. Won't pass MOT either - and it will wear out the diff !! Better hope it's a broken spring rather than rusted chassis leg or floor pan. Obvious serious safety matter this- get it sorted befor using the car again.

[lynda]

Well I'm very pleased to report that I'm not squished, even though I did end up crawling underneath

I've decided not to believe anything my Dad tells me - he was the one who did the measurements. I've measured the suspension myself, peered at it very closely, and I can only find 1cm difference and no obvious signs of problems. The rear bumper is bent by about 3cm though (no idea how that happened) so that makes it look worse than it is. My housemate arrived home as I was wandering round with a tape measure and my Haynes manual so he measured it as well, and got the same numbers.

There's certainly nothing wrong with the chassis, it's not even showing any surface rust and is remarkably solid for a car that's only ever had a sill replaced.

I think Dad was just trying to scare me so he can keep my car.... he'd been looking after her while I was on holiday as he doesn't have a Mog of his own at the moment

[bmcecosse]

Excellent - but you still need to sort out the odd tyre problem.

[rayofleamington]

you can get that kind of lean at the rear caused by incorrectly set front suspension too - best to check the front on VERY flat ground.
n theory the opposite front corner should be high (the car doesn't bend that easily so if one corner is low the opposite should be high)

[lynda]

Excellent - but you still need to sort out the odd tyre problem.

Quote thingy doesn't want to work. Anyway, don't worry - the tyres were sorted out as soon as we noticed, that's why I had to do some wheel spraying. Coincidentally, my Dad had bought a full set of wheels and very good 155 tyres off ebay which were heading for the project car, but we put a couple on Betsy instead.

[Kevin]

I've decided not to believe anything my Dad tells me - he was the one who did the measurements.

Hmm Lynda I may be useless with metric sizes but 4" compared to 1cm thats a 1 - 10 difference what sort of engineer did you say he was

[lynda]

He works for a company that builds scientific equipment.... luckily he's not involved in measuring anything