Is the car passenger side lower than the driver's side?

[dochidalgo]

Let me explain it.... I've noticed my car is a little higher one side over another, (don't remember wich one) since brand new, so I rule out the worn springs or shocks.
My friend's '97 Camaro Z28 has the rear passenger clearance between tire and fender 1", but the rear driver's 2"?????
The front clearences are equal to 2".

http://www.z28.com/showthread.php?t=24846

Do you have some reasons to explain that?
I would appreciate your imput
Take care
Doc

[TraceZ]

3 of my tires are the same at 2", but the rear drivers side is 2 1/2".

Hmmm. I never even noticed that before.

[fastTa]

My 1997 TA was the same way. More space between the fender and the top of the tire on the driver's side rear than the passenger side rear. That was with the stock De'Carbon shocks.

A friend of mine up the street had access to some portable digital aircraft scales from his retired place of work. I don't recall the exact numbers, but there was a signinficant weight bias to the passenger side front tire as opposed to the driver's side front tire. It was over 100 lbs if I remeber correctly.

Most rear-wheel drive passenger vehicles do have a weight bias to the front right over the front left but not that much. I would imagine the reason for the signinficant weight bias in our 4th Gens comes from the fact that the A/C compressor, alternator, evaporator/evaporator bulkhead, and battery are all on the right front of the car. This kinda got my brain wondering if this was unique to just my car so we put a few more 4th Gen F-bodies on those scales and sure enough....they all had more than 100 lbs more of a differential on the passenger side front over the driver's side left front. That would be kinda like a skinny chick leaning up against your passenger side front fender.

Up until that point I kinda wondered why I could always take turns faster turning right. Seems unless you are a 200lb+ person, you could almost benefit from a slightly higher spring rate on the passenger side front.

A 1/4 round of wedge should do.

[Injuneer]

Ditto, even with revised springs, revised shocks, no A/C, etc.:

Passenger side:



Driver's side:

[dochidalgo]

Thanks a lot guys!!
Take care
Doc

[Thomas L. Parker]

Weight Bias

If memory serves, this is done because the majority of the time vehicles are occupied by only one person. Adding the driver weight tends to balance the car.

For really serious autocrossers, have the front end aligned with you behind the wheel. I've watched dirt track racers do the same thing with their cars. They put the driver in and then weigh all four corners as a part of the chassis setup.

Tom

[Injuneer]

If memory serves, this is done because the majority of the time vehicles are occupied by only one person. Adding the driver weight tends to balance the car.

For really serious autocrossers, have the front end aligned with you behind the wheel. I've watched dirt track racers do the same thing with their cars. They put the driver in and then weigh all four corners as a part of the chassis setup.

Tom

Its the same for drag racers.... with the "race version" rear sway bar (e.g. Wolfe, Spohn, BMR) you need to preload the chassis to produce straight line reaction from the rear wheels on launch. Steve Spohn had me sit in the drivers seat to preload the Spohn race version sway bar. The pictures above were taken before the preload.

When I first installed the springs/shocks, I though I had screwed up... and went back and went over the spring seat height in the front to make sure they were even, and made sure the rear springs and upper rubber pads were installed the same on both sides - but still the larger gap in the drivers side.

I'm getting a set of individual wheel scales ("commission" for selling Baxter's car ) and I want to find out what the weight distribution is now, with the eye on improving it in the future.

[hotwhip9]

So would it be benificial when getting an alignment to be sitting in the vehicle, I'm going to need it done soon, that's why I'm asking. I had it done not too long ago, but they didn't do a good job and said they couldn't do any better. So I have to take it somewhere else now.

[bru333]

(Bumping this, instead of starting a new thread)
I'd really like a difinitive answer to this problem. My v6 Camaro is leaning way over to the right rear. (This is with new shocks on the rear, haven't replaced the springs or bushings yet.) I've got less than an inch over that tire and almost 2 inches on the left side. There are a couple posts on the thirdgen.org forum about this also.

http://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/show...hreadid=271355