Lowering the car is on my mind for a long time, but this happened unintentional, and is a problem.

I had the car on the lifter this afternoon, to check the suspension and some other parts.
Nothing removed, nothing touched, wheels just loose hanging in the air as the car was lifted on its jacking points.

On the 10km back home, I scrapped several times, and upon arriving, I found both front wheels inside the wheel wells, some 1" deeper than yesterday, and exactly same on both sides.

So what the hell could have happened, and what should I look for first?

PS. In hindsight I should say that I already noticed (deep in my brain) the front dropping a bit, but never really noticeable, and I always blamed it on the looks of the body kit.
So it might have been going on for a while already, with the Apocalypse just now.

 

Front Shock absorbers expired?
Does the car bounce when you push down on each corner? Lifting the car and allowing the wheels to dangle may have let what was left in the shockers to escape.

Does look good low at the front though, I like the finish on your wheels too.

 

You talk the shock absorbers as those telescopic ones, right?
Not the "neoprene" spring hats (sorry, not sure on the right naming here, nor if the front springs have those rings)?
Do front absorbers actually add to ride height in a x308?

 

In my experience we had a customers car do the same thing. Turned out that the lower control arm bushings were so worn out that putting it in the air finished them off. The rubber inside the bushings separated and no longer provided rotational resistance. We also had another customer come in after they replaced the front upper shock mount plates and when they tightened the shock nuts at the top, they didn't stop the rod from spinning around with an air impact and ended up collapsing both shocks. So I'd say your problem would be with my first suggestion.

 

Addicted, thanks for some suggestions, everything might help.

We just had a a visual check this afternoon (as far as we could) at each and every part of the suspension front and rear.
It all looked and felt OK without any noise or tolerance.

The rear spring hats were shot though, the fronts were not visible, but I am not sure they should be there.

I have read about the shock re-mounting problem, but nothing has been touched there for 3 1/2 yrs.
The car did feel bumpy on the last km's home, might that point to the shock absorbers, or is that just because of the reduced right height?

If some of the bushings should have failed, should I not notice more camber in one of the wheels?

 

I just got the car into B2 with a lot of scraping .

I pushed both fenders, although there is little travel, the car feels super bouncy, like moving up/down and left/right, without damping.

 

First off: Beautiful car. It looks great lowered even if it wasn't done on purpose.

The car should not bounce at all. If you press down on the body, it should return to it's position with no bouncing at all.

Check:
Did the springs become unseated? (Not likely, but check).
When did you change shocks on this car?

My car has 97/m miles on it. When I changed the 4 shocks on the car, it was a HUGE difference and actually RAISED my car about an inch. It was too low before due to the worn out shocks.

As stated below, check ALL the rubber bushings in the front and back. While this could be the issue, the odds on ALL the bushings failing at the same time are small based on the pictures of your car.

My guess is that when the car went on the lift, the shocks made their maximum travel and the gas was expelled on the trip home. That would be my thought.
If changing the shocks, change all the parts associated with them.

You can get new mounts, bump stops, and accordian jackets for the front.
The back is not as critical, but should be changed none-the-less.

 

Shocks don't affect ride height in our cars unless it is "stuck-down" where if you jack the car off the ground the wheels immediately lift off the ground instead of extending like normal. Don't think it's a common thing but possible.

front springs don't have the big foam donut "spring isolator" like the rears do.

if it's moving around left/right a lot and not only up/down then it sounds more like a failing bushing or ball joint, but up/down bounce is a classical failing shock symptom

 

Is the force of gravity increasing? Let me go out and check mine.

 

Thanks for all super quick replies.

Having 2 x308 owners separately confirming that their cars were riding higher after shock replacement kind of confirms my initial suspicion.

However, to not rule out any other causes, I will take the front wheels off this weekend for some further checking on springs, bushes, etc.
Wow, looking forward for an other struggle in a dark parking garage ... not.

Will get back to you!

Eric

 

Bilstein shocks are on the way from Rockauto, and a new low profile jack + 4 stands came in just now.

Gonne be interesting to do all this in my parking garage, they already declare me loco without putting the car on stands.
Now to figure out how to further secure the car while up, earthquakes, you know ...

 

damn that looks good , sure wish my jag would drop it self like that .
very nice car you have there .

 

Thanks man!
However, this is a tat too low, I can't get in and out of my underground parking garage any more .
Anyway, this whole happening disrupted my plans of lowering the car a tat further, as 4 forum member confirmed their cars ride higher after installing new shocks.
All my calculations will go down the drain...

So the plan is to replace the front shocks, and hope it will raise the car.
If so, will need some time to let it settle, then re-do my calculations, and perform a full suspension service front and rear, plus new rear shocks, and including some cutting of the springs.

The good thing, I was intending to outsource the work, but with a new jack and stands, I might just have a tensioner made, and do it myself this summer.

 

Eric, that ride height is exactly what I want for mine Send me your old shocks please

Just kidding...

Have you checked the top of the shocks? I mean, if BOTH went at once, the only thing which both sides can damaged WHEN in the air, is the upper shock mount. The rubber in them is so stupid... If they are worn, they CAN pop in and out of the bushes (have seen it and mine isn't far from doing so too).

Also, no need to adjust the tracking with new shocks. They have nothing to do with the alignment (they don't affect camber nor toe in/out or castor). They only have one function: dampen the ride.

And regarding the springs: get yourself some M10 "guides" made and use the methode I used...



And use the front two and rear two screw holes for the threaded rods and see if you can, when the pan is removed, get hold of two EXACTLY FITTING guides you can tighten up in the midle holes to guide the pan on. I spent 10(!) hours fiddling around trying to get the right hand side pan on (the pan would always slide around a little bit).

Not a fun job. And you don't need to remove the spring to replace the shock... All you need is to put the weight of the car onto a jack whilst you undo the shock. Like that it won't "ping" out...

But if you want to cut the springs, don't forget: the top AND bottom of the springs is flat! Not like standard Mc Pherson springs, which are normal springs. They look like this:



So you'll need to flaten it off again when you've cut the amount off you want to remove... Otherwise it won't sit flat in the pan/top area and will distribute pressure unevenly...

 

Thanks Daim (as usual).

My upper shock mounts are new, they were replaced a month before I bought the car.
I checked them before, they seem rock solid.

The new shocks came in last night, and I will give all of the suspension another check once everything is in the air later today.
I still suspect the shocks, as this all started with a thorough inspection of each and every bushing and ball joint that very same day.
However, I don't rule out something else broke or let go, as suggested in this thread.

And yes, I am aware to use the guides, will not do the removal process without them, but thx for the suggestion of the middle guides.
I actually thought about something like that, but as a replacement for the threaded guides, which I then disregarded, as I surely want to have some nuts on those guides, just in case ....
Never thought to use the remaining 5th and 6th hole, great idea ...

On the springs, I have been discussing this matter with forum member Greverr over and over again.
As you know, he lowered his car beautifully.
He cut from the top (dead coil) as it should be, and like you suggest, flattened the coil to fit.
I worked out the numbers front and rear based upon his info, but probably will need to do it all over if the shocks increase the ride.

And if not, then I have other issues to solve first .

EDIT UPON RE-WATCHING YOUR PICTURES:
Did you drop the pans without the center tensioner, or is the pic only to demonstrate the guides?

 

Well, I can officially confirm for now, and for anyone who will use this forum in the next 300 years, that shocks DO INFLUENCE ride height.

Just replaced both front shocks with new Bilstein comfort ones, and the problem is solved.
The car is not only back to the previous ride height, the 1cm difference between the left and right side (even before this happened) is gone too.

Stu was spot-on with his suggestion, one of the shocks had collapsed, I can push it in without much force, and it only extends to its neutral position after 5 minutes ...
The other one is slightly better, but not much.

For the rest all looks rather good, no rust at all.
Will spend some more time cleaning this summer when I do the rest of the suspension, and I am sure can bring it back to new with just cleaning.

Now I got 2 questions left:

1. My front springs have a red paint mark on them, anyone know what specific model these were for?

2. Daim: you might not have read my edit above, but upon re-watching your pictures, did you drop the pans without the center tensioner, or is the pic only to demonstrate the guides?

 

Glad you got it sorted Eric, I suspected it would be the shockers from the word Go. My old XJ used to sit really low at the back, and then after I transported a really heavy load it didn't come back up. I replaced the rear shock absorbers with a pair of OEM ones and it sat perfectly. It was a shame that just a week later the gearbox blew up and that was the beginning of the end for that car.

I have CATS suspension on my car in sports flavour. Someone has fitted a black comfort shock absorber on one side of the front of my car, either through ignorance or thrift. I'm wondering if it's either 1) Worth buying a used shock absorber 2) Waiting until I can afford to buy a new pair and do both or 3) Leave it as it is.

 

Sexy beast you have there Eric sir !

 

Stu, I'm not quite sure if you know what CATS is but no 3.2l has it... It is an electronically controlled system with cables coming out of the shock absorber at the top in the engine bay. No wires/cables, no CATS. It was only used on XJR and Super V8 models...

Oh, and only ever change shocks pair-wise. Everything regarding an axle (other than balljoints) should be changed axle-wise. So new shocks on both sides at once

There are no guides in the picture Just 3x threaded rod with an M10 thread. Nothing else. I didn't use any middle "tensioner" to install the springs.

 

Sorry to disagree with you Daim, but 3.2 did come with CATS, in the UK at least. My car has them and my friend is currently breaking up a 3.2 which also has CATS.

Here's my engine bay.