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03-17-2023, 05:24 AM | #1 |
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Car Lower on One Side
My mech was fitting my new coilovers when he noticed that my car is lower on one side. With the coilovers set to the same height, the right side (US passenger) sits about a half inch lower for both front and rear. Is this normal?
Car is spherical/monoball everything so there's no rubber bushes to compress. Arms are all relatively new. The car did have an accident on the right side many years ago where some of the suspension arms broke but it was properly fixed and there was no chassis damage reported. Car aligns straight and drives perfectly fine with no weird noises. Any ideas? |
03-17-2023, 12:25 PM | #2 |
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I don’t think that is normal. If you have access to a frame machine get it up in the air and level. Then take measurements with a tram gauge to see if the frame is off. In my garage my car sits lower on one side, on level ground it is even. I measure from the bottom lip of my wheels to the apex of my wheel well and both sides match with coil overs all set to heights I’ve dialed in. I know my garage floor is slightly off from flat, the foundation has settled and some cracks have formed over the years prior to my ownership. If your mechanics floor isn’t dead level and flat that could be your issue.
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03-18-2023, 02:42 AM | #5 |
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Yeah been doing some reading and apparently it's a pretty common phenomenon for E9x. Not gonna worry too much about it. Will adjust the coilovers to compensate.
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03-18-2023, 03:01 PM | #6 |
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This is perfectly normal with BMW's. The factory aligns the cars with ~180 pounds in the driver seat, which also levels the car and simulates a driver in the seat. If you take it to a dealer they do the same. I have seen this asked for decades now and folks are always surprised to find the difference side to side. But rest assured this is totally normal.
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03-18-2023, 08:05 PM | #7 |
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I’ve read on several post that this is normal. Over time, the springs will cause the driver side to sit lower than passenger side. I noticed this on my new to me 2013 E92. Was concerned that it was bad springs, but seems to be normal according to many forum members. My question is, if you were to change out springs/shocks and replace them with new springs/coilovers, would you experience the same thing?
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03-18-2023, 08:49 PM | #8 |
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Yes, it is not spring related, it is a design baked into the car. Swap springs, put new springs in, whatever, it will still be a bit higher on the drivers side. If the car sits the same on both sides and you put a 200 pound driver on one side the car will now be unbalanced, even if just a small amount. Why they tend to put the battery and other heavy items on the passenger side. They design the cars with near perfect balance, both front to back and side to side. Gotta love the Germans!
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03-19-2023, 07:28 AM | #10 |
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If you car is a RHD model it should be the other way around. I can't personally say it is, but I would think they would reverse the design for LHD regions.
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03-19-2023, 05:56 PM | #11 |
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03-20-2023, 06:36 PM | #14 | |
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I think maybe BMW did go to the trouble of compensating the car for driver weight. Germany is LHD, like US, so the left side is made slightly higher than right. Then when it came to the RHD version, they called it a day and went for beer and schnitzel. Lol |
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03-20-2023, 09:30 PM | #15 | |
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It was converted to LHD and then back to RHD, but they forgot a step the second time. .... yeah, I got nothing. |
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