Weird Sagging on 4" Lift GU Ute, NEED HELP!!!

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

hey guys can any of you figure out whats wrong with my patrol its got me and both 4wd shops in town f*cked.

i fitted a 4" lift to my ute about 3-4 weeks ago was all good looked level and everything. Now heres where the problems start, i noticed that the driver side has dropped the other week. So lastweek i got the tape out and its dropped 35mm. Seems a bit too much for it to settle and seems a bit odd for it to be the one side. Ive only been out wheeling 3 times since ive had the lift in and it hasnt been extreme. first 2 times were mud runs and the 3rd time was just a sunday cruise out to one of the coastal parks.

Today i thought id give a crack and try and fix the bloody thing with no joy and it still sags. Heres what i tried anyway...

SCENARIO 1:
i swapped over the front coils to see if it was the one coil that was causing all the dramas so in theory the passenger side should have dropped. No Joy was still sagging 35mm on drivers side.

SCENARIO 2:
the guys up the road had a pair of 5" tough dog coils BRAND NEW. I put them in still no joy, went up another inch over all but was still down 35mm on driver side.

SCENARIO 3:
thought i give a go at swapping the rear coils over, so did that and still nothing.

now this has got me f*ucked! we took a few measurements etc and it seemed normal apart from driver side. had a look at the coil housings and none of them appeared to be cracked or bent.

Now has anyone else got any ideas? I got the coils through Snake Racing and they are the megalift ones. Its even got Ryno f*cked.

The ute hasnt got duel batteries or a winch either. Just has the standard steel winch bar that Nissan uses.

Before anyone asks i fitted the lift myself at work and the coils are in the correct positions.

Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Location: Ipswich

might seem silly but it could be a bent shock . i had a bent one on the back that would cycle but would bind on the way in cousing the patrol to lean to the other side.
hope this helps Very Happy

Brad

Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Location: melbourne

When you first installed your springs, you said it all looked level. Did you actually take measurements?

1. Try disconecting your panhard rod front and rear, then take measurements. You may need to buy adjustable ones.

or

2. Measure from the chassis to the ground. If it's level (plus or minus 8mm) it has to be anything above the chassis not the springs, ie. body mounts or body, etc.

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

what rear shock was it 92mav?

CENTIPEDE wrote:

When you first installed your springs, you said it all looked level. Did you actually take measurements?

1. Try disconecting your panhard rod front and rear, then take measurements. You may need to buy adjustable ones.

or

2. Measure from the chassis to the ground. If it's level (plus or minus 8mm) it has to be anything above the chassis not the springs, ie. body mounts or body, etc.

ive got adjustable panhards but i cant see why thats doing it. had the front one out when i was changing the front coils and didnt make a difference. made a few measurments for ground to chassis and the most it was out was about 10mm, checked body mounts and that havnt punched through the cab. the tray and cab are on the lean.

Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Location: sunshine coast

yeah mate i had the same thing happen on tuesday fitted 4-5'' dobinsons
was 40 mm lower on the drivers side it was the panhard rod take the rear off and push it from side to side you will soon see how it effects it .. and dont forget to put the longer coils back on the right side ..

Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Location: melbourne

Farva wrote:

what rear shock was it 92mav?

CENTIPEDE wrote:

When you first installed your springs, you said it all looked level. Did you actually take measurements?

1. Try disconecting your panhard rod front and rear, then take measurements. You may need to buy adjustable ones.

or

2. Measure from the chassis to the ground. If it's level (plus or minus 8mm) it has to be anything above the chassis not the springs, ie. body mounts or body, etc.

ive got adjustable panhards but i cant see why thats doing it. had the front one out when i was changing the front coils and didnt make a difference. made a few measurments for ground to chassis and the most it was out was about 10mm, checked body mounts and that havnt punched through the cab. the tray and cab are on the lean.

PROBLEM..... you have a sag on one side of 35mm

If the chassis to the ground is out by only 10mm...that can be fixed by a 10mm spring spacer.. THAT leaves 25mm

25mm lean is in the body or mounts.... Theoretically it can't be anything else... . ...HHHMMM INTERESTING Wink

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

patrol28 wrote:

yeah mate i had the same thing happen on tuesday fitted 4-5'' dobinsons
was 40 mm lower on the drivers side it was the panhard rod take the rear off and push it from side to side you will soon see how it effects it .. and dont forget to put the longer coils back on the right side ..

yeh right, the coils are on correct sides. what happened with the panhard rod mate?

Joined: 13 Jul 2004 Location: warner, brisbane

undo and retighten all the bolts on the car suspension(should be done when doing a lift anyway) front and rear including draglink (front one) and panhards.
do you still have swaybars? if so undo them on the chassis end (this can pull the car down)

take out your shocks and check them aswell.

if none of that got me screwed

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

chunderlicious wrote:

undo and retighten all the bolts on the car suspension(should be done when doing a lift anyway) front and rear including draglink (front one) and panhards.
do you still have swaybars? if so undo them on the chassis end (this can pull the car down)

take out your shocks and check them aswell.

if none of that got me screwed

hey chunder yeh done that still nothing hey, shocks seem fine. i do have sway bar disconnects so ill try that and see if it does anything. ordered a 30mm spacer for a last resort.

Joined: 13 Aug 2007 Location: Perth

Has anybody thought about the extra weight on one side.

Matt

Joined: 02 Mar 2008 Location: Mackay Qld

my patrol does this as well... have you checked that the top spring mount isn't bent?

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

madrolla68 wrote:

Has anybody thought about the extra weight on one side.

Matt

like i said matt i took everything off the tray and it was still doing it.

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

Tomo_89 wrote:

my patrol does this as well... have you checked that the top spring mount isn't bent?

yeh mate checked em they look flat and normal, none of the welds were cracked on the mounts either

Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Location: broken hill

I had this same problem with my GU wagon. I was using King sp4 springs. It turned out that the GU is a bit heavier on the right hand side compared to the GQ and the sp4 springs were designed for the GQ.

I fitted a 30mm coil spacer in the right hand rear and a 5mm in the right hand front and the problem was solved.

I later fitted a set of King sp3 springs to my current GU and I had the same problem. I installed the same size spacers and the problem was solved once again.

Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Location: Ipswich

farva it was the drivers rear shock

Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Location: sunshine coast

Farva wrote:

patrol28 wrote:

yeah mate i had the same thing happen on tuesday fitted 4-5'' dobinsons
was 40 mm lower on the drivers side it was the panhard rod take the rear off and push it from side to side you will soon see how it effects it .. and dont forget to put the longer coils back on the right side ..

yeh right, the coils are on correct sides. what happened with the panhard rod mate?

because its lop sided ull think its not that far out but it is and its pushing the passenger side down or across so far it makes it go down. it fixed all my level ing probs

Joined: 20 Sep 2007 Location: Albany

patrol28 wrote:

Farva wrote:

patrol28 wrote:

yeah mate i had the same thing happen on tuesday fitted 4-5'' dobinsons
was 40 mm lower on the drivers side it was the panhard rod take the rear off and push it from side to side you will soon see how it effects it .. and dont forget to put the longer coils back on the right side ..

yeh right, the coils are on correct sides. what happened with the panhard rod mate?

because its lop sided ull think its not that far out but it is and its pushing the passenger side down or across so far it makes it go down. it fixed all my level ing probs

hey mate i see what you mean, i took the rear panhard rod out the other day and moved the back end side to side and pushing it across to the passenger side it started to level up the front end. how did you go about fixing it in the end? did winding out the rod level it up more?