Ride height, new springs

[crc_73]

A few months back I discovered that both front springs had broken. The car hadn't been driven much in the year prior to that, and hasn't been driven much in the 3 or 4 months since I replaced the springs on the front.

But looking at the car now, the space between the top of the tyre and the highest point above it on the wheel arch looks a bit high. Measuring from the ground to the top of the wheel arch, I get around 73cm at the front, and about 68 at the back. Looking around, 67-68cm seems to be about what is to be expected with stock parts at both front and back.

I was fairly meticulous taking it apart, and putting it back together again. I even measured how much the screw protrudes above the nut at the top of the shock, and got it to the same level. And I figured that if I got it to this same level, and all parts put back together, that the shock/spring assembly should be the same height as the original. And I remember putting the broken springs beside the new ones, and found that they were the same length.

So I'm wondering if there is something I did in the reassembly that would account for the difference in the ride height?

 

[Rich.T]

Did you use genuine parts?

 

[crc_73]

Did you use genuine parts?

Genuine 'SEAT', no. They are 'Nordic' branded.

The online shop I used had them listed as being for the car, and comparing them in height, gauge, number of coils, with the springs that were on the car originally, they are identical as far as I can tell.

 

[BigJase88]

What model is the car?

You have diffenent weight categories based on engine type and also dependant of FR / non FR ride height

 

[crc_73]

MK1 petrol 1.4.

The online shop knows this data from the number plate, so I would have thought it selected parts appropriate for the car.

Pretty sure that I would have gone through the alternatives to see if I could see differences, but don't recall any.

Also, like I said, comparing with the old springs, they were identical as far as measuring was concerned, maybe the old ones were a few mm shorter, but not 5cm/2 inches shorter.

 

[crc_73]

I took off one of the front strut assemblies, but still can't figure out what's wrong.

The new springs are almost exactly the same length as the old coil, have the same number of coils and diameter, and the thickness is the same as the old coils.

Here's what I did for reassembling the strut...

For reassembly, the bottom end of the spring is at the stop. Compress the spring, place on the strut, followed by the metal plate, bearing, rubber mount, and finally the nut. The top of the shock absorber is threaded, and when the assembly is put back together, it seems that it's impossible to make the spring compress any further than the threads allow.

The spring is about 33cm uncompressed, and about 27.5cm when compressed and assembled into the strut. It's hard to measure, but it seems the spring doesn't compress much more (if at all) when put back into the car, and the weight is put back onto it.

Push it up into the turret, and loosely tighten the top nut in the engine bay. Then put the bottom of the strut assembly into the cup, and the pinch bolt goes through the metal plate on the strut when down in the cup fully. Then tighten everything up.

It's a fairly straightforward procedure, but obviously I did something wrong.

Anyone have any ideas?