Quote:

I noticed something new today: I can lift each side up to the height I want it and it will literally stay there, until I drive it. There's no time lapse either, it won't fall after an hour or so. Only when I drive it. Or when I push down on the fender, then it goes down again to how you see it now.



In a former life, I was a front-end mechanic. Not that that exempts me from being a bulletin board blow-hard... I could be both at the same time. Consider (for a moment at least) my comments in light of the former, and not the latter.

Your observations and photos seem to put to rest the theory that the rear t-bar mounts are spinning in the frame.

I would suggest an approach on two fronts:

a. Unnecessary red herrings easily resolved.
b. What height your car "wants" to be at.

Unnecessary red herrings.

It is unlikely that whacky alignment settings are changing your car's ride height as you drive it. Nevertheless, you would be well-served to get the tires pointed somewhat sensibly, even if only to drive across town to the shop. Doing anything about caster is not on the table (no alignment mechanic pun intended), absent a gauge. Many people choose to eyeball camber - you might choose not to. However, there really isn't any excuse not to adjust your toe. You'll need some chalk or tire crayon, and a tape measure.

Measure and mark a point at a consistent "bump" in the thread groove on each tire (front and back) at the same height up from the floor. Measure the distance between the points at the back side of the tires and at the front. Using the tie rod sleeves, adjust it so that the reading at the front is about 1/8" less that the rear. If you are clever about the sleeve(s) being changed, you may get your steering wheel pointed better at the same time. Or maybe screw it up worse.

Do this not because it will change the height problem much [I don't hold out much hope]. Do it because it's fairly easy and the right thing to do.


At what height does your car "want" to be?

Normally, a car will return to where it "wants" to be fairly easily while parked in your driveway - you get some bouncing action up and down, and then let go. At first blush, it seems pretty straight-forward: the T-bar is wound to a certain point, and [if it stays there] will support the fixed weight of the nose of your car at a given height. Don't change the t-bar winding or the weight, and everything stays the same. Absent forces being exerted by the control arm bushings and the shocks, this should hold true in practice.

So, what about the shocks and bushings?

If the shocks are not funny, gas-charged units, or extremely old, bent things that are binding, I would have a hard time making a case that they are masking where your car "wants" to be. Are your shocks funny gas-charged units, or old & bent?

The textbook on front-end repair will advise you to leave the bushing loose until you get the car to it's correct ride height, and only then do you fully tighten the nut on the LCA pivot shaft and the UCA eccentrics. You stated that you worked on the front end... did you replace any bushings, or perhaps just tighten the bejesus out of the connections I just described while the arm(s) were at a funny angle? The torsion imparted by a bushing tightened at a nonsensical position should not be discounted. If any of this is a possibility, consider loosening things up a bit, messing with the t-bar adjustment some more, bouncing it statically, and then tightening them down again.

My gut feel is that you have not yet established the height at which your car "wants" to be, and have been overly conservative at cranking on the adjustment bolts. From your quote above, your car seems to be more willing to "stay" at a static height than it should be. This leads you to be making too small of adjustments when cranking them up. Maybe you even need another flat on the t-bars. Crank on those babies.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Being a college kid, I thought you might tolerate the more detailed response.

Down to just a blue car now.