Body Height Asymmetry

[Bballreich]

I purchased a 2000 Limited with 185,000 miles on it in May of this year. The care had a clean Carfax and I couldn't find any evidence of damage. It appears to be rust free. I've been slowly refurbishing it to original condition. Recently, I noticed that the driver side of the vehicle when viewed from either front or rear is lower than the passenger side. I measured just to be sure. From ground to the bottom of the wheel well flares on the drivers side measures 34.5" (both front and rear wheels) and on the passengers side 35.5" (both front and rear wheels). Is this normal? The car drives nice and tracks straight. I don't think the rear is bottoming over bumps so i feel like the struts/springs are OK. What can I do to determine what is causing this listing to port? Thanks for the advice.

 

[nc-grayson]

What side is your gas tank on?

 

[JeepKiller]

Well your gas tank is on the drivers side and so is the driver so the drivers side have more weight on it 80% of the time therefore it sags.

 

[Buckaroo]

There is a specific method of measuring ride height in the FSM and specification - you might check it out. But, I would think your method gives a good relative height. I think an inch difference, side to side, is a lot. Springs have likely deformed over time but caused by what?.....how heavy was the original owner?

Buckaroo

 

[nc-grayson]

Basically, it's supposed to be somewhat lower. Plenty of factors could be causing yours to be 1 inch off. To me, it doesn't seem like a huge deal. Tire pressures, completely level surface, and condition of those 185k miles all play into the 1 inch, just to name a few.

IMO, if it drives nice and tracks straight, it ain't broke don't fix it...

 

[SRQ-Runner]

Basically, it's supposed to be somewhat lower. Plenty of factors could be causing yours to be 1 inch off. To me, it doesn't seem like a huge deal. Tire pressures, completely level surface, and condition of those 185k miles all play into the 1 inch, just to name a few.

IMO, if it drives nice and tracks straight, it ain't broke don't fix it...

It's not supposed to be somewhat lower, driver side springs are often larger in length to help combat this problem. Obviously the driver side still wore quicker (probably due to extra weight) then the passenger side causing the lean.

To the OP, if you don't mind the lean then you probably don't have much to worry about. If you do want to correct it, you'd want to look at doing a suspension overall. I'm assuming your running stock height? If you want to remain stock height, you could just replace everything with stock height suspension. If your looking to lift, then I would check out this page, plenty of great information.

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/66976-3rd-gen-4runner-lift-information-faqs.html