Chaps,

Some of you may have seen a thread I posted up a week or so ago regarding an issue I thought I was having with one of my Weitec dampers. The car is booked into a local performance specialist garage this coming Saturday but today I noticed something that concerns me.

Unfortunately it is snowing right now up in Scotland so I am not going to start crawling around under the car to check this, so I thought I would ask on here!

Basically I can get my fingers underneath the wheelarch on the rear drivers side between the arch and the tyre and there is no chance of doing the same on the passenger side.

This leads me to think that the reason I was getting a vibration through the floor and the feeling that the car didn't feel as smooth as it did before is that the car is sitting on the bump stop on the passenger side rear!

If the snow stops in the next hour or so before it gets dark I will find somewhere level to park and measure the differences, but what would cause this? I had both passenger side wheels off in the last week and checked both springs, no damage was apparent.

Could a worn/damaged damper make a difference in ride height? Excuse my naivety, but I thought the spring dictated the ride height and the damper was just there to soak up bumps?

The chap at the garage (spoke to him on the phone 5 minutes ago) reckons the platform on the spring cup that winds up and down to dictate the ride height might have unwound on it's own? Anyone had any experience of this?

There's a little grub screw that locks the cup against the threads. Maybe this has come loose over time?

Is that how yours is sitting right now Rob?

Because if it is, my NSR adjustment platform is MUCH closer to the top of the screwed part. Haven't checked the drivers side yet but aim to do so in the next hour.

That's what I'd check first, as it's a coilover setup.

If you can, measure the distance between the top and the cup. Or count the number of treads visible.

If you're sure this has changed in the time they've been fitted, I'd go along with Rob's logic of the grub screw working loose (or not being tightened sufficiently) and allowing the cup to move along the thread.

Ok, think I can now discount this theory. Took the car off the driveway and parked it somewhere a bit flatter, and measured the distance from the wheel centres to the start of the wheel arch and they were identical on both sides. Had a look through the alloy wheel spokes at both platforms and without gaining proper access to the spring cups I thought they LOOKED similar - i.e. roughly the same distance 'spare'.

Will need to wait until I take it to the garage on Saturday now, I am working till dark o'clock tomorrow and friday and I don't have anywhere I can take the car that has access to light in the evening.

Still thinking possible wheel bearing. Or perhaps a slight buckle of my 19" VMRs (hope not). Or a CV joint. Or sawtooth tyres (doubt this). Or an alignment issue (hope so). Or a wishbone bush or anti-roll bar bush. Or one of the dampers is faulty/damaged.

Does my head in - at least if I knew the diagnosis I would feel someway along the road to a resolution. Ho Hum, hopefully the guy at the garage (Hypertec if anyone knows it up in Scotland) will be able to get the car if not sorted at the weekend then at least start to rule out some of the above posibilities.

Know the feeling with this sort of issue, drives you mental!

But yes, get it up on a set of ramps and it should at least be easier to dismiss things from the possible list of causes