Car leans to one side!!

[Raymen214479]

So last summer I had some 18s on my car but then got a flat tire on my rear right wheel. I replaced the wheel with a spare 15" wheel until I got a new tire. i drove the car daily with the spare wheel for about a month. After I bought a new tire and installed it with the 18" wheel, I noticed my car's right side was lower than the left side. All four tires were the same size and all had the same air pressure. Now my car leans to the right side ever since then. Its like that at all times. How can I fix this? Do I have a blown strut/ shock? Or is it just the spring that's just compressed from the weight going to that side because of running with a spare wheel? By the way my car is a 1998 honda accord sedan. Any suggestions as to what it might be causing this?

 

[danmccormick87]

Sounds like one of your suspension components is really worn... Anytime you run a spare for an extended period of time, you cause uneven wear and potential damage to your suspension components, especially if the tires are different sizes. This is caused from uneven weight distribution, plus the handling characteristics that are changed, causing additional stress to your suspension. If you aren't lowered, time to consider that route

 

[cmgreensr]

Assuming it's stock suspension, what's the mileage? Any noises or other symptoms?

 

[Raymen214479]

It is stock suspension. I don't hear any noises coming from that strut/shock though. My car has 285k

 

[RedRyder]

Any leaking fluid? You could also measure ground to fender at all four corners and see if there is a difference.

 

[cmgreensr]

+1 ^, make sure it's not in your head after watching it sit lower for so long on the spare.

 

[Raymen214479]

I did measure all corners and that corner seems to be about an inch lower than the rest. when I have passengers in the back, my tire scrapes on the rear right quarter panel but it doesn't scrape on the left side.

 

[cmgreensr]

Well, that's not in your head then. As was mentioned before, have you checked for fluid back there? If none is obvious, I think you will have to get it up in the air to start poking around under there.

 

[Raymen214479]

I didn't see any signs of leaks anywhere.

 

[kn0x47]

Shocks being blown has nothing to do with ride height. You just have to get under your car and check for warn joints (ball joints, swar bar end links)