One of the wheels on my Forester droops from time to time compared to the other ones.  Sometimes it's on level with the other wheels but more often than not it's lower than the other ones.  Normally I wouldn't care much but it's chewing up one of my tires! 

 

I'm thinking maybe it's the shock/strut but what else could it be?  A spring...mounts?  A visual inspection doesn't reveal anything obviously amiss...

 

 

Thanks for your input...

 

--Damien

 

 

So the wheel appears to be closer to the body of the car?

Make sure all tires are aired up to the correct pressure.

Park on level ground and measure from the wheel center to the bottom lip of the fender. Compare left to right. A weak spring will cause one corner to sit the lowest and the opposite corner to sit the highest.

Id say your springs/struts are shot. Get some new kyb's and springs and if you want a little stiffer ride get some raised king springs from primitive.

 

Prwa

Rear springs espescially can break from rust......Your in Vermont soooo.....

Rear springs espescially can break from rust......Your in Vermont soooo.....

more likely spring is bad, not strut.

So the wheel appears to be closer to the body of the car?

 

 

Yes, that's correct.

 

 

 

OK but if it's a bad spring how could the problem be intermittent?  Sometimes the wheel clearance is normal but much of the time it sits impacted in the wheel well....

intermittent is odd, but it won't be with a new spring.

 

i pulled out a failed spring last year - the car was slammed on that corner and unstable at highway speeds.  very odd feeling, on bumps the back end would just "randomly" fishtail.  i was surprised to find no discernable difference between the failed spring and the new one.  every characteristic lying on the floor it was identical. while different than yours, i'd view the failure modes/symptoms of springs as gray rather than black and white.

I guessed the strut assembly must've gotten damaged/bent so I went ahead and ordered pair of struts thinking it's best to keep it balanced. 

 

It seemed odd to me that the tire would sit right sometimes and other times not...

 

 

 

When I get it finally repaired I'll post back and tell you what the problem ultimately was.

 

 

--Damien

I guessed the strut assembly must've gotten damaged/bent

 

was it in a significant incident?

ever had an alignment?

have the tires warn evenly?

No the tires aren't wearing evenly...the one that is mounted in that well is getting uneven wear.

 

 

 

I don't know because I've only had the vehicle for a few thousand miles....I'm hammering out all the bugs, you see... :-)