Having purchased a 2003 xkr convt a few months ago, I was planning on lowering the rear end only with some shorter performance springs.

While inspecting the car's stance, I noticed that there is a 5/8" difference in the front tires' clearance from one side to the other. This strikes me as significant.

What would be the most likely cause of such variation?

The car has 43,000 miles. I believe I have the fancy suspension. There
is an insulated line/wire at the top of the shock/mount area. (Hey, I never said that I was a technical wizard.)

Thanks for your help and suggestions, guys.

 

I thought the XKR model came with a sport handling/feeling suspension package that you could shut on and off!?!?!?!?!!?? I don't know if I'd be messing with the suspension on that puppy cause it has special parts on it. Someone else should chime in soon on this.

 

The suspension height variance tolerance in JTIS is +/-15mm. Seems like you are OK to me.

 

XKRs came as standard with cats suspension, you can still lower the car if you want with no probs.

 

The height of the car is a function of the length and stiffness of the springs. The shock absorber is doesn't actually absorb shocks, it just dampens the springiness of the springs. Shocks won't really affect ride height, except it might stop the oscillations from the springs at a different point each time the car comes to rest. For example, lets say you had no shocks at all. When you stopped the car it would bounce and bounce until finally the energy had dissipated and it was at rest. It would come to rest at almost the exact same height every time. But, if you throw a shock absorber into the mix, at some point in the stroke of the shock absorber the spring no longer has enough potential energy to overcome the friction within the shock. If you have very stiff shocks and very soft springs you can bounce your car ten different times and end up with ten different height measurements for the car. On the other hand, if you have soft shocks and stiff springs, the height of the car will return to almost the exact same spot every time you bounce it.

 

While the Reverend does speak some truth, I found that old shocks...mine, when replaced, raised my ride height by a shade over 1/2". That was a result of, I believe, when though the shock returns the car to its 'balanced' level, as it relates to both the spring stiffness and the shocks resistance (the amount of force it would take to begin the shock travel) in my old shocks, that point had slowly moved/declined (probably due to the inner seals ability to hold back and move fluid efficiently between the chambers), allowing the car to settle lower initially. I found this out while working on the car...had the front end of the car jacked up for a few hours...brought it back down and it looked like the car had taken a viagra, it was much taller (ok..it was apparently taller). But after a drive, the car was back to its previously 'lower' point. Now, with new shocks, that original ride height is back, and stays that way...the car is 0.2" lower than its showroom measurement. I do have a slight difference between left and right side, maybe 1/4" higher on the right. BTW, my rear corners came up too with new shocks...while replacing nothing else.