Alright, I've been trying to figure this out, and my friend google has been giving me strange and contradictory answers. It's two parts.
1. Car is obviously not level. its at least 2 inches low on the drivers side.
2. I hear a kind of squeaking noise coming off of that side of the vehicle. It sounds like... what I would call a rusty spring when it hits a bump in the road.

I don't have a garage, so I've got the car, my daily driver, under a cover. I can get it onto my buddies lift after hours, but I have to set up a time, and I'm also new to vette's.

Any help would be great.

Oh, and from my searches I have heard everything from bad shocks (wouldn't make sense to me, as shocks are there to keep it from moving, as opposed to actually holding it up), a ride height adjustment bolt, bad bushing, and a transmission mount.

Those are a LOT of things to track down in one night. Anyone have a similar issue?

 

Broken or missing bolt..... my best

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=...54639824401224

 

I'd be looking for a bad adjuster and also a cracked spring.

 

So, adjustment bolts and cracked springs. Will check those out.

 

Wow 2 inches is a lot. Get it up on a rack something is wrong.

I am guessing a broken composite spring.

 

I will take a look at the leaf springs. I've had the tire off while changing the brakes and didn't notice anything wrong with them. If they were severely damaged wouldn't it be a lot more pronounced? IE tire at a bad angle, a lot more clunking around as the shock hits the end of the tube, etc?



Tire in question

 

Yup, looks just like this one:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ing-today.html


And 3 more just for info:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nt-spring.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...plintered.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...af-spring.html

 

You guys were right. Cracked leaf spring. I don't know what magic the dealership used, but I've put in 8k in part replacement in 4 months.
Transmission, torque converter, battery, rotors, shocks, now this. Where's the throwing a wrench emote?

 

Pick up a used one. They are not bad to install. The clamps wont line up when you install it. Put clamps on loose, lower front end onto ramps or blocks to flatten the spring out and then tighten clamps up.

From member 'lionelhutz'

Forget that write up.

Put the car up on jackstands.

Pull off the drivers side tire.

Mark the lower a-arm to crossmember bolt washers so you will get them in the same rotation. Best would be to draw line across the washer and crossmember on each side with a sharpie - fine point. These adjust the front suspension by turning the bolt. You'll get a better idea how these work once you pull them out - the hole in the washer is not centered.

Put a jack under the spring in the Y of the a-arm and take the spring pressure off the a-arm.

Take out the lower 2 a-arm bolts. Don't mix up the front and rear bolts or the direction they installed to get them back in the same spot so marks line up.

Work the jack and the a-arm/suspension until you get the a-arm above the end of the spring.

Put the jack under the end of the spring and jack it up until it's almost lifting the car.

Take off the 4 bolts and 2 plates that hold the spring to the crossmember.

Lower the jack and the spring is out.

Just reverse the steps to put the new one in.

The above should take about 1/2 hour once you get the car on jackstands. Forget taking off the shocks and calipers and sway bar links and everything else in that write-up. Also, many people have had the spring hang up in the a-arm because it has so much arc it doesn't clear and come out meaning you have to really fight it after doing all that work.

The only thing to note is that if you don't think you'll get the a-arm bolts back just like they were to get the car aligned. But then, your car is >10 years old so if you have not had it aligned it's likely due.

Peter

 

Those seem like front end instructions. Rear end has the drive shafts to deal with. Same principle applies? Jack it up and flatten the springs?

 

My bad
You don't have to flatten the rear spring like the front. It is pretty much the same process. The half shafts can stay completely intact and in place. If I remember correctly, the rear is easier to do as well.

 

How many miles on the car?

You have had some costly repairs.

Seems like the care was roughly driven prior.

Get it in shape and enjoy.

 

60k miles. I'm hoping this is the last thing I have to do. Found a part used for a 100 bucks and free shipping. Hopefully it lasts long enough to let me refill the car upgrade fund. Wife will go nuts if I spend anything else on it for a few months.

 

As an update, the rear monospring itself was just fine. The problem was the bolt that holds the bushings or whatever you want to call them. It had sheared off. I actually picked up the whole monospring and the replacement bolts thinking I would just replace them all. Once I got it up and got the upper a arms and shock detached, I saw there weren't any of the leveling pads (?) on the drivers side.

Long story short, threw the new bolts on, and it sits level and no more squeaking. Rides a lot better as well, because the shocks aren't maxed out. Anyway, wanted to say thanks for all the help.

 

Glad that worked out for you.

Here's some specs on ride height, if you care.
After installing or adjusting bolts/shocks/springs, you need to drive a couple of hundred miles for everything to settle to its final height.

 

Well, I drove to Dallas this weekend. Everything was perfect on the way up. I visited some people in Denton and then went back to uptown Dallas, and on my way home (its about 150 miles to where I live) The back end was very very loose, and honestly I'm not sure if it's the back end, it just feels like the back end. If the car had felt like that on the way up, I would have taken it straight to a lift. I was really uncomfortable on the road.

It was bad enough I stopped the car to check for loose bolts on the lugs and checked for side to side play on all the tires. Not that I could do much without a lift, but this was no joke. During normal acceleration I didn't notice much of a pull, but when I let my foot off the accelerator the car pulled left pretty hard. Several times it started to oscillate a bit so I had to slow down. If I was decelerating while I was already in a turn, the pull was not as pronounced. One time it did feel a little loose on a corner, but during straightaway, freeway, going the limit cruising, if I let off the gas going down a hill, or the engine shifted down into the 1200 RPM range, I was going left.

Could this be brake tug? I did put on new brake pads while I was taking apart the rear end to fix the leveling issue. Are there torque specs for the upper a arms and shock bolts? I didn't think to try to find those numbers before I put it back on the ground.

 

You had the upper A-arms disconnected (assuming at the frame, not the ball joint?), so those bolts seem a likely place to start your search.

torque:
*rear upper A-arm-to-frame bolts = 48ft-lbs.
*rear upper control arm ball joint nut: 22 lb ft + 140 degrees
(at least for 2012 -- seems likely it would be the same for your year)

 

As I was driving to the office I hit a few bumps and heard a noticable slapping noise. I'm guessing I didn't get the bolts for the shocks mounted up all the way. Will have to find a way to get the car off the ground and take a look. I'm really hoping I didn't strip anything out...

Update: Upper A Arm bolts came loose over the bombed out husk of a road that used to be I-35E in Dallas. Got everything tightened down to specs.