Bad rear suspention

[nc89sho]

My '89 MTX has good struts in the rear and no creaking or anything. however, the rear springs are sagging really bad, makeing the car look like one of those hooptys all the little G-thugs drive around. also the rear wheeles are cambered out(more on the left than on the right) and wearing out my tires too fast. and the car pulls to the right so i have to hold the wheele to the left to go straight. is the pulling due to the camber alone, or do you think i need something else, and how much should i expect to pay to replace the springs in the rear and will that fix the camber problem. Thanks for any help

 

[TopSHO92]

In theory, if you replace the rear springs with new OEM ones, the camber "should" correct itself. Over time, the alignment of all cars falls out of spec in one way or another. The factory control arms on our cars came with horrible adjustment cams which do little or nothing to provide for future adjustment, but it can be done with a few wrenches and a big hammer...

Regardless... if you have the springs replaced, it will need an alignment to check everything. It's important to remember that the suspension is a "system" If one component fails, or falls out of spec, the trajectory of the entire car changes. While your rear camber problem is more than likely a majority of the problem, it may not be the entire cause of the car pulling to the right. Most cars do pull to the right, because people hit curbs with the right wheel when parking... and no I'm not pointing fingers...hehe I do this too...

Just one more thing. If/when you do get new springs, have the shop check the entire suspension for bad parts... that way if something else is bad, you won't be going back to them in a couple weeks because it still drives like crap.

Hope that helps...

 

[AutoXSHO]

Is the factory rear suspension adjustable? My control arms have straight, no-offset bushings in them and don't have crash bolts, so I don't see how it could be adjusted.

Sagging rear springs is very common. I think every genI I've seen has sagging rear springs.

John V

 

[clintonk]

How far do the stock springs tend to sag? I've avoided Eibach springs partly because lowering my car might cause it to scrape my steep driveway. But if the OEMs have already sagged and lowered the car a similar amount, that's less of an issue.

Clinton Knight
'90 White 182K
'95 Green 51K