Ok installed Pedder Springs on HHR SS, stock struts
Driver side front strut has plenty of clearance from tire
Passender side strut is so close im afraid it could damage my tire during turns or bumps in road.....
could all this be just cause toe/camber is off from lowering it? or would it be a bad strut or something else?
please advise asap
its literally so close im afraid to drive the car to dealership for alignment and damage my tire in process.......

 

Roll your rear fenders.

 

pictarz

 

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Some pictures:




This is driver side gap....



front suspension and fenders are not issue
strut seat rubbing/tearing up my tire are issues.....

 

Don't feel dumb but the tire will never hit the strut. When u hit a bump it compresses, hence the spring being there. You could have 1 mm of clearance and it wouldn't hit.

 

well i feel dumb but that makes sense
but still can see major issue from driver to passenger side
i know my toe is off cause the wheel leans some on passenger side........but if toe/camber is corrected will it also make the gap between strut/wheel better like on driver side?

 

It might. But that gap is nothing to worry about unless you plan on throwing some huge meaty tires on there.

 

So I should be fine to drive it 45miles to dealership?

 

Yea. Honestly id wait a week or so till u get an alignment so the springs you wont have any issues. I have pedders on my car withought an alignment and have no issues. Tires wear even and everything.

 

That doesn't make sense to me why it would be different from side to side. When I installed my pedders, it did not change that gap very much. I may be thinking about this wrong, but are you bolted up correctly at the knuckle with the strut?

 

Only one way to bolt up strut to the knuckle, the 2 press fit bolts, i see no adjustment could be made there

the difference from side to side is my major concern, i dont see how one is so badly off and the other seems normal?

 

I can't really see how bolting to the knuckle would make a difference either. I am just trying to think of how the tire coudl get that close because that strut tube is a fixed length. I'll go take a look at mine right away here and see if I can get some pics of how close mine are. This would be post alignment though.

 

yes it is weird, im confucked

 

Yeah I tried contacting Pedder but noone ever answers there at all
im taking it to dealership tomorrow morning for alignment.....see if that helps not sure it can even help

just concerns me driver side seems correct and passenger side seems something is out of whack

well that doesnt help me lol

 

Here are the pics that I took just a few minutes ago. Orientation looks the same but the gap is much more on mine. Could you take any pics of the passenger stide install from behind the wheel looking at the strut? this could show us how everything is connected and if the wheel has a crazy amount of negative camber or something.

Passenger Side strut




Drivers Side strut

 

Your gap looks like mine on Driver side
here are some pictures of passenger side

 

I don't suppose that you noticed how close the strut was to the wheel on the passenger side when you were removing the tires prior to installing the pedders. To me in this pic below (now my eyes may be deceiving me) that the knuckle mount for the strut with the pedders is closer to the spring perch than the strut with the stock spring installed. I could be wrong. I would see if you could measure that though. That gap seems so confusing to me why it would be that close.

 

no sir did not notice at all on the stock one when installed.....wish i had though!

what measurement exactly are you asking?
i took all kind of measurements when i had the side by side and have them here with me
almost everything was identical, that is where my issue comes from lol

 

I was thinking of from the top knuckle bolt to the bottom of the spring seat. They should be the same from side to side though unless something is horribly bent.

also, when the car is on the ground, does the passenger wheel look like it has a lot of negative camber?

 

The wheel has a major lean to it. Bottom or part contacting ground sticks out way more than top of wheel......

 

In this picture, it looks pretty clear that there is something different with the strut on the right. The part of the strut that mounts to the knuckle is clearly higher than the one on the left. That would be why the tire is higher on the strut. I'm guessing you have the wrong strut or that strut was made incorrectly.

 

My best guess is that the negative camber is causing how tight the tire is to the strut. I would say that if you can get it in the air and loosen off the bolts that connect the strut to the steering knuckle, try to push out the wheel and then re-tighten the bolts, that would be your best bet before taking it to the alignment shop. I am still confused that you were able to get that much negative camber out of the wheel as I don't think these cars (although I'm speaking from Cobalt knowledge) can be adjusted with that much negative camber.

 

That has nothing to do with the springs. Like others said you can clearly see where the strut mounts on the knuckle is higher on the passenger side.
That brings up a another question. Are the struts both OEM? Or are they replacements like Monroe?

 

they are OEM, they have same part number on them, and same 8317 stamping on them also

 

That is really strange then.