I had my car up on stands for a wheel off brake service and when I come to drop the car back down to the ground, the passenger side wheel comes down, touches the ground and takes the weight but the drivers side wheel is still 3" in the air!!
When I was putting the wheel back on the passenger side, I put my weight on the wheel to stand up and felt the wheel drop by a couple of inches so I'm thinking the shock piston has come out of it's cylinder and is binding up inside the shock.
PSS10's were installed 60k miles/10years ago so I guess they've served a useful life. I'm just dumbfounded that they could fail like this and leave the car undriveable.
Anyone else had experience like this?
Any suggestions on what to do?

I'm at a complete loss and ready to hit the bottle.
Let me get you all a picture coz this is wacko.

 

Front or rear?


Andreas

 

Even on the ground the spring is loose and it looks like I have positive camber:





Here's the offending shock:

 

Maybe it's frozen

 

It looks like the top of the upper spring isn't seated on the spring mount (the Aluminum thing at the top). Perhaps when you moved the wheel the spring slid off the mount and is now at a slight angle and so isn't sliding back on into place. Jack up the car and compare the two sides. I believe that the lower helper spring is intended to keep enough pressure on the assembly when the car is up in the air such that the top spring stays in place. With the car up on stands you might be able to push down on the tire to ease any tension on the spring and then guide the top spring back into place on the upper spring seat.

GC

 

THIS

 

I think the piston is unthreaded within the shock body.



Andreas

 

Thanks, after a beer I think this needs to go to Bilstein for reconstructive surgery.
And the cheery on top?
Just got a call from my daughter - her car won't start!!
Be careful out there guys, there's strange forces at work.

 

PM sent.



Andreas

 

I was not able to apply enough force by hand to make any difference. The strut is not collapsing into the coilover body. I see it when I let the car down off the jack - the wheel hits the ground and the shock doesn't compress, its essentially a frozen assembly as Ben called it. I think something has come unassembled within the coilover body. Even when it's taking the weight (drivers side is off the ground due to sway bar action?) the upper spring is loose.

 

Thanks Andreas, more than willing to try some things in the name of education.

 

Right. If the spring were off center, it wouldn't prevent the weight of the car from compressing the spring. It would just compress it crookedly and more than normal.

Something is wrong internally (as you've deduced).

 

Whatever you do just be careful poking around trying to get it to release. There’s a LOT of stored energy there and you don’t want any body parts near when it finally decides to compress.

In your shoes I’d jack up both fronts again (to release sway bar spring load) try lower a bit at a time. Use a long piece of wood to tap upper spring over perch from under/front when it’s just partially lowered. If that don’t work kick top of tire on way down to help release shock bind.

Good luck and be safe!

 

Even if I could get it back to working, how can I know it's fit for service.
Here's the view that blew my mind:

 

Ian,
Exhaustive PM sent.



Andreas