Defender 130 with a lean to drivers side ?

[Arawata]

My Defender 130 Has a lean to it. Recently noticed it. I bought it (actually its a company car leased) but I'm the second "owner". So not sure if it was like this before either. Maybe it's normal ? Anyway, I'm not as mechanically minded as I should be and I poked my head under the front today and noticed the front drivers wheel looking like this:



And the passenger side looking like this:



Is this normal or could this be the cause of the lean ?

I've have no idea why it's leaning over !!

[goingbush]

It looks normal to me,
Landrovers lean from new, some models have different springs left front & right front to compensate.

Don't worry about it, I keep a heavy tool box on the right passenger floor and it sits just right.

[Sitec]

I see blue springs... Not original. I bought a set of blue '2" lift' springs off Ebay, and the right one went 'soft' within a month. I removed them both, fitted the originals (which ended up higher) and fitted a pair of 2" packers under the springs to get my lift. Being Land Rover, the token 'lean to the left' was still there, so I replaced the LH spring with another RH spring. Now the vehicle sits level and looks great. IMO statt with fresh original springs and go from there.

[Arawata]

So the noticeable lean to the drivers side is normal and it may or may not be made more noticeable by aftermarket springs ? Ok. It's a 2009 model and has done 60,000 so I don't know what happened for its first 60,000 klms.

Thanks for the assistance guys.

[GuyG]

Are you sure that its not just the shape of the housing round the swivel ball - they are not supposed to be vertical - that is confusing you and making you think that its on a lean instead of actually how its supposed to be.

I have just taken the attached pics of my 98 fender to further explain the above. The first pic is on vehicle, drivers side, the other two pics just to show the angle at which the parts sit in relation to the rim.

[ugu80]

Okay, point 1, the photos.
I presumed you were concerned about the circular lug poking out the front. That is for making the steering in left or right hand drive, in left hand drive cars that rod bolted into the other end would be in the right side and left side would be sticking out unused.

Point 2, springs.
Springs are made with the drivers side slightly longer (usually up to 1cm) to allow for the drivers weight. When empty, the car should be slightly higher on the driver side. If the passenger side is higher, check that the springs have been mounted on the correct side. I would suggest the easiest fix to that problem would be just to swap the springs from side to side.

Although anyone can make springs that colour, that is the colour of spring made by Dobinsons. If it is Dobinsons, they are a high quality spring and should not sag.

On a 130, check that the tray mounts haven't broken thereby slanting the tray and giving the appearance that the car is sagging to one side.

Bottom line is, you should not be sagging on the driver side.

[Arawata]

Thanks. It's drivers side that is down.



The coils, when measured to the top of the tyres, are different. The driver side is an inch lower than the passenger side.

This is resulting in the cross bar bending under strain a bit I reckon.



Thanks for the steering input though. It did have me wondering why.

[rick130]

Thanks. It's drivers side that is down.



The coils, when measured to the top of the tyres, are different. The driver side is an inch lower than the passenger side.

This is resulting in the cross bar bending under strain a bit I reckon.



Thanks for the steering input though. It did have me wondering why.

??? Nothing will bend if your springs have settled at different heights, it's just a sign of poor heat treatment/construction in the spring, but it won't strain any other component.

You have one dodgy front spring, just replace them (as a pair) with whatever rate and length you want and go from there.

[Arawata]

Thanks. The bottom line is that it is not damaging the car, just visually not that good ?

[ugu80]

2.5 cm (1 inch) is a lot of difference. It wouldn't be doing much for your wheel alignment and steering. IMO you should be getting it fixed, probably end up cheaper in long run because of tyre wear and possibly steering issues (box, bushes, etc).