I have a 2004 CTS with 100k on the clock. It has been a decent car over all. Recently I was following behind my old lady when she was driving it. I noticed the back driver tire leaning. I jacked up the car and wiggled the tire and used a long prybar on it but everything seem tight. I then manually cycled the suspension and watched it. Nothing was moving out of place?

Any ideas guys?

Bad side



good side

 

looks just like my seville when my struts went bad except it was like that on both sides. does your vehicle have air ride? if so you may have a leak somewhere. you will also notice your tire will wear faster on the inside part of the tread compared to the rest.

oh and also see if when you jack the car up if the suspension extends letting the wheel drop down as you raise the car up. if not then your strut may be froze up. i had this happen to me on my seville had a bouncy ride too. i hope this may help. let us know what you find out.

 

does that car have a upper and lower control arm
can u take the wheel off and take a pic
would give us a better idea where to look
take a pic looking at it
and one from the back try to get upper and lower control arm in pic
thanks

 

I only half noticed this maybe 2 oil changes(6k) before I put struts on about 3000 miles ago. So It has been like this for 9k. It does not have air ride and I have not noticed any abnormal wear yet.

GMTECH

I will get a picture either later tonight or tommorow. Without looking I want to say it has a lower control arm, the upper control arm attached at the top of the knuckle runs forward toward the driver seat.

 

Alright so I just pulled the wheel off and took some pics

 

So i was getting frustrated trying figure out how to adjust. So I loosened all the bolts i could get a wrench on. Low and behold the upper control arm does have some camber adjustment.

I put arrows on the spot to show, with them bolts loose the arm came outwards towards me. I tightened it down and that see to fix the lean.

 

did you have to take that bolt out to do remove and install the struts? i wouldnt think you would have to but if they were loose i would keep an eye on it for awhile to see if they lossen up. good to know that it helped by tightening cuz i thought possibly your strut was defective. most likely not but something to check.

 

the rears i would consider more of a shock, the were very easy to remove. If the upper bolts werent buried deep in the trunk under the rear seats it would only be a few minute job to swap them.

 

great job glad u saw it