I think the front suspension in my '70 Beetle is in need of medical attention, but I'd like to know what options are out there.

The front driver's side is about 1.5 inches lower than the front passenger side.

Eventually I'd like the car lowered a bit more all round, but any lower at the front and my wheels would rub the guards....

Any suggestions?

apart from the height difference does the suspension behave normally? are the back suspension heights the same?
do you have "gas" shock absorbers? could one have failed, this would alter the height on one side.
if the rear suspension was set differently side to side or one side has sagged then this can affect the suspension height at the front, that is if the rear right is set to low the front left will rise a bit compared to the front right.....
have not known the torsion bars on the front to sag unevenly....not 1.5 inches
is this sudden onset or been like it forever?
if i think about it too long i can think of more questions.....sorry

I hope it is not a bent beam or trailing arm/s - best case it would be a sagged rear torsion bar as you can generally replace/readjust it to suit.

I had a pair of good torsion bars put in the back a little while ago, and the back has been perfect since. :thumb

I noticed that the front driver's side was lower than the other side about 2 months ago. It doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. It wasn't like this when I got the car, but I don't know if it happened suddenly or progressively.

The handling seems a bit rougher at the front (if that makes sense, I hope it does), and the smallest bumps in the road feel huge.

If the rear torsion bars were installed correctly, I would say that an explanation for a different height in the front would be a broken torsion leaf in the front beam on the driver side. (assuming it's a std and not a super/McPherson strut)

Yep, it doesn't have struts (although I wish it did!)

So a new torsion leaf, are they expensive? Is there any alternative to front suspension in a '70 Bug?


Thanx! :P

Not expensive, someone would have leaves lying around their shed taking up room.

Some people remove 1 or 2 to lower the front. It's a god-damn messy job though. If 1 has broken it may be as simple as removing the other part of the broken leaf.

They are spring steel though, and should only go in one way.

how much weight have you gained in the last 2 months
Have you checked that they are not gas shocks, and that the drivers side has not blown, it would be covered in oil if it has.
Breaking a torsion leaf sounds a bit far fetched to me, you dont want to have to pull the beam down, take the leaves out to find they are all fine, it is a fairly big job.

If the RHF is lower than the LHF, then the LHR would have to be higher than the RHR. Make sense??

The same applies the other way. So if the rear is out, then the front is affected. In short, it means the front or rear could be the problem.

Easy way to find if it is front or rear is to jack either off the ground from the centre of the vehicle using a large trolley jack and see what the other end then sits like.

Struts aren't all they are cracked up to be. They have advantages, but also disadvantages. The shimmy shake in the front end of our 71 1302 is bad at 80kph and when you hit a bump. The front struts are leaking and the bushes all need doing. Pretty critical on the wheel alignment too.

The back's all even and good.... it's definitely something with the front.

Chewy, I've actually lost weight in the past couple of months, thanx for asking. :P
There seems to be old caked-on oily something around part of the driver's side front, on the lowest bar running across the wheels but I can't tell where it's come from. It looks old as and feels like a sponge, although there is none on the passenger side. The shocks both look the same though (old!), I don't know if they're gas ones... what types are there and what do they look like?

Reason I wish I had struts Helbus, is that I love the ones Egeworks got for his car! Such a nice ride....

i agree with chewy..unlikely to be a torsion leaf
can you remove all shock absorbers and then drive it up and down your drive and then see how it sits?
bounce on each corner and compare side to side...see if each side bounces the same as the other
check your ball joints as well as they can affect the ride if one is bad,
gas shocks ride really hard
initially, i would still be suspicious of either shocks (if they are gas) or rear torsion bar setting....i spent a whole day not so long ago resetting rear torsion bars so that the front sat evenly, even though the rear looked fairly level
has the front ever had an accident....could the guards be sitting unevenly?? now i am really guessing

Maybe my thoughts on struts will change when we get new struts, bushes, ball joints, tie rod ends and damper on the 1302.

Hi Phil,
My Bug has never been in an accident so I know it's not that. I've had her for 8 months and this driver's side thing has happened gradually the past couple of months.
Am getting her serviced on Fri, so I'll get my mech to check it all out since he has better tools for it than I do!

Thanx.

PBB is at her favourite place (so it seems): the mechanic.

Nothing been's looked at yet with suspension, but "fronts aren't supposed to sag on one side"....

that girl must really like greasy smelly men:P

Hey Peter ,put urethane t6hru the front of your super with new camber pins ,the difference in ride is cool

Yeah it is a urethane bush kit I am getting. Cant wait, as it is shimmying badly on bumpy roads.

a strut brace works really well as well