WVsunnydays
Active Member
My driver information center (DIC) kept showing a service Stabilitrac message on my 2006 XLR-V. I knew the ride height was uneven because the right rear of my car was ¾” lower than the left rear. I took it to a dealer and they couldn’t turn the trim height adjusting bolts on my rear transverse leaf spring. So they stuck 6 washers under the right rear trim height-adjusting bolt to make the rear of the car level. I talked to the service manager who agreed that I shouldn’t have to pay the $106 that they charged me. I then bought the Kent-Moore J42854 trim height measurement gauge and the Kent-Moore J42743 front transverse spring tool that were called for in the GM XLR service manual. (Last year when I bought my “V” I purchased a year subscription to Chilton’s on-line service manual for XLR’s. Best $25 I ever spent.)As you might guess, I decided to do the job myself. When I tried to adjust the trim height myself, I saw that the right front spring trim height adjustment bolt was broke in two as shown in the picture below.
The left front bolt had no rubber pad left on the bottom. Both front trim height adjustment bolts needed replacing.
Since GM doesn’t sell the spring trim height adjustment bolts separately, you have to buy the entire spring to get the adjusters. The dealers want about $800 per spring to replace them. I could buy the front spring (#15233394) for $278.90 and the rear spring (#15233391) for $290.40 plus S&H. Then I saw some comments on the XLR NET Forum that the XLR springs are the same as on the C6 (2005-2013) Corvette. I saw that some other forum members had commented on lowering their XLR with Corvette lowering kits, so I bought a lowering kit from Derby City Corvette on E-Bay for $25 (includes S&H). Shown below are the broken trim height adjustment bolts next to the new ones from Derby City.
The Derby City adjusters worked perfect. I only needed to replace the front spring adjusters because I was able to get the rear ones loose by soaking them in PB Blaster for a day. Then I relieved the tension of the rear transverse leaf spring so I could turn the 10mm head on top of the adjusters. They broke loose pretty easy. I found that the rubber pads on the bottom of the adjusters were frozen to the rear lower control arms also. This was part of the reason why the dealer previously mentioned couldn’t break them loose, not that just the bolt threads were frozen. So, if you decide to tackle the job yourself, be sure to soak the rubber pads on the adjusters with PB blaster also.
Replacing the front adjustment bolts is really not too bad. It was a great learning experience for me since I heard so many horror stories about removing ball joints. Of course the GM manual called for a special Kent-Moore ball joint separator tool that cost $435. No way! I used PB Blaster and bought a 2 jaw-5 ton puller at Auto Zone for $30. It is their SKU #25914 pictured below.
It was really tight getting to the lower ball joint and I had to bend the bracket for the anti -lock brake sensor wire out of the way. Then I could get the 2-jaw puller square on top of the ball joint. I didn’t want to hit the ball joints to break them loose like so many guys say to do. With my luck, I would end up breaking the aluminum lower control arm on my “V”. Anyway, I had to keep pressure on the right lower ball joint overnight with the 5-ton puller before it broke loose on its own. The left side of the car was much easier. I had the left lower control arm completely dropped in 47 minutes.
I lubricated both the front and rear trim height adjuster bolt pads to prevent them from freezing up. Even though Derby City Corvette sells this 4 bolt lowering kit to lower Corvettes up to 2”, I found that they were also perfect for restoring my XLR-V to specification ride height. The service Stabilitrac message on my DIC has also disappeared since my “V” is back to normal trim height. The trim height sensors on each control arm are seeing everything is back in specification. I feel confident in saying that this kit will work on all XLR’s and XLR-V’s.
By the way if anyone is interested in adjusting the trim height on their Corvette or XLR, I will rent out my Kent-Moore J42854 trim height measurement gauge and the Kent-Moore J42743 tool for $20 plus shipping. You can save a pant load.
