suspension concerns?

[blighty]

I moved my car today so that I could pressure wash my drive.
when I moved the car back into the drive I noticed that the car looked quite lopsided. The road where I put the car is on a hill, so not flat, so I rocked the car to help settle the springs back a bit better and went out with tape measure and measured from the floor to the top of the arch at the highest point (so the tape measure was passing over the centre of the alloys)
These are the measurements that I got.

Front drivers side 23.2 inches
front passenger side 24.2 inches.

rear drivers side 23.4 inches
rear passenger side 23 inches

Obviously with the road not being completely flat and not being able to tell if my drive is 100% flat I would imagine that would counteract the 0.2/4 inches being out, but with it being a whole inch out on the front it has spun me slightly. What could be wrong? (I'm no mechanic lol)

the car is a golf gti 16 (1987) and which is on (what I presume to be) original springs.

Could it be something simple like the springs not sat right or the springs just getting old and could do with replacing?
I thought about getting some cheap coilovers next month anyway but that wasnt the definite plan.
Is it safe to drive around like this until pay day the first week of next month? (I presume people will say it depends on what the problem is)

[tony_ack]

Get it onto completely flat ground (i.e. petrol station forecourt) and measure vertically from the middle of the wheel to the bottom of the arch and post the measurements.

The discrepency you got with your first measurements could be down the road camber, though I guess an inch is quite a lot for that . Either way, you can't really begin diagnosis until you measure the ride height properly and accurately.

If you're worried about driving the car to somewhere flatter in case the suspension is broken then bounce the car on each corner, listening for knocks or noises that shouldn't be there.

[blighty]

when I did the measurements the car was on my drive which as far as I can tell is pretty flat and could tell it was higher one side than the other by sitting in the drivers seat and looking at the bonnet line compared to my fence panel line.
But anyway, you say measure from the centre of the wheel to the arch? what would the difference be from how I measured it already? (just out of curiosity)

[richard s]

for you fronts id check your top mounts
open bonnet and remove plastic covers from top of strut and see if the suspension tops sit at different heights

[Neo Badness]

drivers side tends to be slightly lower due to you sitting in all the time compared to not always having passengers. Would still double check anyway and if you are on original suspension it probs wouldn't hurt to replace it 

[blighty]

right, I have been out and checked measurements again from centre of the wheel to the highest point of the arch (on the plastic arch trim, not the metal bit behind the plastic arch trim) and also checked top mount heights, which are the same.

Front drivers side 320mm
front passenger side 345mm
rear drivers side 310mm
rear passenger side 305mm

(done by eye and tape measure, so there could be 5mm either way - but the fronts still seem quite far out)

Bounced each corner of the car, all sounds ok apart from the front passenger side which makes this odd sound sort of like something is catching on something, it all bounces like the other corners, just makes the odd noise (its not a loud noise either, cant notice it from inside the car when driving etc)

havent had chance to jack the car up to look if the spring is sat in the cup properly yet as its got a bit too dark to see now. What else could it be other than the spring not sitting in the cup right?