My car started to touch the ground when I drive on a bumpy road or at the intersection of a sloped road with a level road. It started about a month ago.
The mechanic at the dealership blames it on DC roads quality. He checked the suspension and sees nothing wrong with it.
He explains the suspension settles after a while and I have to live with this.
And your question is?
I think there’s something hanging down lower than it should. A splash shield, perhaps, or part of the front bumper cover. The exhaust system is another possibility. If your mechanic were correct, ALL '07 Rabbits in DC would be hitting the ground, and I seriously doubt that’s the case. The suspension should not “settle” enough to notice, especially not in just 15K miles.
Where does the contact occur? In the front of the car or somewhere further back?
Is it the front air-dam? If so, sooner or later you will hit a parking block and tear it off. It’s there to improve mileage and high-speed handling.
And my question is - what causes the car to behave like that? The contact occurs in the front of the car. The front air dam shows minor damage. If it is the air dam - why did this start to happen only one moth ago ?
Something has shifted, sagged, come loose, or in some other way moved into closer proximity to the road. Has there been any damage to the front of the vehicle, such as a crash or parking lot incident with another car?
I conclude you are trying to get the Dealer to perform some warranty repair? The first thing is to get the mechanic to duplicate the condition. They will probably want to drive on the exact same street you are having the contact on and probably with you driving. Duplication is key to getting this resolved.
Many times we suggest that a attempt to drive a similar car on the same street and see what happens.
The mechanic at the dealership blames it on DC roads quality. …There is no logic in that statement. The tech is basically saying that crappy roads are to high and hit the bottom of the vehicle AND the car is settling, apparently a couple of inchs which is to much. He is talking out of both sides of his head. Which is which, car or road?
Are the wheels and tyres stock original?
Take a look under the car, You should be able to see scratches where it has hit.
All suspensions do “settle” a little, but I doubt is that is the problem. It is possible that the car just does not have enough ground clearance for where and how it is driven.
You also may want to take it to an independent alignment shop and see if it is spec of something is going on.
It is not the car, I own a VW GTI which is bbasically the same thing, and my suspension is lower than that on the Rabbit, I have yet to rub the road in northern VT after 35K of driving. I agree that it is most likely a splash shield or something similar.