Front Near Side dropped lower - Bad Shock?

My front near side is dropped noticeably lower than the other corners. Afetr a quick visual check it looks to me like the shock on this side is a few inches shorter than the near side one (that is it's compressed more). Is this a 'faulty' one or is it possible it has leaked and sagged over time, in which case can I service it and get it back to normal? I see they are quite cheap so was just going to buy the pair and replace both but in line with my mentality of trying to reduce, re-use, recycle I thought I'd fix it if possible/safe to do so.

Thanks,

Andy.

The height of your landy is set by the amount of bend in your springs, the shock compression merely follows this. You either have a worn spring, corrosion in the spring leafs (stopping it unbending) or problems with the bushes. The bushes have a rubber insert and have a certain amount of springyness themselves. If they rotate they can cause the springs to "wind up" holding the springs under tension. Try loosening all three bush bolts, jump up and down on the affected corner and see if it levels out. There is a procedure for setting the suspension height and bolt torque in the manual. If it doesn't work and the spring mounts are sound you might be looking at a new pair of springs. Mind you, most leaf sprung landys lean to some extent.

Now you've said that I should have known it for myself - still making rookie mistakes but I'm getting there!!

I will visually inspect the springs again for damage (though they looked okay when I looked quickly last time). Will attempt the bush trick at the weekend and see how that goes. Will also refer to the Haynes manual for setting suspension up again.

Point taken about not expecting perfection but this is really noticeable (like a 4 inch drop).

Do the leaf springs generally tire out after long or heavy use and lose their ability to spring back? To the extent of a 4 inch drop? If so I would have thought the others would have sagged with it over time as well - unless they 'suddenly' lose their properties?

Sorry for all the questions, I am taking everything in but still at the stage where a little knowledge is just leading me to more and more questions

A sudden drop of 4" is a lot - check the spring mounting points in case one has rusted and collapsed or the chassis has deformed and look for broken spring leafs. Might be a buggered bush where the rubber has completely perished or torn.