Suspension & Brakes - front end alignment?

for awhile know i've had the front end lowered about 1.7'' and noticed the other day that the camber is off. both tires are wearing out on inside portion of the tire about 1 inch-1 1/4 inches of the inside is gone and cords are starting to show. can this be fixed with a conventional alignment from Sears or such alignment shops?

I was going to ask this same question. I lowered my car the other day and noticed the camber is off too. Luckily I havnt driven it that much to see uneven tire wear.

You have to align these cars after lowering or you will deal with these issues. To answer your question, I wouldn't take my worst enemies car to Sears.

sears doesn't like lowered cars anyway. Its funny you should mention, we had hired a jackass and right before we were gonna fire him he transferred to a sears in the dallas area. I never found out which one but good luck to those guys.

Shop around for an alignment shop that will accept lowered cars. Call - it's better than driving around.

how is the car supported for doing alignments? i was thinkin about getting spring wedges to raise it up alittle bit over spending $$ on stock springs

Just sits on its wheels. The lift has ramps that support the wheels - you just drive it straight on. Like this:

http://www.bestbuyautoequipment.com/v/vspfiles/photos/AL4-12K-2T.jpg

i only asked because when i was at a car show at LesSchwab. a car was on a lift supported between the f/r axles.

how is the car supported for doing alignments? i was thinkin about getting spring wedges to raise it up alittle bit over spending $$ on stock springs

The car has to be sitting on it's wheels, the FULL WEIGHT of the car compressing the suspension, as it would during normal driving.

Aligning a lowered car usually isn't the issue, it's getting the car on and off the alignment rack. A combination of lowered ride height, and extended noses with front spoilers, means the car's bodywork hits the front of the rack, before the wheels get on the ramps, and begin to get the nose up. A couple of 2x10s, about 4 ft. long, that you drive on first, leading up to the rack's ramps, usually does the trick.

The only mechanical problem you might encounter with doing a camber adjustment to an extremely lowered car, is having enough travel in the slots that the lower controll arm bolts pass through. If you can't slide the arms in enough toward the center of the car, to get the camber right, you can use a Dremel tool or die grinder, to CAREFULLY lenghten these slots. No more that an additional 1/4" should be sufficient.

would something like this help as an inexpensive fix? http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Search?catalogId=10114&storeId=10101&sku=spring+spacer

would something like this help as an inexpensive fix? http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Search?catalogId=10114&storeId=10101&sku=spring+spacer


First, why? Secondly, no.


Simply find a shop that will take the extra few minutes to carefully get your car on their rack, although I will say that if your car is indeed lowered 1.7", that is a bit on the low side. Most guys go with the 1.25"-1.5" drops of the mainsteram lowering springs....

my buddy who i bought them off of said at the time that they were 1.7" drop Eiboch pro kit... cool cool no spring rubbers, it was just a though is all... guess i'll be looking around for a quality auto shop

my buddy who i bought them off of said at the time that they were 1.7" drop Eiboch pro kit... cool cool no spring rubbers, it was just a though is all... guess i'll be looking around for a quality auto shop

The Eibach "ProKit" is a 1.25" drop, the Eibach SportLine is closer to 2"....

There is the old skool alignment pit option. There's a shop in the west burbs of Chicago, about 40 mins from my house that has an alignment pit. I just drive the car right it, no elevation change or nothing. Never an issue with clearance. It looks something like this:http://scrapking.ca/PhotoAlbums/Hanover/Alignment_Pit.jpg

It's gotta' be a bitch to get all those batteries out of the way, though!


:D:D