Let me know if I should go for allignment and if so, what should I look for?

Any special equipment that is preferable to be used and how do I know it's perfect?

Road test isn't usually very good as the roads are uneven...and I'll probably be more concerned with bumps than straight line movement.

Thanks in advance!

 

yes

 

When you droppin, or are you all ready?

I think you need alignment but doesnt need to be right away and can actually be better to wait a few days but don't quote me...

I was gonna do HR/A-Spec other susp. crap but think might do full A-Spec susp. for a little more comfort than race style

 

Alignment is absolutely necessary unless you want rapidly worn tires.

Each time I've dropped (my two TLs and the RL), I've had the alignment done at the same time as the drop. While I've had no trouble with this method, there is an argument that one should wait for the springs to settle first (a week or two) prior to doing the alignment, but my schedule is so busy I can't do that.

 

Listen to bob. Align it unless you want to buy more tires soon.

 

yea...my mechanic woke me up this morning and told me I better pay the shop next door for allignment...I hope he wasn't biased.

He actually called cause he couldn't find the wheel locks...but he went through my car and found it.

 

Your changing the geometry of the front suspension which in turns requires a 4 wheel alignment. How low did you go?

 

4.2" front and 4.3" rear

a drop of 1.5/1.4"

 

I've had lowered cars in the past and always got an alignment done. Tire wear will be an issue if it is not done.

 

Just remind the alignment shop of the revised specification....there is one number that is slightly different. (surprisingly my acura dealer didn't know this, until I showed them the installation sheet). Its minor, but again, the geometry is changing......

 

I should have mentioned inthe above post this was for the ASPEC suspension....I'm not sure for the other products.....

 

While we on the topic how much do you guys pay for alignments?

 

60 bux

 

I assume there was a camber kit for this?

 

camber what?

 

Does your car show any negative camber when you lowered your car?

 

I don't know what camber is!!!

 

^^^

Camber

When you adjust the ride height, you're changing the angle. A vehicle with zero camber has tires that are straight up and down.

A camber kit takes this into compensation

 

I have no idea what they did.

I gave em $60 and they gave me a car back with steering wheel 2 degrees off center which I will yell at them tomorrow for.

Beyond that...I have no idea.

What's the most obvious way to tell?

 

Well if you have excessive tire wear on the inside portion of your tread, you'll know.

 

doesn't seem like something I will find out anytime soon.

 

"Look" at your rear wheels from the front of the car, or rear, and if the wheels are slanted out toward the bottom, you have negative camber. To fix this, if you take it to a competent alignment shop, ask them to dial in A LOT of negative "toe", and the issue will be fixed, without the need for a camber kit.

 

When you go back, have em give you a print out of before and after. post the print out or just the specs.

I and others can tell you what to do and look for.



Toe in helps to a point but when you go to far it makes the steering kinda squirly.

 

I'm not really having any problems besides the part where my steering wheel is off center.

I am going to pay them a visit regardless and they make have to do their mumbo jumbo again to fix it.

 

well...they re-did the allignment and NOTHING has changed. Steering wheel is still about 2 degrees off.

I am starting to think they have no idea what they are doing.

3rd attempt tomorrow!

 

Did you ask for a printout?

 

I don't need a print out, I can see that it's messed up.

What will the print out tell me?

I assume the computer told the guy how much correction to make, he did that and let's just say the result wasn't what he wanted.

 

actually half these guys just worry about getting specs into the green. which doesnt always net the best aligment.

A good aligment is one of the key components of having a well handling car.

a good aligment will help with turn in, understeer, etc.

say you got -1 degree of camber on the left front wheel and positive .5 degree in the right front. on the aligment machine computer everything will be fine, but say the toe is exatctly at zero on bothe front wheels (highly unlikely) your car will still pull slightly. and of course ther might be some odd tire wear if your running wide tires.


Dont sleep on your aligment.

 

I'm not sleeping, I'm clueless

 

try different shop.

 

I paid this shop, they will get it right. As many times as it takes.

 

Lets see a pic of what this drop is looking like.

 

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...=709423&page=3

 

Very nice.

...If there was a camber change its not noticible in those pics.

...it would drive me crazy to have my steering wheel off a couple degrees. Hope they get it right for you.

 

I think it's right to a quarter of a degree...I left em alone after 6 attempts.

My mechanic offered to do it once more to get it right...I told em he may get his chance when I need my tires rotated...

Quietly I'm thinking I'll take it to the dealer and pay close to $200 for the same work...maybe.

 

dealer charged me $30.

 

are we talking about allignment?

You may want to check your receipt to see what they really did because that price does not seem like anything beyond an oil change if you're lucky and washer fluid if everything is normal...

 

oh wait...that was for rotation...never mind. I know I overpaid! I need to get some sleep.lol

 

GET THE PRINTOUT...
A good alignment shop will give you a printout for your wheel specs. They will have taken measurements BEFORE your alignment to show how far out of spec your car was before you got the work done. And then another portion will tell you your AFTER specs showing if you are in fact in spec or you aren't. The printout is probably one of the most important things of an alignement because alot of the work that is done is not able to be detected by eye. Unless you have some serious negative camber which is obviously seen but with a 1.5" drop you wont have that much.
Think about whats happening right now... how do you know if the work they performed is up to par and in the vehicle specs other than the fact that your steering wheel is slightly off? You dont really.. and you really should know and thats what the printout will offer you. Piece of mind that there was actual correction work performed and that it was performed correctly.
Below is an example i found of a printout, its not very clear but you can see that some of the numbers are green and others are red. The red is still out of spec and the green is saying your in spec. It also allow you to see how close they matched up your suspension settings from side to side.
PRINT OUT
Good luck bro but i suggest if they dont have a printout, not to use them in the future as its important unless you absolutely TRUST them. Hope this helped.

Oh and your question on camber correction kits... if you are out of spec using the factory alignemnt adjustment bolts because your drop might have been to drastic for the vehicle. Then camber correction kits are another part that you would install for additional correction to bring the car back to factory spec after a not so factory drop was performed. For the future it might be best to research just a bit more before doing something of this nature to the car as there is alot of information out there on these items. It will help you gauge if your springs will be the ONLY investment you need to make to achieve the modification you are trying to perform.

And please for the love of god DO NOT go to the dealer for this work. A capable suspension shop can and will do the work right. 5hit honestly i take mine to friggin Sear's and have been for years... a lowered IS300, G35, Integra all dropped well under 2.5" and they all came out in spec WITH printouts. $69 bucks my friend, do not go to the dealer please.

 

037 did your mom approve it to install springs on her car?