Gernby

I am about to purchase a set of coilovers, so I am trying to figure out a good way to start off with near OEM corner weighting. Below is the process that I am considering. Please let me know what you think.

1) Fill the gas tank up to about 1/2 full
2) Get everything out of the car and trunk
3) Equalize all my tire pressures to 32 PSI
4) Park the car in my garage
5) Mark the footprint of at least 2 tires on the floor with tape or paint
6) Measure the height of all 4 fender wells from the floor with me sitting in the driver's seat (obviously requires a helper)
7) Install the coilovers
8) Adjust the coilovers so that the before / after difference in fender heights on each side are exactly the same

I realize that an unlevel floor will cause some error due to the progressive OEM spring rates, but it seems like as long as I always make my measurements with the car in the same footprint, the error will be tiny.

cdelena

I always measure height from the bottom lip of the wheel to eliminate floor / inflation variances. I would not worry alot about having the driver in the seat, it just does not make that much difference. You can get the level but without scales it is not corner weighting.

Gernby

I know I need scales to measure the corner weights, but what I'm trying to do is develop a method for adjusting the coilovers without changing corner weights. The reason why I think the driver needs to be in the car is because the weight of the driver will tilt the car more with the progressive OEM springs than it will with the stiffer straight rate springs.

I'm trying to define a horizontal plane of referrence (specific to the contour of my imperfect garage floor) from the OEM setup. Once I have that defined, I should be able to maintain the OEM corner weights. I like the idea of measuring the fender heights from the wheel lip, but the tires will still need to be properly inflated, or the load will be distributed differently.

cjb80

That's going to be a pain in the ass to keep jacking it up and measuring, rinse and repeat. Sounds like an all day job.

Chris

Gernby

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cjb80
[B]That's going to be a pain in the ass to keep jacking it up and measuring, rinse and repeat.

krazik

If you do it right, you only have to jack up each corner 1-2 times.

You should probably measure from the center of the hub straight up to the wheel well, as that measurement won't change w/ different tire sizes.

MacGyver

Don't forget about letting the suspension settle between each jack session...even after changing rims I can watch my car settle for about 30 seconds, and I know it continues to settle for several minutes afterwards.

Gernby

My plan is to roll the car back a few feet, then forward back to the same footprint with me in it.

integrate

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cjb80
[B]That's going to be a pain in the ass to keep jacking it up and measuring, rinse and repeat.

Gernby

I am really curious why you guys are saying this. Can the height adjustments be made WITHOUT jacking the car?