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alignment

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Posted by: 9_8_L_S_C

I am going to be putting new rims and tires on and am in need of an alignment.My question is-at what position do they perform the alignment-normal height or parked lowered height-I have it sensor lowered now and think that might be the initial cause of the uneven front tire wear.Second question is can it be alignmened properly sensor lowered or should I return it to stock height? I will be running either 245-45-17's or 255-45-17's

Posted by: driller

If you didn't get it aligned after sensor lowering, that would be a cause for uneven front tire wear. It should be aligned at the 'park' height(the sensor lowered 'park' height) as that is the ride height at highway speeds.

Posted by: 9_8_L_S_C

cool thanks

Posted by: American Air-1

I agree with driller, get it set while at "Curb(Parked)Height", but make up your mind at what height you like it and then have the alignment done. Keep in mind that the lower the car is, the further away from "Nominal" or perfect, the alignment can be.

Posted by: poniesviii

I got my alignment within FACTORY spec (probably not ideal) after sensor lowering to pretty much the max and still have a driveable car. the factory 26" O.D. tire sits into the wheel wells front and rear about 1/2". Pretty low for a drive height. (highway)

You can modify your eccentrics, if you have a shop and the right tools (grinder, welder, etc) to get them set to perfect spec. I'll be doing this during my front end rebuild.

After sensor lowering our cars it's not technically correct. The control arms aren't supposed to be elevated on an 'ideal' setup on any car. Mine are pitched pretty good! But it rides nice so I guess I don't care.

It is critical on these cars to get a new alignment job done after changing height at all, because the front tires don't only negatively camber, but they toe out a good amount also (front of tire in outward direction of where it should be) .... so your tires aren't only spinning, but also getting 'pushed' when driving down the road, and combined with the negative camber, will chew up a brand new set of tires down to the belts within 5k miles if you lowered the car excessively. I learned this on my '93, my first mark viii.

Posted by: 94m5

THANK GOD!!!!

Some one else who agrees with me about suspension geometry on lowerd cars.

Posted by: rmac694203

New Falken tires are about toast after about 7k. Improper alignment and bad front end parts. Buying new tires sucks. When I finally got my car aligned it took the guy at farm n fleet like 10 minutes to get it on the rack because it was so low.

Posted by: chickenviii

Quote:

Originally Posted by rmac694203

New Falken tires are about toast after about 7k. Improper alignment and bad front end parts. Buying new tires sucks. When I finally got my car aligned it took the guy at farm n fleet like 10 minutes to get it on the rack because it was so low.

when i dropped my car i allready had crap tires on it so i was not worried but damn it burned them up fast, as for the alignment rack, it sux i got 2, 4" thick and 2.5' long and 2' wide pieces of plywood at work and juggeling a couple 2x4's to pull up it, got it mastered now tho cuz my buddys lowered bird is the same way, hell to put either of our cars up just on a 2 post hoist i put the plywood where u want the front tires and drive up on it so the hoist will clear the pinch welds
*note my sig pics are the car dropped with rays switch so its normally higher than that*