Ride Hight Question?
 

Hey guys,

While completing my suspension upgrade this winter I had determined to reset my ride hight back to euro spec. F- 25.5'' & R- 25''. After much thought, I decided to raise the settings up by .5 in the front and rear. This was due to all the front spoiler damage sustained thought the years and our road conditions here in Canada.

After taking out the car this morning with it's new ride height F-26 & R-25.5 it is quite evident that this new ride height is more suited to our roads.

My question is, will changing the ride height by .5'' in the front and rear substantially change the handling characteristics of the car from before once corner balanced and aligned? Or should I just set it back to euro spec?

Thanks
T-RONE
_________
87 Carrera Coupe

Wheel alignment is done @ a given height. Even as the car moves and the suspension does it's thing moving up & down the alignment is changing.

The thing is the alignment @ a given ride height is the best compromise for that height and the vertical displacement above and below it.

When raising the height you are moving out of the alignment sweet spot permanantly, when the suspension compresses you are heading back to the correct alignment zone, but on extension you are moving away from it.

Bottom line you need a new alignment.

A 0.5" ride height increase is hardly worth a wheel alignment IMHO. If that were the case, then every time you filled your gas tank, the 1" height difference would be more than enough to warrant an alignment.

But if you haven't had an alignment in a while, it might be a good excuse to get one now.

By the way, how is it handling now? Are you noticing anything different?


Cheers,

Joe

Thanks for you input guys! I have an alignment and corner balance booked for next week.

Joe, I have only taken the car out with it's new ride height around the city, and have not noticed much difference in handeling. I think if it was an auto-x event it might be a different story.

After much thought I decided to lower it back to euro ride height because it looks alot better in my opinion.

You guys talk about measuring fenders on ride heigth i guess it could be used as an estimate but what if a fender is replace or previous damage?, seems like you would use a trailing arm mount. my guys use suspension pickup points chassis mounts for ride heigth, you should at least look at the bump steer, Kevin

Bentley (and I think Waynes book) have the 'correct' suspension point method of measuring.