OK, got the front lowered last night. Also installed the bump steer spacers and greased the roll bar bushings to try and eliminate a squeak coming from the front suspension. Front was a breeze. I have it set at 25" to the fender. It seems I measured the rear incorrectly as on side is 24.5" and the other is 24". looks like I will have to go at the rear one more time to even it out at 24.5", maybe even go up to 24.75" and raise the fronts anotherr 1/4" Then off to alignment. I've attached some photos. In these shots, the rear is 24" which looks too low for my taste. Should have it all adjusted and buttoned up tonight!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1213108580.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1213108600.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1213108612.jpg

It is essential that the floor is absolutely level to get accurate measurements!
Meaning: A check with a builders level.
Be prepared that things will settle somewhat after a drive and a day or 2, especially with gas-pressured shocks like Bilsteins etc.
I would ensure that the floor is level and wait with alignment until everything is settled in a couple days because just bouncing down on the bumper does not give you the final height.

Squeaking usually comes from the rubber A-arm bushings; hard to eliminate.

Going to take it for a bit of a drive tonight to settle the suspension. No Bilsteins, just BOGE, put new Sachs all around last week. The floor is surprisingly level which is good. I was afraid you may say something like that about the squeaking, but I will keep my fingers crossed and listen to it tonight, maybe I got lucky!

Thanks.

Success! After a quick drive, the fronts didn't change, but the rear did settle another inch! So I took apart the rear suspension again for the 4th time last night. I am getting good (and quick) at this, but it is getting very repetitive and I am ready for a new project already. Anyways, re-indexed the t-bars again, lowered the car, drove it, checked the height and... perfect! 24.5" rear and 25" front. Looks good to. So now I just wait for my alignment on Monday and I can start enjoying it again. Onto the next project, much simpler, installing the Wevo shifter and SW chip I ordered.

Decide what Camber and Toe you want because the shops only have factory settings which you don't want!
1 deg negative front and 1.5 deg rear (Or close to it) is popular meaning 0.7 or 0.8 deg front and 1.2 or 1.3 deg rear is fine.
Expect the rear to settle more in coming weeks! I would wait with alignment.
Try this:
Park in your normal spot, mark the position on the floor, check the fender height, then turn the car around and park in the same spot reversed and measure again.
Any difference?
If there is, your floor is not level.
Re corner balance:
It is true that a good alignment can come close to good weight distribution but, it's not for certain; you might be surprised by the numbers.
It's your call.
If all suspension-components are good, a combined alignment/CB can be done by an experienced shop in 3 hours.

AVIMAX,
used any tool to get the spring plate out? when i did mine few weeks ago, I soaked the brand new neatrix bushings with grease. It goes in fine but it never wants to come out with some serious leveraging which I haven't been able to find a simple easy solution to. Or should I use something other than grease to lubricate?

midnight 911,

On the first attempt I resorted to grabbing the tube part of the spring plate (where the t-bar is inside) with channel locks and was able to wiggle it out - a lot of wiggling. I resorted to this because I tried prying with a screw driver but it would not budge. On the second attempt, I found by fluke that if I put the open end of my 19mm wrench between the spring plate and the inner fender in between the two posts for the lower bolts that hold on the spring plate cover, the spring plate just slid out with almost no effort by leveraging the wrench! Another thing I found that was if I slid the spring plate out with the wrench, the t-bar came with it, but if I wiggled the spring plate out, the t-bar stayed in the car! This was very helpful since I needed to rotate both the t-bars and the spring plates. However, I did not change the bushings, so yours might be in there a little tighter. Did you clean up the inside surface in the car that the bushings sit on before installing the spring plates with new bushings? I noticed that the bottom part of the hole is not so smooth like the top due to how the weight is carried. If you didn't clean it up, maybe some rust/dirt deposit is acting like teeth on the new bushings? Just a thought.

Gunter,

The shop I am using for the alignment also specializes in track set ups, so I am going to request that they set up the alignment not quite stock, but also not too extreme and see what they suggest, but I will keep your numbers in mind.

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll let you know how it turns out next week.

AVIMAX,
thanks. Yes, as you suspect, the difference is whether you have a new set of bushings or not. New bushings are quite tight...it is even difficult to get it in. I used long bolts to install the spring plates to get leverage. I did clean all the surfaces where the bushings go with glinder with wire brush attachment on. but it is still tight.
then again, i got away with the adjustment range the spring plate has rather than having to have the spring plate off and re-indexed...

when you take it to the alignment shop, do consider taking the tar/ goo off around the camber plate so that you can get more neg camber upfront. your tires should be okay with 2-2.5 degrees of neg camber upfront with zero toe. that would make the car look good and handles better on track/ auto-x.

Good point about removing the tar in the shock towers to speed up things.
The tar is only there to prevent water from coming in from under the fenders.
Easy on the negative camber if you don't do track; you don't want to ride on the inside edge if the tires. :)

Dropped off the car this morning at EU Autowerks to have the alignment done. Below is a photo of the final lowering results. I think I got the heights just about perfect looking, and the front is about 1/2" higher (ground to fender) than the rear so it should not only look good, but be good. I put about 100km on it before the alignment and the heights at all corners are still good. The shop said they will do the alignment so that the turn in will definitely be improved over stock setup. Can't wait to try it out tonight!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1213634926.jpg

Beautiful car, and nice work, AVIMAX...

Thanks midnight911, the mechanic at the shop said a simialr thing. I was telling him about how it took 4 tries to get the height in the rear just right, and he said he was quite surprised that I was able to get the back done myself, and infact no height adjustments were required at any corner! It was nice to hear that after all the hard work. However, I am not enjoying my newly lowered and aligned car yet. It seems I will have to wait a little longer. The shop called to say they could not align the car becuase one of the rear wheel bearings was bad and the wheel was loose. So they got a new bearing and pressed it into the hub, but the wheel is still loose, so they tell me the bearing must have been bad for some time and the hub is now bad. They are going to find me a good used hub for about $300. I am going out of town for a few days, so I will be bringing the car back to them on Friday, and then we should be all done. So far the guys at EU Autowerks have been very good, friendly, not pushy and seem to know what they are talking about. I felt very comfortable leaving the car in their hands. I never feel that comfortale with my new car at the dealer for just an oil change! I would definitley recommend them to anyone in the Toronto area. I'll wrap up Friday with a report how the car is after the alignment is comeplete.

O.K. that can happen.
As long as the mechanic realizes that the big nut needs a lot of torque to take out any axial play in the bearing.
Have fun.

Got the car back from EU Autowerks last Friday and it is amazing. I had them install turbo tie rods before doing the alignment, and now the car is driving great. I think after my work the alignment was way out, becuase the car just feels faster now, or at least less restricted. Of course I may just be wanting to feel this. The steering is much improved and more solid felling with the new tie rods. I also put in a SW chip over the weekend. Not a huge improvement, but definately an improvement. The car is slightly more powerful past 4000rpm, but the biggest difference is the smoothness of the engine. It now idles and runs much much smoother, and revs a little more freely. It was worth the money for the chip. The guys at EU Autowerks were outstanding, highly recommended.

Now to enjoy!