Lowering the front end slightly?

[PDACPA]

My new 17" 3.6 Turbo C-2 rims look great. Everyone thinks the car is new!

After putting them on I immediately thought the front end looked a bit high and their was a bit too much space between the top of the tire and the fender well (think circuit city commercial where the wife thinks there is too much space around the TV and says hubby can get a bigger one! haha...and my wife is not going to let me swap them for 18" ).

I decided to live with it for a bit and see if I still thought that way. I do.

So what is involved in just adjusting the front down a bit to close up the gap in the wheel well. The rear looks fine.

Sorry for the inferior picture, but you can get an idea and the car is on a driveway with a slope.

Thanks

[PDACPA]

Sorry wrong pic. Thats my avitar.

[Jgordon]

Looks sweet.

[Tim L]

There is an adjustment screw at the rear of the front torsion bar. Just turn them an equal number of turns on both sides, it's very easy.

This may change your toe slightly.

Tim

[PDACPA]

Thanks Jgordon.

I was very happy with the wheels. I have the vented panels that go behind the rear wheel, but they have not been painted yet and I am still trying to decide on the muffler which will have a nice chrome tip on both sides (asthetics in addition to a slight performance and sound increase).

[PDACPA]

Hey Tim

Hate to sound dumb but where is that torsion bar? Do I remove the wheel?

[PDACPA]

Change the toe? Do you mean the slant of the wheel as in positive or negative camber?

Also, should the car be on jack stands to do this?

sorry for the two posts but I got a phone call and wanted to get it posted before you left. thanks

[carnut169]

You need a copy of 101 projects! Wayne tells you how to do this in detail (and yes, it is very easy in the front), but after you are done adjusting the height you need to have your car aligned.

[Tim L]

Park the car on level ground so you can see how much your lowering it. Just reach under the car and turn the adjuster say a half of a turn on each side then measure how much the front was lowered. The adjuster is just inside the rear of the front wheel. The screw is vertical at the bottom rear of the A arm. The toe of the front wheel is how much they point in or out.

Tim

[PDACPA]

Man I must sound dumb, but tighten or loosen the bolt to lower?

[PDACPA]

Ordering Wayne's book now. The height lowering and oil change alone pay for it many times over!

[930Chas]

I just went through the same thing. I put 18" Fikses on my car and thought the front end was up too high. Thankfully I own Wayne's book which helped me solve the problem. YOU DEFINITELY NEED TO BUY THAT BOOK!!!! At any rate, when you look under the front of the car you will see an adjustment screw on each side of the car. Spray some PB blaster or something on each screw to loosen them up. Then you just adjust each screw until you get the car to where you want it. You don't need to turn it too much, and you will probably want to drive it between each adjustment to get the suspension settled. I also pulled up and pushed down on the front end to help settle it. The car doesn't need to be on jacks, and you don't do anything with the torsion bars unless you want to replace them. Make sure the car is on level ground, and after the car has just the right amount of attitude, get a full alignment. Wayne also recommends getting the bump steer kit after lowering the front end. Good luck. I also enclosed a picture of my car right after I got the wheels on, pre-lowering.

[mm86911]

Keep in mind that you will also affect your corner balance if you change ride height.

[pbs911]

When i replaced my 16" Fuchs with 17" Fikse, I also had a little "extra" space betwee nthe wheel and wheel well that was not there before. The difference was in the 1/4 inch difference in the circumfrrance of the tires. See below. (sorry I posted the pic and realize it is difficult to see since the car is black.)

Lowering the car is simple. Follow the instructions above. However, this will affect your alignment and corner balancing. Remember that lowering one corner with affect the weight placed on the opposite rear, and visa-versa. I think you have been watching too much TV (Circuit City ad). The car looks great. I would leave it as it is until you want to have it re aligned and corner balanced. You could always take measurements of where it is now, lower it, and if you don't like it reset it to its current height.

[PDACPA]

930 yours looks just like mine does. I need a new digital camera this old thing does not do justice to my car.

Satellite TV in my office on Fox News all day does not help with tv watching!

What does the corner balance do exactly and should I have the mechanic do it along with the alignment or is it something I can do?

Yes Yes .. Waynes book is on the way!

[T Bird]

Sorry to sound like a killjoy, but just lowering the front end is not a very good idea. If you are going to lower the car, then you need to lower both front and rear. Just lowering the front is going to upset the balance of the car.

Before lowering anything, get the ride height specs for your model year, take measurements at the prescribed points, and lower both ends accordingly. When I did mine, I lowered it 25 mm front and rear from the factory settings. The car was not at the prescribed factory height when I started this operation due to the age of the bushings, etc. Lowering also presents a perfect opportunity to replace rear spring plate bushings.

[CEO]

PDACPA ,
I am thinging about putting the same wheels on my 911 but am trying to decide between 18" or 17". I was also wondering if you had a better pics of the wheels up close and higher quality. And can you tell me where you got them?

[pwm74]

hey pdacpa
are those real or replica.

where did you get them?

DID YOU NEED SPACERS

[PDACPA]

Kenneth

On the advice of my very experienced mechanics, I went with the 17". I had found a deal on some 18" but I did not want to roll my fenders and/or move the lines that run in the passenger wheel well.

I ordered them through Wheel Enhancement after a few months of searching for the best price. Most of the prices were very similiar and with everyone's good experience with Wheel Enh. I went with them.

I also ordered them with Potenza S03's and some new lugs. Total tab was $3200. They arrived a little later than promised but a holiday probably caused that.

They were ready to mount.

They also only charged my card $1000 until they received the wheels from Kinesis (that is who they told me makes them for Wheel Enhancement ) and then charged the balance.

I absolutely love the look of them. I have the Bad Boys movie on DVD and would check out the 3.6 turbo that Will Smith drives and knew thats what I wanted.

I did not question this, and probably should, but the shipped weight (box, packing, wheel with tire mounted) was 48 and 49 lbs. I feel like the car is not as quick from a stand still and I am guessing its from going to a 17" from a 16" Fuchs.

I cannot tell you how many people notice them (who know I have the car) or I am in a parking lot and they say nice car is it new? Yeah its about 13 years new!

[PDACPA]

Wheel Enhancement
John Brown was the very helpful sales guy

they are 3 piece Alloys
7.5 x 17 Fronts with 215/45ZR/17
9 x 17 Rears with 255/40ZR/17 Potenza S03's

No spacers needed. According to John, they are made specifically for my car (ie he calls Kinesis and tells them my model and they make a set for it)

I could not find OEM 3.6 Turbo C-2 style wheels and I am guessing I would have had to deal with spacers.


You cannot see it from the picture, I will try to take some in the daylight with my old camera, but I painted the stock calipers with the caliper paint from Pelican and they look GOOD. I want some Big Reds but these will do. You really could not see them with my Fuchs and my wife thought I was nuts. She agrees you can see them now, but she still thinks there was no reason to paint them. Personally, I love them painted red and they show so nicely with the rims.