Alignment with car not sitting level?

[andyt11]

My car is going for four wheel alignment soon following some suspension changes. I understand ride height changes alignment (I'm not sure if it is a significant amount or not), so I want to set the ride height where I want it prior to sending the car to the shop.

It currently sits about 3/8 to 1/2" higher on the drivers side than the passenger side. When the driver is in the car, it sits perfectly level.

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The question is....

Whether to set the car level prior to alignment and know that when the driver is in it, it will actually sit low on the left, or whether to leave as is and know that the car is level when the driver is in it.

On the other hand, perhaps it simply doesn't matter.

It's not a race car, its not corner balanced and wont be either of those in the future. I rarely have a passenger. The car sees about 1000 miles a year on the street and perhaps one charity autocross.

[Joe Bob]

Corner balance typically uses weights in the driver seat to simulate the driver.

[Bob Kontak]

Won't corner balancing tweak the ride height a bit to push some pounds one way or another? I would follow the shops recommendation. Surely they have skill in this sort of thing.

[andyt11]

I'm not looking to corner balance at all.

Don't think there is anywhere in town that could do it even if I wanted to.

[johnsjmc]

I would at least check balance with the "tripod method" . You jack up the car on a single centered point at the front and measure fender height at the rear.
Then lift at the middle of the rear and measure front heights.
If the car is approximately balanced the heights don,t change side to side much.
The most common symptom of an unbalanced car is premature front lock up on one side during hard braking. Indicating a light corner

[T77911S]

i recently took my 930 for an alignment. i had it done at a local tire shop for $90 vs a "euro" shop that tried the hard sell for how difficult it was and their $300+ price.

i asked around about a shop for an alignment. i was giving a few names based on the fact they had the latest and greatest alignment machines. then i asked the guy if he had done 911's. said he had been doing this for 40 yrs and had done a "few", as in quite a few.

my point, find a good shop with the newest machine then asked the alignment guy what he thinks before you have him do it. he may let you sit in it while he does it if you can sit still.
he may even tell you it will not make a difference, but ask the alignment guy

[Dave Colangelo]

If the car sees that few miles than I would not worry that much. Furthermore if you are not doing AX or track days or the like, you really dont need to worry. It sounds like you pleasure cruise the car when you can so a regular old alignment is fine.

On another note I recently spoke to my mechanic about aligning these cars and I found out why "euro" shops try to charge so much. I took my car in to my mechanic who my father and I have been using for a combined 50 years at this point. They have a shop in my town and have worked on everything form civics to one off Ferrari's. Some of the older guys in the shop are great to talk to as they have driven some really cool cars. Any way when they got the car up on the lift they laughed a bit. Modern cars are easily aligned with tie rods or other quickly adjusted things. Older 911's have a series of Eccentric bolts and spring arm bolts that need to be adjusted to properly adjust the car. This allows for precise control over toe and camber but for someone who does not know what bolts control what can take a lot of experimentation. Luckily there was an old guy in the shop who remembered how to do it but it still took him 2 hours of wrestling with it just to do the rear tires. Many new shots are just afraid of these adjustments because they dont know how to do them, the euro shops take advantage of this and try to charge a huge premium. I would not look for a shop with the newest alignment machine but more with the oldest mechanic haha.

Regards
Dave

[rsscotty]

There is a lot to consider when basing body measurements on what seems right and what actually works if you corner weight check. I have been doing alignments for years , using scales on most cars for the past 15 using a professional leveled rack, scales and photo sensor alignment equipment.

Typically you never see the left side front higher than the right with no driver. The most common measurement is seeing the rt. front 1/4 inch higher than the left, and the left rear 1/4 higher than the right rear. You also need to pay attention to the degree of rake from front to rear. They are never level, always have a rake with the number differing depending on model of 911 (911, 964, 993, 996, 997). We adjust street cars with no driver weight and race cars with. The Porsche & Ferrari new cars are setup this way when delivered, since we have actually checked this on a number of cars.

[afterburn 549]

On your P. Car corner balance and wheel alignment all go together . Esp. if you change ride HT.
you can get a way with minor stuff like camber (front) or toe (front)
Dont let it scare you, its not hard to do at home, just time consuming .

[911pcars]

Yes, the vehicle should be level when adjusting alignment specs (aka "alignment rack"). To be most accurate, that really includes adjusting ride height. YMMV. There are inexpensive water-based leveling devices. Select 4 spots in your work area and establish equal level using thin floor tiles.

Corner balancing typically requires some level of minimal equipment.

Sherwood

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