Alignment for a lowered car?

[.Smitty.]

626SpecMan great idea lol. I've never even thought about that. I might try that then.

GTI-Guy, Integras have shocks, not struts. When I lowered the car I gained negative camber - good stuff. And I think that SilverStreak was probably talking about Honda-specific cars that use shocks.

[TurboFreak]

i can vouch for bill.. he is my goto guy for alignments

[bildo16]

im a tech at leta. toe is def adjustable without a camber kit. and yes, i lowered my car around 2.5 inches, and i had POSITIVE toe in the front. my ideal alignment (which i run on my car) is toe as close to zero as possible, a full degree neg up front with camber, as much caster as you can get (5 degrees would be perfect, but we dont live in a perfect world.) and a 1/2 degree negative out back. your car has struts. which is the name for a spring over shock combo. too much neg camber is bad for handling and TIRES! my teg was down 1.5 f and r and camber was pretty close to perfect. so your camber should be okay. when they tell you they cant do your alignment because of lack of a camber kit, its them telling you they cant get camber in spec, some people dont want to pay 90 for half of an alignment.

[JustRob]

Why do you say that? Most front strut cars, as the wheel travels up / the car is lowered, gain positive camber ... not good for cornering

Nope, they gain negative camber. Note N2HIFI's 4th gen Civic with Skunk2 coilover sleeves, Tokico Blues, no camber kit, and this is after an alignment.

[GTI-Guy]

I'm more VW-ish and Honda's suspension geometry is def much superior

On my GTI, without some corrective spindles, the camber curve goes a more negative initially and then gets almost a degree positive

Hondas, espcially the Integras have awesome geometry and I stand corrected

Fronts are strut/shock combo, rear are shocks with separate springs

Some day I'll be on double wishbone stuff, can't wait

My problem currently:



"As you remember, for the previous drawing, we started with camber -0,5 degree (negative). Here are the numbers we got from this simulation, lowering inch by inch..."

0" = -0,5
1" = -0,835
2" = -1.036
3" = -1,097
4" = -0,997
5" = -0,684
6" = -0,114
7" = +0,775

[bildo16]

first off, all dc chasis (not sure about da's) have "struts" on all four corners. a "strut" is basically a shock, with a spring perch built upon it that holds the spring over the shock body, if the two dont touch (meaning no perch on the shock body) it is a shcok spring combo. i dont have much experience with vw's but most hondas develop negative camber when lowered. when i lowered my ep3, i was actually positive .4 degrees before alignment. so imo it all depends on the suspension that you are dealing with. just do yourself a favor and find a reputable alignment shop near you that will just set your toe, because it is WAAAAAAAAY off right about now if you just lowered it and no alignment and your tires and handling wil pay dearly.

[civicex442]

there is no such thing as a "specialized alignment"

hahaha yeah right. try telling anyone at a bmw or mercedes dealership that. i charge people 130 for a 2 wheel and 150 for a 4 wheel alignment on all bmw's, mercedes and any other high dollar car that comes into dobbs and they are more than happy to pay that considering what the dealership would charge them....

and as for the reason companies turn down people with aftermarket suspension is due to the fact of warranty. when jonny ricer comes back in after an alignment claiming we caused his "strange" tire wear or his almost deadly blowout on the highway, its just not worth the hastle.

[bildo16]

hahaha yeah right. try telling anyone at a bmw or mercedes dealership that. i charge people 130 for a 2 wheel and 150 for a 4 wheel alignment on all bmw's, mercedes and any other high dollar car that comes into dobbs and they are more than happy to pay that considering what the dealership would charge them....

and as for the reason companies turn down people with aftermarket suspension is due to the fact of warranty. when jonny ricer comes back in after an alignment claiming we caused his "strange" tire wear or his almost deadly blowout on the highway, its just not worth the hastle.

why would you charge people more money? cause you have to toss some weight in the car? or because they are a little more difficult to align?

and with giving warranties with alignments, goodnight, thats where you get screwed. you cant warranty potholes, curbs, and ditches, so its better to just stay away from an expressed warranty with alignments. you should probably do what we do, keep a copy of the printouts in the customers file. so if they ever come back playing that game, we basically tell them they are wrong and we have proof. as johnny ricer goes, we make that bastard sign a waiver stating we cant properly adjust his car to specs so we arent liable for any issues down the road.

[GTI-Guy]

first off, all dc chasis (not sure about da's) .

Not up with the gene-ology yet ... please detail which platforms these are

I had a first gen Integra, but confess I never looked at the rear suspension ... my GTI has separate springs and shocks in the rear, but that's on (unfortunately) a rear beam set up

[.Smitty.]

DA = 90-93 Integra coupe
DC = 94-01 Integra hatch/coupe whatever you wanna call it.

I have a DB, four doors for sureee