..so i just installed Tein CST coilovers, and despite my car feeling like its still aligned I would like to get it done anyway.
Alot of shops around me say if its too low they cant do it.

My question is, if i crank the coils up to raise the car for an alignment, will it still be aligned when i lower it again?

truth is my car is feeling amazing, I love these coilovers! ya i see a lil bit of camber but thats normal, it doesnt pull in any direction or feel out of wack. Should i even bother aligning it?

thanks yall
-Jay

 

I don't think so. Cuase thats just like lowering your car once again ? right? Its like your making it back to stock and then lowering it again..which needs to get an alignment right?

Well im not sure i could be wrong.

 

Yes, you should get it aligned. Negative camber is fine, but you need to make sure the toe isn't off too much. That will cause premature tire wear much faster than negative camber.

Changing ride height changes the suspension geometry. You need it aligned at the height it will be set at.

 

 

yea , makes sense for sure
thanks

 

your alignment changes any time you change any geometry in your suspension. It has to because it's bolted into solid chunks of metal. It's all triangles, squares, and arcs as far as measuring suspension geometry goes. Change one side of any of those shapes, and you change the other.

You have to align your car for the ride height it is at. You may not be able to get back to factory specs if you lower too much.

You do not need to go back to factory specs.

You do have more camber than before....because the car is lowered.

Toe is a bigger issue than camber by a LONG shot. However, since the S2000's rear has big toe numbers from the factory, any amount of additional camber will make the car eat rear tires even faster.

Camber doesn't do a great job of wearing tires. Camber DOES do a great job of facilitating tire wear.

Think about Camber and toe as a married couple. Toe is an alcoholic. Camber does not drink....but will hand toe a bottle of whatever.

So unless you lowered for handling, the extra negative camber in the rear is going to do you no good. My car has -2.9degrees camber rear...but I road race it, and barely DD it so the tire wear issue isn't a big deal.

This is what I suggest. The rear is going to be your main concern.

If you dont really road race the car or Autox it, there's no point in trying to tune your alignment settings.

Get AS CLOSE to factory rear camber specs as possible.

This can go one of two ways:

Situation 1.) You have to max out the camber adjuster. Set the toe first. Then max out the camber adjuster. If you have to max out the camber adjuster, then just max it out, and set toe again (it will have probably changed after messing with the camber adjuster). Camber will change AGAIN after you set the toe. You're stuck with those settings. That's as good as it gets.

Situation 2.) You dont have to max out the camber adjuster. Set toe first. Then set camber. If the camber adjusts back to factory without maxing out, then you have to go back and sequentially set for toe and camber. Camber and toe have an inverse relationship. +toe = -camber and vice versa. So you first set toe more positive than factory. Then set camber reaaaaaaal close to factory...but a tiny bit positive. The toe should have gone a litlte negative when you did that. Then it's just a matter of nudging it into place.

Those methods are not for you to worry about...but you better make sure the alignment tech knows what he's doing. It's a HHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUGE pain in the ass to set an alignment on the rear of a lowered S2000. a HUUUGE pain. Some techs give up and say "good enough". My alignment was perfect to my specs because my friend did the alignment with me helping. I was the one who figured out method 2

The front is easy. If you want more neg. camber than factory, fine. If you dont, fine. Either way, if the toe is set to factory, you'll never see much uneven tire wear from just neg. camber.

Align your car AT THE HEIGHT that you are going to leave it at. This means you have to wait for the springs to sag. If your coilovers are new, wait about 500 miles or a couple of weeks.

Clock your bushings if you haven't allready.

 

1. Yes get an alignment even if you think it's driving straight.

2. Align the car the height you are going to drive it.

3. Wait at least a week for the springs to settle before aligning.

4. Find a shop that doesn't employ lazy asses and knows how to put some blocks down to get your car on the ramp.

5. Go drive.