I just bought some Tein S-type springs from a fellow board member and I was just wondering after installing the springs, should I be getting my car professionally aligned? Or is everything ready to go after installation?

For those who have lowered their cars, did you do it yourself or have someone else do them for you? Is it an easy process, cause quite frankly I'm car illiterate.

 

i bought the same set of springs and me and my friend installed ourselves in his garage. he definitely recommended alignment after the install, but i have no time....(and also im lazy too) to get an alignment. everything still seems fine to me when i drive the lowered car. just my .02

 

Here's a good thread for how to install springs...

Spring install how to

An alignment is essential after lowering your car, especially if you want it to handle correctly and you want your tires to wear as evenly as possible and last for any length of time. Just wait a week or so for the srings and shocks to settle before having it done. An alignment is best left to the dealer or an alignment shop.

 

awesome, thanks!

 

If you want to have more aggressive handling, you can have a bit of negative camber. Anywhere between -1.5 to -2.0 will be fun! With the springs installed, you may not be able to get much less than -1.5 anyway. Just remember to rotate your tires every 5000 miles (if you're running SO2's) to keep the wear even.

And definitely do the work yourself and employ a friend to help. I finished the job myself in about 5 hours.

 

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

You can't rotate your tires on an S2K.

 

Uh, you sure can. You just have to take them off of the rims and put them on the rims on the other side. When you have -2 degrees of camber and you track your car, you will need to rotate the tires.

 

Sorry, SoDak. I thought of that after I posted. Seems like a lot of work but probably necessary in that situation. We should probably be clear when recommending that people rotate their tires since, well, you know what will happen.

 

True, true! I had a friend whom I thought was more knowedgeable than me rotate his tires on his S2000 simply by switching rims from side to side! I had to explain to him how directional tires work.

S2000's come with a bit of negative camber from the factory (in the rear for sure) so it may be a good idea to rotate your tires regardless. I got 12,000 miles out of first set of rear S02's and only 8000 out of my second set. I rotated the first set, but not the second set. I did see more track time with the second set though, too.

 

I have heard from a guy who does this professionally that the best way to do it is to loosen all of the suspension components, then let the car rest on its weight THEN tighten everythign down. this he said will keep anything from sagging, reducing the need for alignment.

what you are supposed to tighten/loosen the process or any of that i am not sure, but if someone knows, fill us in, pelase