Uneven ride height after coilover install.

[Nate047]

Yah, but, dont you have to take em off to adjust?

Nope. You just jack the car up on the corner your'e working on and take the wheel off. Crank the collar with that wrench KW provides in the kit and you'll see the spring move up and down. New coilovers usually move pretty easily. It's a bit of a guess and check kind of deal but give yourself an afternoon and you'll get fast at it after a while haha.

Corner balancing with your alignment is a good idea for sure, here you can get that done for like $250-$300 and it's worth it. But the ride height won't be even, it will be a little higher on the driver's side usually when no one is sitting in the car. If you corner balance and then lower one side just a little, it won't really make a huge difference to how it feels when you drive the car. That being said, it's still best to do the corner balancing and not nitpick over a couple mm difference in ride height, just call it done and enjoy it.

[Obioban]

A small point :
A correctly corner balanced chassis is not going to have optically desirable wheel gaps.
That is not the goal of corner balancing.
Corner balancing sets the height of each corner to achieve the correct weight distribution, and to achieve near 50% side to side weight distribution.

However, Using "corner balancing techiques and calculations" allows the chassis guru to determine how many turns of each adjuster you would need to get each side of each axle to match its neighbor....But the car would not be corner balanced, because that is not your goal.

You can normally get it pretty optically perfect AND corner balanced, with some effort.

[FBloggs]

A small point :
A correctly corner balanced chassis is not going to have optically desirable wheel gaps.
That is not the goal of corner balancing.
Corner balancing sets the height of each corner to achieve the correct weight distribution, and to achieve near 50% side to side weight distribution.

However, Using "corner balancing techiques and calculations" allows the chassis guru to determine how many turns of each adjuster you would need to get each side of each axle to match its neighbor....But the car would not be corner balanced, because that is not your goal.

[WestBankM4]

Yah, but, dont you have to take em off to adjust?

I'm fairly certain you can jack up the side you need adjusted to remove pressure and adjust without removing them.

[Rkymtnrider]

luckily for you coilovers are, wait for it, height adjustable

Yah, but, dont you have to take em off to adjust?

[Nate047]

luckily for you coilovers are, wait for it, height adjustable

[Obioban]

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/9123-e46-m3-suspension-setup-or-how-to-not-downgrade-your-car-with-suspension-mods

[kenster]

thanks for all the advice!

[DJAM3]

Pre-measuring will get you in the ballpark but you still need to fine tune. Ideally you would have it corner balanced to optimize the heights which is one of the appeals of coilovers. If you want to skip the corner balancing the LF should be ~1/8" higher than RF. RR ~1/8" higher than LR.

[eacmen]

Find an alignment shop that also does corner balancing.

[Rkymtnrider]

Basically, doesn’t really affect the quality of the ride anyways.

Just as a general question, doesn’t the right side sit lower because of the battery in the trunk?

I thought the driver side was higher to account for the weight of the driver.

[erickhoyos]

Basically, doesn’t really affect the quality of the ride anyways.

Just as a general question, doesn’t the right side sit lower because of the battery in the trunk?

[kenster]

So just get it as even as possible, get an alignment and call it a day?

[Tbonem3]

Driver side sits slightly higher.

How can you be sure all 4 adjusters are perfectly even anyways?

[Will]

Ensure the ground is flat and level. I've noticed ~3/8" difference in ride height simply due to a slight slope of the ground.