Alignment Specs / Coilover Adjustment Guide

[Tbonem3]

probably get a similar alignment from firestone down the street for $29.99

[nfaj]

Everything in the ride height section is bad advice. Measured center cap to fender, the front should always be ~.5" higher than the rear-- they're doing the opposite or no stagger. Beyond that, the "track" ride height their suggesting would be seriously detrimental to handling without significant suspension geometry correction.

The sporty street tire setup would result in a hyperactive DSC-- terrible for sporty street driving.

The spring rate section is... not very good either, imo.

And any sweeping shock settings should be disregarded. Vastly depends on your specific setup and taste.

Camber should be set by tire temps across the tread of the tire-- no specific numbers are good for all cars. Depends on weight, spring stiffness, sway stiffness, etc etc.

All told, I wouldn't use it at all. More detrimental than helpful IMO.

Why do you say that the front should be .5" than the rear from the center wheel cap? is it due to fender design? Generally speaking, isn't it good to have positive rake for aero characteristics? I would imagine measuring from the jack points would yield a better assumption of rake due to the difference in fender design.

[Obioban]

Why do you say that the front should be .5" than the rear from the center wheel cap? is it due to fender design? Generally speaking, isn't it good to have positive rake for aero characteristics? I would imagine measuring from the jack points would yield a better assumption of rake due to the difference in fender design.

Correct— it is due to fender design. The above results in positive rake.

I believe measuring off the fender is the norm because it’s quick and easy to be accurate. So long as you know what you’re looking for, it gets the same result.

[MrClutch55]

I always wonder why the front looks higher than the rear (reverse rake) on most bmw too. Cause usually on most modified cars, it be lower in the front and higher at the rear.

So is just a visual thing because of the fender design?

[Altaran]

I would never adjust coilovers based on hight only without corner balancing. Defeats the purpose of having coilovers imo...

[mrgizmo04]

Especially with flat ride (factory cars come with), the front has to be somewhat higher than rear to allow for enough suspension travel with much softer spring to absorb bumps and not bottom out.

Most modified cars run very grippy tires with very high coeff of friction pads and front splitters which hang a few mm off the ground. They have very short suspension travel and very high spring rates to avoid 5g deceleration dive of the front and disintegrating the splitters. They run big airfoils in the back. At speeds over ~50mph the wing starts adding some downforce and at much higher speeds can add as much as few hundred pounds (which then acts as more weight added to the rear of the car), which pushes the rear end down and compresses the suspension.

Rake on its own affects weight xfer and handling characteristics. Positive rake with rear higher, produces a bit of oversteer by allowing more weight over the front end, increasing grip there, which with addition of a wing in back, at speed, makes the car more neutral. Opposite is true also, with negative rake with front higher, keeps the front a bit lighter and understeery. Rake also impacts how early you can get on throttle, so in a tail happy car you would want to run a bit more negative rake to get more weight on and grip in, rear tires.

It is also a bit of driver preference and style and what track layout you are on. Whether you have heavy braking zones on downhills or uphill or crests and where the weight matters more and where it should be to keep the car stable as you are powering out, etc.