Aaaa finally a wheel alignmnet...NOPE NO CAN DO YOUR TO LOW!

So I go to get my alignment done at a shop were they are supposed to be able to do lowered cars. after leaving my car and waiting all day for it. They called and said sorry we cant do it..your car is to low..I was like hell na man cant you guys use 2x4's I even took some with me that I use at my house..Still was to low..So I got home and looked underneath and was like WTF..I thought I had 3-4" left but I was effen wrong..I have less than 2" of clearance before Hit my cats..
 
[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j298/q45t07/cats2.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j298/q45t07/cats.jpg[/IMG]
 
I wonder if Y33 cedric coilovers are smaller than the Y33. becuase I still have lots of room. I am only 1.5" from the top of the coilover in the front and in the rear 2".. Car ride is effen excellent , nice and stiff,corners like you wouldnt believe every thing feels nice and tight and so thats whats even more crazy about this..hhhhmmmm:shrug:

by any chance would you have happened to see what kind of alignment machine they had? if they specialize in lowered car, id imagine it would be lazer, and they should be able to do it.... and if anything, just tell them you want to set the toe. who cares about caster or camber when doing VIP. as long as your tires are all pointed straight you'll be just fine. cambers gonna wear out your tires anyways, so will incorrect toe, but both will definetly wear faster. so long as your tires are all pointing straight, you'll only have some camber wear. incorrect toe will cause your tires to cup.... blah blah blah, just get your toe set.... they SHOULD be able to do that.

WOW our lifts here are flat and you drive right up no matter how low. Then they raise the car and do it.
 
This last month we just eye balled the toe........ works fine i dont have tire dust on the rear side anymore.

[quote=mista808;78650]by any chance would you have happened to see what kind of alignment machine they had? if they specialize in lowered car, id imagine it would be lazer, and they should be able to do it.... and if anything, just tell them you want to set the toe. who cares about caster or camber when doing VIP. as long as your tires are all pointed straight you'll be just fine. cambers gonna wear out your tires anyways, so will incorrect toe, but both will definetly wear faster. so long as your tires are all pointing straight, you'll only have some camber wear. incorrect toe will cause your tires to cup.... blah blah blah, just get your toe set.... they SHOULD be able to 
do that.[/quote]
 
The place I took it does have a laser level but they dont have a drive up bay..it has to be in a bay with a lift. and I only have less than 2" of clearance before smashing my cats..There was like a little ledge of something as you drive up into the bay that my front valance was not clearing..
There is a few other place I will try and hopefully get it done there.
 
 
[quote={-.-};78658]WOW our lifts here are flat and you drive right up no matter how low. Then they raise the car and do it.
 
This last month we just eye balled the toe........ works fine i dont have tire dust on the rear side anymore.[/quote]
 
I dont know if we have any places like that..I wish we did!  There is a few  places  that I know that may be able to do it..THe place where I had my coilovers installed..they have a drive up bay with a lazer allignment but the problem there is making it up that hill that it sets in..might have to take some 2x4's with me..
 
and if not I will just have to eyeball it myself at  home..:shrug:

The place i take my cars to work from underground. They never have a problem.

I had that same problem last week..

does any one know if they have any of the underground ooilchanges/allignment places in OC?..

I think I am pretty sure as to why I am sitting lower than expected..here is my theory.
When at a certain hieght and front tires or rear tires have no camber everything is fine.
When you add camber the wheel cuts in pushing the suspension down. When you add a spacer you push down the suspension even more because the now  the hub is  extended do to the spacers, thus pushing down the car. That can only explain how I keep droping lower and lower with the adjustment I am doing..here is a diagram:
[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j298/q45t07/camber-adjustments.jpg[/IMG]
 
Am I wrong? What are your opinions..Seems like this has to be the answer...

^^ That makes a lot of sense.

double post sorry

by going by ur theory if  you have coilover on your car and is made  drop to 3.5 max and then you  maxed camber and spacer does that cause more stress on coilover making it max it out  going from  from 3.5 to say 3.8 or maybe 4.0 in?  or is the stress going straight on the underbody as in axles ect ?or if there any stress at all

I would think that there is the most stress at the hubs, either the wheel studs or the spacer part. The further you push out the wheels the more stress in this area. The best thing, as most of us already know, is to get wheels that fit perfect without spacers because then the wheel takes the stress and most of these wheels can more than handle that stress.
Cheers

Yeah these wheels do really do not require spacers...But I had maxed out the camber up front to try to match the rear...It was a great experience as I have learned a lot and was able to align my own car pretty damn good. I took out the spacer and adjusted the camber out a little..not nearly as much camber but it also is not straight up and down..I may just use the spacers for shows..when I sliggity slam it all the way down and will need to push the wheels out for the flushness of it all...I need to be able to drive and it was getting to the point were I was limiting myself on where I could go...Soccer season is coming up and three of my kids will be playing so that means lots of parks and speed bumps..so that added drop just was not cutting it for a daily driving unless I had air..then it would not matter..I don't know I am always changing my mind on ride height..that's nice about CO is that at least I can adjust the height as needed...
 
Peace!

Where are you located? I usually take my cars to Bear Alignment, they all have underground pits, so the racks are level to the ground. They dont use computers to align, just measurements but they are usually dead on. They can set them to your custom specs too if you want. I've never had a problem with them.

Im in Tucson Az..I waz able to do my own aligment. Got it pretty dead on center...Thanks though!

Actually thats what I did on my current car (Nissan S14). I pretty much just eyeballed it, it was kind of a bitch but it saved me $80. :biggthumpup:

I guess we gots to do what we gots to do..hey I learned something about aligment and front suspension that I would have never know..It is a bitch espeically when you do yourself. I had to keep raising up the car with the jack and lowering it..taking off the tire and putting it back on..but in the end like you said. I save $80 aslo..:dance:

samething happened to me at Autobacs... they couldn't align my box cuz i was too low...
i still need to do it.... and now im worried cuz i thought Autobacs aligned lowered cars....
i can't be THAT low!!!!!

your going to have to learn how to do your own if you cant find anyone. Its really not that hard but it is a time consuming..Took me a few hours of trial and error..good luck if you decide to do your self..

[quote=thebeeguy;79076]Actually thats what I did on my current car (Nissan S14). I pretty much just eyeballed it, it was kind of a bitch but it saved me $80. :biggthumpup:[/quote]

i dont think u can really "eyeball" 1/16" of an inch man...

[quote=auditech;78931]I would think that there is the most stress at the hubs, either the wheel studs or the spacer part. The further you push out the wheels the more stress in this area. The best thing, as most of us already know, is to get wheels that fit perfect without spacers because then the wheel takes the stress and most of these wheels can more than handle that stress.
Cheers[/quote]It'll probably put stress on the wheel bearings as well.
 
[quote=zion_97;78887]
[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j298/q45t07/camber-adjustments.jpg[/IMG]
[/quote]I took my Q to a place that has an in-ground alignment rack, but they still had to use boards to get my cats to clear the middle beams that were slightly higher than the sides. Do spacers affect toe? Especially in the front if I'm running -3.5 degrees of camber using upper pillowball camber plates and would like to add a 15mm spacer? I'd hate to have to get another alignment just because I added 15mm afterwards.

Beni ususally when you do any change to your suspension its allways a good Idea to have it aligned..but you could slape them on and then see how your toe looks and the car drives..then rather than paying to have to realigned in the front just adjust the toe yourself...if it goes out of wack..

im doing the same benji , i hope i dont have to line it up again after i put in spacer in too

[quote=bugeyegs;81334]im doing the same benji , i hope i dont have to line it up again after i put in spacer in too[/quote]I ended up taking the 15mm spacer back off after testing to see if it'll bring the lip up to the fender some on -3.5 degrees of camber. It didn't do anything noticeable, just 15mm more poke for me. It didn't close the fender gap as much as I would've liked, I don't think it did any to decrease the gap, maybe 15mm is too little too make an impact on camber. This doesn't rule out Zion's theory, I think 15mm isn;t enough to physically see the change.