i alot of mechanics are telling me that they cant do my alignment bcuz my car is lowered; i just bought new tires bcuz my two front tires were basically stipped on the inside, and i dont want it to happen again with my new tires, i am lowered on GC and agxs; anyone can help me of have any advice on how to go about this, i would greatly apprectiate it.
-thnks

 

there are shops that can do it, you should call around your area and ask if they will do an alignment on alowered vehicle

 

Exactly. Not all shops will be able (or willing) to try and get a lowered car on their alignment machine.

Dave

 

I went to firestone, $130 for liftime alignment's, wich is realy good because if you switch rims, drive like an a$$ or etc.

 

There is no any shop that can adjust alignment on lowered car because:
1. on our cars by specs only toe on front wheels can be adjusted BUT there are some aftermarket tools that can help you adjust camber ( this is y ur tires worn inside)
2. Wheel alignment is always based on manufacture specs and there are no any specs for a lowered suspension, even if any shop will tell u they will do the alignment for u its all BS because by specs there is a certain ride height and lowered car has different height!

i go to mechanical school, did many alignments and this is the reason i put back my stock suspension!

 

If so, how do racing teams do with their vehicles? Is is possible to do a car without spec?

I heard that racing cars are intentionally put + cambers for better traction and control. But the trade-off is the excessive worn out.

This topic is interesting. Let's keep it alive.

 

So your telling me my car is realy not alignmed? they just took my money?

 

racing teams got engeneers that do all the calculations for the adjustments
and tell me something: have you ever seen race car dropped to the floor???
race cars is totally different because those cars get driven only on special tracks or roads, also they use all kind of spoilers, air ducts, etc
when you lower ur car u just make it slower.....
take for instance shopping card, do u notice then one of the wheels is bent or something esle its harder to push it......

 

yea, they only adjusted toe on ur car..... did they put some kind of adjustable bolts on front struts?

 

Uhhm I believe your stupid. My car is lowered and I got an alignment at a alignment shop and is in stock specs. So I dont know what your talking about.

Lower cars equal lower center of gravity and less body roll. Less wind resistence.

 

ohh im stupid.....lol do u have a printout of alignment on ur car?

 

there are one of the aftermarket tool to adjust camber on maxima


as u can see they cut on one side and this cut gives u +/- 1.25 degree of adjustment

 

and beleive me rider i thought the same way as you and my istructors that have many many years of experience proved me wrong

 

But when they finished they gave me a print out that showed my car was in spec????

 

u can do anything on a computer, i can put ur car on a dyno and its gonna show 250 at the wheels and u will be happy but its all calculations..... u can change any numbers in computer

 

Dude I stood right there in the shop when the alignment was going on. Dont try to tell me I am wrong and that my car isnt in spec when it is. I seen the book that showed the maxima specs in it and I seen the computer screen that showed my specs and they were in spec.

 

ok and what exactly was out of spec when they put ur car on alignment machine?

 

Well if your car isn't pulling to the side ... and you aren't getting excessive tire wear ... i think it's safe to assume its aligned (even if it is lowered)

 

JGTC, Euro Cup Cars, British Touring Car, All classes of LeMans.......

I agree that dropping too much CAN hurt performance, but saying that a lowered car can never be aligned is humorous.

Do you really think that my car, being maybe 2-2.5 inches lower than yours is actually slower? Maybe over speed bumps.....

 

Please explain how ride height affects caster, camber, and toe angle. Last I checked, these are entirely independent measurements that are part of an alignment. Just because the height is not stock, doesn't mean you can't set caster, camber, and toe to the correct spec.

Now it's another subject entirely whether the suspension will adjust to the correct geometry - on a Maxima, caster is not adjustable, camber is only adjustable using the wiggle room in the strut-to-knuckle bolts or by eccentric bolts, and that toe is the only thing most shops adjust.

If anything, a lowered suspension will make the camber more negative in front, which (if toe is re-set), will improve cornering at the cost of tire wear. The rear doesn't change.

Dave

 

how about axle problems with lowered car???? seems strange that they go bad fast huh?!

 

I believe there are problems when you lower the car a lot, but if you aren't scraping the ground .. shouldn't this not be a problem

 

this isnt about axle problems, this is about alignment issues. plus it depends on how low a lowered car is.

there is an alignment shop in my area and they do any type of vehicle, lowered or not, race car or daily driver AND they do a great job. they get the specs as close to stock as they can, if not, those exact numbers. even if you wanted a custom job theyll do that as well. lowered cars ARE able to be aligned.

 

What does this have to do with alignments, grandma?

 

He mad because he is getting flamed after saying lowered cars cant be aligned so now he has to come up with a new thing to talk about.

 

the reason some people have axle problems is because lowering the car without using a camber kit or camber bolts alters the geometry of the suspension. If the axles have to operate at an extreme angle they wear much faster than if they operate according to OEM spec.

it is not impossible to align a lowered car and before making ridiculous statements please do your research. don't believe what dealerships and terrible shops tell you. if you heard this from someone teaching at your "mechanical school" they are perpetuating the stupid and ignorant reluctance of many shops to work on modified cars.

frankly, when someone working at a shop tells me they cannot do something because my car is modified I'm halfway out the door before they can finish telling me some BS excuse. I wish they were just honest and admitted that they are simply uncomfortable working on my car because they do not have adequate experience and a through understanding of car maintenance and repair. knowing how to change oil, swap brakes and replace a suspension does not make you a mechanic. anyone who is even remotely mechanicaly inclined can learn how to go through the motions; it takes a professional to know how what he is doing affects the car as a mechanical system and as a driving experience.

in closing, please reply to me with an ignorant flame-worthy response further showing how borderline-retarded you are and how much you love to repeat erroneous information to make yourself appear extremely knowledgable and authoratative on a car forum. i need some entertainment; it's a slow day at work.

 

oh and to stay on topic, just go to firestone. they have a lifetime alignment available and most will still align your car if it is lowered. when I had sprints they were iffy about aligning it at first, but i convinced them just to try it and have had no problems since. i get my alignment done every time i get an oilchange, since it's free.

 

Ok so what your trying to say is when i took my car into firestone and i had to turn my wheel a quarter turn to get it strieght on the way there, and i drove home with a streight wheel, they didnt align my car. Right. I call bs on your statement. This is the reason why we have people on the .org who complain about the false information people give out. In my eyes you are a noob and you dont know what you are talkin about. Your in school for this kinda stuff? Guess thats why your in school and not a professional. If you ask me maybe your not getting the best out of you education seeing as you dont comprehend the simple fact that you can align any car, you just cant go by spec on a lowered car. But everybody listen to the noob because he is in school for this stuff. Get out of here with that.

 

Hey dko,

I'd like to lower my car a bit ( i don't need to be the lowest in PA, hell the roads here suck anyway). How does 1-1.5" sound? Should I install the camber bolts as well then, or is this drop small enough that it wouldn't make a difference. If you have some reference technical material that I could read up on before I make a decision, that would be great.

 

 

honestly, the camber bolts are about $30 at most. it's a good investment, especially since replacing cv's is a whole lot more than $30. just make sure your shop adjusts the bolts to the correct torque. there should be a label on the bag they come in that tells you the correct values.

unfortunately i do not have the source material memorised, but maxmods is a good start. also ghetto search (search for the subject in google with 'site:forums.maxima.org' after it).

what i am saying is from personal experience, so YMMV, but i would think that most knowledgable people would agree with what i have said.

 

dko > 98 maxi

98 you just got owned but seriously dkos right you can align a lowered car. imlowering mine on teins as soon as ups man brings them and im goin to have my car aligned. theres a perf shop here that has a really knowledgable owner and i garantee he eill get it dead nuts or as close as possible......

 

X 10000

I go through the same thing...i've gone through about 7 different shops all telling me some BS of why they can't do it. One, a dealership a matter of fact, said they couldn't do it because they coudln't get the car on the lift..WTF? Granted i am low, but i specifically told them how to take off the front lip to get it on the lip, AND they said if they did that they would charge me an extra 50$ for the time to take off the lip!? You could not have said that better, why not just tell me that they have no idea how to work on a modified car.

Anyways, back on topic...i'm still searching for a good alignment shop. 98maxi, i can see maybe where your comming from, but just look into it a bit more before 100% falling into what someone else tells you...even if he is your "teacher".

 

With the Stillen lip, it's tough to get up most alignment racks. I ended up going to Super Autobacs. They had a Hunter alignment rack that was dug into the ground, flush with the floor. Car came out in spec and drove straight.

 

u guys can think whatever the **** u want about me since u all a profesionals..... good luck!!!
and i don't wanna argue no more about this BS cause u have to go and learn geometry first and then maybe u'll understand my point!

 

I had a mild drop with h & r's and tok blues, I had axle problems ever since........
























But seriously, I did. Can't get any milder than a H&R + Tok blue setup.

 

i can certainly see why you're becoming a mechanic and forsaking your childhood dream of being a journalist. you rarely see newspaper headlines that read "what's a matta you?" and rightly so.

best of luck to you in your mongoloid as$backwards endeavors and give my condolences to your future clients.

 

i had sprints with agx's and had one axle go out on me after about 50,000 miles. at that point the car had about 120,000 miles on it, so the argument could be made that it was about time. the sprints prob. helped, though.

 

98 Maxi(PAD) > Dko.. obviously some of the orgs own are mechanics dull@ss, and a good amount know enough to be gurus on the subject.


..and another moron gets flamed. Maybe look into a new school and consider yourself lucky to have been given this knowledge to make better decision in the future.

/thread

 

Changing your struts and springs isn't going to prevent your car from being properly aligned. It does not lower your car so dramatically that it changes your camber. If your on coil-overs, and slammed to the ground, that is another story. All of those race-cars are dropped to the floor for many reasons. Lower Cg., Cd., and handling purposes. They have their wheels set with a bit of negative camber to handle corners better. A street car does not need this. It causes tire wear, and yes, in a sense it does make your car a little slower. If you go to a drag strip, no one will be running negative camber to get higher times. Having your camber at center gives you better straight line traction.