Beth

Wow - adjusted the ride height yesterday and what a difference!!! Front is now 175 left and 176 right. Rear is 181 left and 179 right. Only drove about 25 miles so it should settle more. I can't believe the difference.

I was having numerous problems bottoming out on bumpy roads and getting in/out of parking lots. Ride height was on the to-do list, put kept getting pushed out due to the parting out fun I've been having (not!)

Anyways decided to do it yesterday with BF. The front - get this! - was 145 left and 135 right! Rear was about 150 each side. No wonder I was bottoming out!!! Those dim's woulda been fine if I was driving a hovercraft.

Anyways, we discovered something that REALLY helped that I hadn't seen posted before. Those spring washers are a b*tch to turn, especially the rears. A few shots of WD-40 loosens both the spring from the washer and reduces the corosion on the threads. Aluminim to aluminum tends to "bind up" over time - much worse than steel. Little old me was even able to turn the washer using the WD-40 (yes I tried to prove I could do it).

So hope this helps someone later on!

DonT

Ride height is also on my TO-DO list. I can't even come into my driveway head-on, have to come in at a severe angle to keep from hitting bottom. Guess I'll do mine after Hershey Swap Meet.

Joe '87 S4

I had my ride height adjusted last year and it made a difference in the way the car handled. It also doesn't look "tired" like it did before.

low miler

Question. What would the recommended ride height be on a '91 GT? It only has 24,000 miles on it, but just looks to low. I don't race it or anything, I just want it to look like it did originally and give it a fresher look!

Steve J.

Re-align after ride height adjustment. Toe has changed. Tires can get chewed up very quickly.

low miler

Thanks Steve! I'll do it in that order this week.

Nicole

Beth:

You obviously experienced the same as I did after the adjustment. My car was lowered to the bone, and bottomed out on bumpy roads. Sometimes, in bumpy turns, the outer edge of the front spoiler would scrape on the street...

Having ride height adjusted and alignment done (Marc at DEVEK did it at the time) was a difference like day and night - almost like going from a Yugo to a Mercedes. WOW! Suddenly the car felt comfortable AND handled precisely as one would expect it from a car in that class.

Since then I love it even more...

Joe '87 S4

Had that done also. A proper alignment is crucial. When I first got my car I had an alignment done (incorrectly) and had a ton of tire/road noise. I had it done again, correctly, right away. Over 10,000 miles on my tires now and they still look brand new.

John Struthers

Beth and others,
The darndest thing about the ride height and alignment is:
1. Yeah, adjusting the ride height is critical to a proper alignment.
2. It goes without saying, both, need to be done with the suspension loaded. And it couldn't hurt a darn thing if the driver seat weight was correct and the spare/full tank of gas -however you normally drive - instructions were followed as per recommendation in the WSM"s. This would give you the proper weights in the proper places for a corner balance as well as a 'Normal' ride height prior to alignment.
3. Yep, that's a big 10-4 on the height affecting the alignment and tire wear.
............BUT...............!
Unless we did the lowering and raising , we never know if the PO lowered the ride height before or after the last alignment, if you catch my drift?
Check your tire wear and if you make a height adjustment give it a couple hundred miles and see if the tires are wearing/wearing differently before you rush off for that alignment. Take some flicks for comparison.

sbcrazy86

i have a slammed 928. i cut 1-1/2 coils out of the front and installed koni shocks. the back i only adjusted down by 9 turns. this makes the front skid pads for the supension sit only 1-2 inches off the ground. it makes the car handle even more like a dream. I was wondering if the any extreme damage can be done to the alignment or the physics of the car by hiting on dips and entrances off the road?
the 928 intl race car is lowered. why would they do this if it was a bad idea. if you live in a flat area. do lower your car. the only prob i have encountered was that i hit a opposum and lost my front under grill.
thanks.
~ lance

Bryan

I would say that setting the ride height to 175mm all around was the single best $0 service I have performed on my 928. And the only $0 service I've done, coincidentally.

After almost 20 years, there was enough grit on the threads to make that initial adjustment a bit tough, but after some cleaning, and getting the adjusters broken loose, it's actually not that hard to do. I use a Vise-Grip 22R and it fits the adjusters pretty well. I cut a small scrap of wood to 174mm exactly, figuring if I could juuuust squeak it between the measuring spot and the ground, I'd be at 175mm. Works pretty well. If you're patient, you don't have to remove the rear sway bar link to adjust the rear, but you can turn the adjuster a lot further if you unhook it.

My only advice is that a small adjustment makes a pretty sizeable change in ride height due to the magnifying effect of the suspension. And as you raise one corner, it shifts weight to other corners and affects their height. So it will take you several adjustments at each wheel to get everything right.

Also, give the car PLENTY of time to settle down after adjusting it. Don't just drive around the block a couple times and re-measure. What I did was check the height at each corner when I left work (much to my co-workers' amusement), made notes, adjusted it when I got home, then did 3 more commutes (work -> home -> work) before measuring again.

Bryan

DG84S

sbcrazy86,
Besides a harsh ride, the biggest problem with being too low is the risk of damage to a/c compressor and/or alternator from debris strikes. They both hang off the bottom front of the engine. Aged engine mounts can even make them hang lower! Others have reported broken engine block mounting flanges from road strikes. Be careful.

Beth

I can't explain how it improved the handling of the car. I thought it was good before - how wrong I was. It is sooooo much smoother I can't believe it!

Randy V

Beth - where did you get the adjuster tool and how much was it? I need one myself.

Thanks.

Gretch

Randy, Beth may have found a better solution, but I found the spring adjusting tool that came with both my ATVs and both of my snow mobiles worked just fine. I absconded with the one that fit the best and even modified it a bit with the bench grinder to get a closer match to the adjusting nut radius. It is now a permanent part of the 928 tool kit.