Ripcord990

Hey guys
I plan on lowering my car using coil overs and I have heard you have to have your car realign after doing that. Is this true? It makes sense to me but I'm just double checking, if I could y'all's feedback it would really help.

Thanks

professorman

Anytime that you do ANYTHING with the suspension, you should get the car aligned. Lowering springs is a big suspension job, so yes, it is pretty urgent to have the car aligned.

Ripcord990

Alright thanks the problem for me is finding a shop who will do it. I have talked to a couple and since it's lowered they won't do it and I'm like ok if you don't want the business. But do you know why some places won't do it to a lowered car?

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

They risk damaging their equipment or your car - which in turn you'll file a claim against their company for the damage.

Provided you don't lower your car too much, most places should be able to accommodate you.

Ripcord990

Alright thanks for the feedback guys!

Sebba

RealignED

HonBeer

Speaking from experience. Alignments are not lucrative. Most shops will not work on lowered cars because of the extra time spent on them. Its not worth the time. I think you should find a specialty shop for lowered cars to get the wheels straight. Why would a shop spend a half day trying to align a lowered car when they could have many non lowered ones in its place? Even the the rack that you use to align them are not made for lowered cars. Making it difficult to even get the car on it!

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

Absolutely a good point. I've had my S2000 on the rack for 4 hours and it was only lowered about an inch. I paid a flat fixed rate of whatever so I'm sure they lost money on the deal.

Ev

Never heard of such a thing. Wow...

I am not a pro, but I did a corner balance AND an alignment on my car in under 2 hours when I installed the CO's. I think someone wasn't very experienced.

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

Happens all the time - if a shop were to try to drive your slammed <insert any car here> up on their ramp and they scrape the bumper and tear it away from the fenders because of clearance issues and then end up dragging parts of the subframe or whatnot on other components it could cause damage to their stuff too. I've had several places turn my car away for one reason or another.

And granted, S2000's aren't the easiest to align since there's a billion different adjustments you can do, but 4 hours was slightly excessive - I ended up not paying for the work due to that.

19Accord97

It just depends on the shop.

I used to work at a corporate shop and alignments make the company drool. In terms on profit, it cost the shop absolutely nothing in tangible products. Time wise, they pay a tech .8 hours on flat rate which usually comes out to an average ~$20 (or even less).....because it is flat rate pay (most shops are) the shop only pays the tech for .8 of an hour for work even if it takes the tech 4 hours. As long as the shop has decent alignment techs and no other scheduled alignments they will generally do it. At least thats how our shop worked....UNLESS a full race car or custom made suspension vehicle came in. Also, we would ONLY align cars to factory spec - we did not custom alignments. However, our local Honda dealership has one of the best techs in the area and he'll do whatever specs you want.

Also, the new Hunter alignment racks are in ground racks. No longer does a vehicle have to drive up a ramp to get on the rack. I was jealous of the shops that had these....I have to use wooden boards to get my car on the alignment rack in addition to taking the front lip off.