I just bought my car about a month ago and it already had coilovers installed. The car was pretty much slammed and I love the look....but I need to adjust the height. Reasons being:
a) I BARELY make it up my driveway now with 17s (scrape either the front lip or the exhaust) even when i come up slow and at a very extreme angle. And my 15s should be here soon and I am scared I wont make it up my driveway.
b) The previous owner didn't lower it evenly. The driverside is about 1/2" - 1" lower than the passenger side.

Heres the dilemma, I don't have the tool for the coilovers. Is there another basic hand held tool and process to raise my car up some?

Thanks in advance...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 5Point7Liter &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just bought my car about a month ago and it already had coilovers installed. The car was pretty much slammed and I love the look....but I need to adjust the height. Reasons being:
a) I BARELY make it up my driveway now with 17s (scrape either the front lip or the exhaust) even when i come up slow and at a very extreme angle. And my 15s should be here soon and I am scared I wont make it up my driveway.
b) The previous owner didn't lower it evenly. The driverside is about 1/2" - 1" lower than the passenger side.

Heres the dilemma, I don't have the tool for the coilovers. Is there another basic hand held tool and process to raise my car up some?

Thanks in advance...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Different sized wheels shouldn't change the height, if you have the correct tire size on there now. A larger wheel and the correct tire size will result in the same total diameter as stock. What size tires are on there now?

The car sitting uneven is perfectly normal, and should not be corrected. The car's left / right weight distribution is not 50:50, so it won't sit even with the coils adjusted evenly left to right, and didn't sit level stock. Just adjust the coils so that the height adjustment is identical left to right with the suspension unloaded.

Special tools? Depends on the coils. On my Ground Controls, you just take a hex wrench, loosen up the retainer screw, and spin the lower perch. Only other tool needed is a jack, and I don't even have to take the wheels off to do it.

If you change the height, your alignment will be ruined. Be sure you realign the car ASAP after changing ride height, or you will chew up tires. Also, don't forget to reset all bushings after changing ride height. You should be able to reset them all except for the RTA bushing without special tools.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TunerN00b &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Different sized wheels shouldn't change the height, if you have the correct tire size on there now. A larger wheel and the correct tire size will result in the same total diameter as stock. What size tires are on there now?

The car sitting uneven is perfectly normal, and should not be corrected. The car's left / right weight distribution is not 50:50, so it won't sit even with the coils adjusted evenly left to right, and didn't sit level stock. Just adjust the coils so that the height adjustment is identical left to right with the suspension unloaded.

Special tools? Depends on the coils. On my Ground Controls, you just take a hex wrench, loosen up the retainer screw, and spin the lower perch. Only other tool needed is a jack, and I don't even have to take the wheels off to do it.

If you change the height, your alignment will be ruined. Be sure you realign the car ASAP after changing ride height, or you will chew up tires. Also, don't forget to reset all bushings after changing ride height. You should be able to reset them all except for the RTA bushing without special tools.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Right now, I have 205/40/17, but the wheels and tires I just bought should be here tomorrow and they are 195/50/15. My car is already lowered approximately 3" but each side is uneven. And when the previous owner lowered it they did not get an alignment. I've got mad camber right now, but as soon as these new wheels and tires come in (probably tomorrow) I was planning on raising my car up some and getting an alignment.

Here is how my car sits now with the 17s:


Changing to 15s, would the tires end up being tucked farther up into the wheelwell or sit somewhat just how it is now?