i just got my tein ss coilovers installed along with a camber kit and new tires...
the guy at the shop says "dont get an alignment right away, let the suspension 'settle' first"

...i thought the first thing i was supposed to do was get an alignment after everything was installed, but according to this guy, no....

thoughts?

 

Wait a week or so, your springs will "settle" more after you drive them around.

 

Disagree, Tein is a quality product (not my first choice, but good none the less)...and the springs shouldn't need to "settle."

I had SS's on my DC2, got them aligned after a couple hundred miles, tops...sold the car to a close friend, alignment is still perfect.

Patrick says quality suspension should never need to "settle,"....and I've gotta say I believe him. He's never steered any of us the wrong way. Subscribed, to see others thoughts on this subject...

 

The suspension should settle after a quick drive. Get it aligned after you drive to the alignment shop.

Rolling your car around your carport/driveway should "settle" the suspension.

Springs that "sag" are cheap **** spring. Real springsteel springs won't sag over time .

If you plan on doing future suspension mods, see if there is a firestone near you that offers a lifetime warranty. Well worth your money after 2-3 alignments.

 

all good info. thanks!

 

Patrick is correct.

What most people think is a suspension settling is actually the bushings that they failed to clock stretching / tearing to their new orientation.

Clock the bushings and they won't "settle".

Polyurethane bushings (which I would never recommend using on most cars) doesn't need to be clocked (the only real benefit of the design) since the inner sleeve isn't bonded to the bushing material like stock bushings are.

At some point, this should go into a sticky...

 

So when installing all new suspension components, which areas/bolts should only be hand tightened until the car is settled on the ground to avoid damage to suspenion bushings?

 

Everything that pivots with suspension movement (meaning, all of them), if you change ride height. If you're just replace things, than you only need to clock bushings that you loosened/removed the bolt for.

If you have a "double wishbone" Civic/Integra, the large RTA bushing actually needs to be pressed out and re-installed rotated to clock it, which most of us don't bother with, and is the reason any lowered Civic/Integra has this bushing deteriorate first.

All the bushings on my 67k 2000 GSR are pristine, except the RTA which is already cracked and torn... I didn't clock it. I wanted to see how long it would last without doing so. 25k miles lowered, and it looks worse than the RTA bushings on my stock 213k mile 91 LS.

Come on guys, this is covered in the repair manual. We all have a copy, whether paper or PDF, right?

 

I do have the repair manual. I may have over looked this area. Thanks for that bit of information.

 

Not that this helps, but this is the image that Patrick posted in one of my suspension threads. Its a good example of where/how to lift the car to stock height so everything can be appropriately tightened, props to Patrick:

 

That actually helps a ton. Funny, I was thinking of doing this in my head as you were posting. I'm really interested in knowing how people clock that RTA bushing while the RTA is still on the car. Are they using the same method?

To the OP; sorry for the thread jack.

 

You jack up the suspension (as pictured above, but the rear) and mark a line for the RTA bushing in the orientation it will be with the suspension at normal ride height (whatever that is for your suspension). This can also be done with the car on the ground, assuming that you can get under it to do it.


Then, release the suspension (or jack the car up), remove the RTA busing entirely from the trailing arm, rotate it so that the "at rest" orientation lines up with the line drawn, and press it back in.

This is why most people don't clock that bushing, even if they do the rest. One of these days, I need to get the special RTA bushing tool...

 

Wouldn't the bushing chassis-side of the upper rear arm also need to be pressed out and repressed in and clocked?

 

Good question.

I only loosened and re-tightened the suspension side bushing of that arm. The bushing you ask about doesn't seem to be discussed much...

 

Fragment from the well known PDFs:



So it would seem when lowering the mentioned angle should be smaller relative to the amount of lowering.