Edit: Ughhh...title should say raising the car up 1/2"

So long story short the front suspension on my car is completely rebuilt, and when I put everything back together I dropped the adjustable Koni shocks to the lowest height. The car looked alright, but as time passes I am kinda concerned about the camber on the front wheels. The car got a laser alignment right after everything was installed, so as of now now toe is zero.

My question is; if I raise the car .25" or .5", is that going to change the toe enough to need another alignment (wear the tires prematurely)?

Not going for a slammed or herrafrush look

 

Always align the car after making any suspension changes.

Alignment are cheap compared to replacement tires, even more so when the additional gas burned is factored in (toe being off drags tires, which hurts mileage).

 

From stock ride height you would be okay to raise and lower the car without majorly throwing off the toe (a passenger with stock springs lowers the 1/2 to 3/4in on the passenger side. However, because you have the car lowered you should seriously considering getting an alignment after making any changes. Toe is not linear, the lower the ride height the bigger differences in toe are created by changing ride height.

In short, yes you need an alignment after making adjustments at your ride height.

 

Thanks guys, really appreciate it

Interesting that toe is not linear. I guess that makes perfect sense when you think about it. Control arm-horizontal length would definitely be parabolic and not linear, so that would dictate the toe as well....

I guess I will just leave it like it and watch the tire wear. It's not retarded-low, so I think I can deal with it.

 

Also the rear toe barely changes at all when changing the height.

 

Looking to get that also

Thats about 3 alignments. But you can get a lifetime, which is better.

 

Which way does toe change when you lower the car?

 

They really need to have the driver in the car so compensate for the squat when they do these alignments. Just like a corner balance.

 

Yes! I always go to Firestone for alignments

 

Depends entirely on the suspension geometry of the car...seems like in most cases you would end up going toe-in because the tie rods (or whatever holds the toe in the situation) would shorten by less than the control arms, so the knuckle would turn in slightly.

 

Unless the car has some wacky suspension geometry

Front End: Toe-Out during compression (lowering)

Rear End: Toe-In during compression (lowering)

Toe curve on Hondas (the graph of alignment change during suspension movement) are determined by two main/major things, length ratio (the tie rods length vs the lower arms length) and angle of the tie rod vs the lower arm. In most cases the front has the steering rack mounted slightly too low so that tie rod pulls the knuckle creating toe out in compression (cornering) and the rear (on Civic/Integra) the front part of the trailing arm is pulled in by the angular articulation of the compensator arm (toe arm) causing toe in during compression.