nogaro*blue*you*away

i am getting my stasis street sports/Koni COs adjusted friday. the height is way too low. Going for 25.5" all around.

The shop said they use a ruler/tape measure to ensure that all four corners are at the right height. Another shop (that is way booked up) says they use a balance/scale that utilizes some high-tech ****e to make sure the car is level.

how much better is this than the ruler/tape measure method? which way did u guys get your suspension adjusted/installed?

thanks.

ryans4

...if the ground is at a 40degree lean, then the tape measure isn't going to help much.

The alignment shop just sets ride height with the car on the rack, which is the right way to do it cause the "ground is good".

to get specific, you should use a part of the chassis to measure. Fenders are ok for street cars, but not good if you are racing and bang them up.

If you are going for a corner balance, then it doesn't really matter what height they end up at, it's the cross weight you are dealing with, and again, the car is on scales which should be on a rack or flat patch (aka "ground is good").

But getting back to your question, if the "ground is good" the tape measure is fine. if the ground is not good, then the tape measure won't save you.

dano-oly

Starting with a level set-up, say for some reason 2 corners on a diagonal were adjusted. If the adjustments made were proportional to the load on the wheels, wouldn't the car stay level (albeit at a different height)? Thus, isn't it true that only a corner balance can really level the car properly?

The reason I ask is because I found it very difficult to level my car - when I changed one corner they all changed. Now, I'm concerned that the balance is screwed up. I'd like to get a corner balance, or better yet, get some scales and balance it out myself...

nogaro*blue*you*away

when you get/got your suspension leveled, did you get the driver's side front corner adjusted slightly higher so that when you are alone in the car, it sits perfectly level??
(someone recommended this but haven't heard of it on AW).

If so, how much higher? thanks.

ryans4

...a car (especially anything without a 50/50 weight distribution) will have all sorts of different wheel heights if it is truly "balanced".

I say this becuase the goal in "corner balancing" is to make sure the LF-RR and RF-LR total up to the same thing. When this happens, you have 50% of the vehicle weight shared between two opposite corners. The car is "balanced".

Obviously adding a 180lb. driver (or passenger) or a full tank of gas (about 6-7 lbs. per gallon in normal temps), will alter this.

So we have this table with 4 legs known as a car. The key is to not think about "moving weight" by adjusting height. The easier way is to think about the amount of force excerted against the ground of each wheel (or leg). If each wheel excerts equal force, then the car is balanced.

A table with 1 leg that is 3" too short will not be excerting equal force on all wheels, and as a result, is not balanced. The same holds true of a car.

So if your car weighs 200lbs. and each wheel has 50lbs. of weight on it (50/50), you're car is balanced.

Say your car is a 60/40 weight split and weighs 200lbs., now your fronts have 60lbs. each on them, and the rears 40lbs. each. It would seem the car is not balanced, but what makes a table wobble is corner to corner, not side to side. Our car is still balanced becuase 60+40 = 60+40.

Your question is worded tricky for me. If you start with a perfectly corner balanced car and raise only the LF-RR corner pair, then the car is now not balanced as you will have less weight on teh RF-LR corner pair, and thus the LF-RR corner pair will weigh more.

But to your second statement, I agree. The only way to truly balance a car is by corner balancing. If you adjust a car with a 60/40 weight split and heavier LF then RF corner, and you set each corner to an equal height, the car will not be balanced.

Besides, what will you use to measure? The fenders? The chassis? The ground? Who cares how high one point is from another. What you drive on is the tires, and what you measure from the tires is the force they are excerting on the ground via the weight at each corner.

So then if your LF-RR corner total equals your RF-LR corner total, then your car is balanced.

Of course, balanced for what is the next question?
- Your commute?
- A track with only right turns?
- A track with 25% left and 75% right turns, but the two most important turns are left so...
- A banked speedway?
- A drag strip?
- Driver weight only?
- Driver and passenger and 1/4 tank of fuel?
- Driver and Empty fuel?

That's the difference between corner balancing a car and "setting up" a car.

For a street car on a commute, you'd be hard pressed to notice the difference between 50% cross weight and 48% cross weight.

FWIW, every Audi I've seen on scales with coilovers (adjusted to equal heights, or corner balanced) has come in no worse then 47.5% and some as high as 49.8% without a corner balance.

But, if it were my car, I'd want to know where I stood at least.

ryans4

...best way to be "sure" is to take it to an alignment shop that does corner balancing, run a 1/4 to 1/2 of fuel, and put drivers weight in the drivers seat, then get the LF-RR and RF-LR totals to be equal, then she's at 50% and corner balanced:

For your car, with you driving, with that amount of fuel.

nogaro*blue*you*away

you are a wealth of information. thank you.

Ct S4 Driver

I set my car with the left side 1/4" higher and when I sit in it the car is even all around.

kiNGMak.:.OEM

NICE EXPLANATION MAN!!!!

dano-oly

Hero post as usual!!! Now if I could just find a local place to corner balance, or some cheap scales