Calling Suspension Guru's

[kwhauck]

Ok, so I will admit, I don't know that much about the suspension of our car. I know most of the parts but not exactly how they work, and more importantly how they are affected by ride height, which brings me to my question.

How far can I lower the car before I hurt anything. When I do go low, what will be affected and can I fix it?

Thanks, Kyle

[clutch1]

Lower it until stuff rubs

Honestly, as long as you can have it aligned so the tires don't wear and you don't scrape driveways, I'd say it's good to go.

If you do go too low on some cars they will shudder on accel because of the angle of the CV axle. I'd call that too low.

[kwhauck]

right now, I have about 1 in from tire to fender lip and i can't tell if the cv axles are straight because they aren't installed yet.......lol

[BlackJack]

and don't forget, you put too short of springs on it, and you'll bottom out the struts. bad ju-ju. Can't believe there wasn't more responses on this thread. I'm interested myself.

Mantapart offers Bilstein struts/springs and I believe coil-over conversions for N-bodies. You don't wanna know how much the setup I'm looking at will cost. (Ok, I'll tell you....$1500 for front and rear together) but includes fully tunable damping for both bound and rebound. They also have other "in-between" price range setups.

I figure if I can get into that one, I can eliminate all the need for half-assed drag modifications, like aircraft cable tie-downs in front and spring spacers to eliminate squat in the rear. But at that price, will be awhile. I still have engine mods to finish first.

[kwhauck]

Originally Posted by BlackJack

You don't wanna know how much the setup I'm looking at will cost. (Ok, I'll tell you....$1500 for front and rear together) but includes fully tunable damping for both bound and rebound.

Cheaper that what the setup i have originally cost. Mine are also fully tunable for bound and rebound. Koni's with eibach race springs, coilovers based off of the OSV alero. Built by True Choice Motorsports.

[jabartram]

i'm running kyb agx adjustables, intrax springs, upgraded rear swaybar and front poly bushings and i dont have severe squating issues, she will light up the front tires though. i may be changing my springs to coil overs on my agx, that will almost completely eliminate squat and understeer.

[kwhauck]

Originally Posted by jabartram

i'm running kyb agx adjustables, intrax springs, upgraded rear swaybar and front poly bushings and i dont have severe squating issues, she will light up the front tires though. i may be changing my springs to coil overs on my agx, that will almost completely eliminate squat and understeer.

You should get rid of the intrax springs if you want to eliminate squat. Those springs are too soft.

[jabartram]

Originally Posted by kwhauck

You should get rid of the intrax springs if you want to eliminate squat. Those springs are too soft.

i feel every crack in the road as it is.

[guiguilandry]

I got a set of coilover made By Selexsuspension and they are great, I cannot adjuts bound and rebound but they are perfectly calibrated for the car... also it give me about a 2.5 in drop approx. and there is absolutely no squat or sway of the car (perfect for drag and time attack circuit)... I also got both swaybars from speedbuilt, that helps a LOT in the way the car handle with the l67 in front and the polybushings on the Aluminium GA control Arm... the only thing I need to do is get a thinner spacer between the bushings of the front link, the bushing got destroyed because the link and the sway bar was not the at the good angle with a drop like that...

The more important thing is... It is smooth as the original suspension, alot stiffer and you can literally feel the road in the car and steering, but it don't hit hard or rebound in excess in the cracks on the road.....even with my 19' thanks to the wide and reinforced Hankook Ventus S1 Evo 255/30ZR19...
I still don't understand how my setup can be so smooth on the road, I mean I absolutely avoid pothole, because the last one I hit, I needed a new front right tire (30 profile, is like about 1 inch high)

[Chris2000]

I've got a 2.5" drop all around on dropzones.

How low you can go is not the right way to look at it. If you want to slam the car for show, bags are a much better way to do it than coilovers (cause coilovers are a pain to adjust).
Now, if you are planning more for performance reasons (and dear God I hope you'll respect my old suspension that much), lower is not necesarily better. In fact, past a certain point, you'll make handling worse by going lower. You start getting extreme angles on your halfshafts, accelerated wear on CV joints, not to mention the loss of a useable contact patch on the tires from effing with your scrub radius. I haven't even gotten to the fact that these cars don't have a ton of suspension travel anyway, so once you go past 1.5" or so (without proper shortening of the dampers), you'll run into problems with bottoming out and slamming against the jounce bumpers - that'll blow your expensive Koni dampers in a hurry. There are clearance issues with a MacPherson strut setup as well....you'll notice that the bottom spring seat needs to sit above the tire, which limits you considerably.
Start at maybe 1" lower, get the car corner-weighted and aligned properly, and go drive. You'll be faster and won't have to worry about breaking stuff.

[BlackJack]

There we go, now we got some discussion rolling. Matt, without going super high-dollar, what out there seems to be the best bang for the buck for everyone when they want a medium to high handling improvement without breaking the bank?

I particularly am looking for eliminating (reducing) lift in the front, and squat in the rear. Drag racing, keep the weight over the drive wheels for better traction.

Kyle I'd apologise for hyjaking your thread, but I'm pretty sure you'll want to know much the same info as well.

[Nate's Alero]

huh, i've drivin two lowered Alero's, Mine(1.75 all around) and Mike's (zoL) and they both have that shudder... what can i do about it, it drives me nuts

[BlackJack]

well, even when a car is lowered it can get the vibration from improper CV shaft alignment. As the car is lowered, the joints are compressed more. If you're planning on keeping it lowered, I'd consider having the shafts shaved down a little.

Also, it was mentioned that in some applications, camber plates may be required for proper suspension alignment.

[kwhauck]

finally some good info I was looking for all along. That is great to know Matt, and yes i will respect your suspension....lol.....the scrub radius and other suspension geometry is really what I was worrying about. I have the car fairly low right now and my cv joints are straight as an arrow, but I also welded the custom mounts. That can be changed but I was concerned with the other geometry and like you said I certainly don't want to blow these inserts apart. I think i effed with my scrub radius already with the lower offset tires. What do you think?

Does anybody have a fender lip to ground measurement on a stock alero?

[Cliff8928]

Not only do you want to keep track of your CV shaft angles, but also your tie rod angles. You want to keep them fairly straight so you don't get any major bump-steer.