02impactblue

I just had my c5 z06 aligned and corned balanced by a very reputable shop. I just got the car home and noticed a significant difference in ride height from left to right. My drivers side is 1/2 inch lower than the passenger. Is this normal? I would think it would be the opposite based on driver weight.

0Robert@SPEEDSOUTH

When you lower a corner it reduces the weight on it and this transfers across the car. i.e. You lower the LF and it will drop weight there and at the RR. vice versa for raising.

gonzalezfj

Yep. That's the way it works out, driver's side higher.

Frank Gonzalez

02impactblue

My drivers side is lower by 1/2 inch

davidfarmer

1/2" is a lot to be off, either way. However, ride height is usually set before you get onto the scales, and if significant "jacking" is done, it can move the car more than you would normally like. I personally try and raise/lower as necessary to maintain specific corner height/rake, but sometimes you stray.

I had a car come in a few years ago, straight from another BIG setup shop, and the left front was slammed to the ground. The owner was concerned, and I agreed, so we fixed it. I blamed his new springs "settling", but I honestly thing the shop did a quick job on the scales, and didn't step back and actually LOOK at the ride height.

Anyway, I'd be tempted to bring it to their attention if you didn't drive halfway across the country to get it done.

Again, I'll have my scales at VIR in a few weeks if anybody needs a "checkup"

gonzalezfj

Senior moment here. I should have said driver's side lower.

Frank Gonzalez

fatbillybob

David,

When you bring your scales around what method do you use to obtain a flat floor when traveling? Are there any fast simple cheap ways?

davidfarmer

most tracks has a flat pad, or at least a surface that's close enough. At VIR last year, the tech shed was available in the evening for us.

You can only do what you can do, and with leaf springs in particular, you are only going to get within about 25lbs of zero (cross weight), and I've personally found most standard garage floors/pads are quite flat enough.

I don't attempt to setup up scales on the normal paddock surface.

meldog21

Check your wheel well heights. That will give you the best indication of how your car is sitting. When I get home from work I can give you my numbers for reference. Not that my car is perfect, but it was done about 2 weeks ago so my alignment and corner weighting is fresh.

Dog

Joy of 6

The wheel well height is part of the body and I would think that it might not be the best point of reference???? Maybe some frame points would be a better source of balance???

Solofast

When I had my house built one half of the 4 car garage was set up with a separate pour and the forms were leveled with a laser prior to pouring. The builder at first didn't want to do that because it was against code.

When I told him why, his foreman was standing there and said no problem, "we'll do to it", and then offered to let me a use his racing scales whenever I needed them, he was a roundy rounder, but he understood......

02impactblue

I checked it from the wheel well and the frame, 1/2 inch on both measurements.

MySR71

You can use one of those lasers which puts out a beam on a plane in all 360 degrees (you can find them at Home Depot, Lowes, etc). They often have bubble levels in them to ensure the plane in which they lase is horizontal. You can then measure the height of each pad to the plane and make all those heights the same. Unfortunately, those lasers are often hard to see in bright light.

2MCHPWR

can you post up the results of your corner balancing?
here's mine --> http://209.177.55.37/c5align.htm
You were in the car when they did it right? Or at least they put weight in the seat equal to your weight? With mostly full tank of gas?

dcvee

I'll be doing mine in a week or two. I generally put it up on my lift a few feet off the ground. Place a block in the center of the 4 wheels and use a laser level from there to get all 4 corner perches level(for perches I use 2 cinder blocks per corner and shim to level. Then I lower the car on and jump in the drivers seat. Next, I yell for the wife!!! HONEY, WHAT'S THE SCALE READ?? She loves me. Especially when we bleed brakes

I'll post numbers. I did both of my M3's and got the cross within 8lbs difference. Frt/r was 52-48%.

I don't know why your drivers side is lower. That is unusual. If anything, it should be higher. Did they ask you what you weigh? They should have placed ballast in the car to represent your weight.

Don

fatbillybob

Here is mine, me in car and I forget how much gas I have to look at my notes. I pretty happy. Stock T1 car. My garage floor is 3/4" off and I have to shim my location to be accurate. I do everything myself with strings, digital level, couple L squares and scales. Maybe I don't know anything?

my cross is similar to yours but my left right weights are really screwy compared to yours. I'm 30lbs front and 38lbs rear off left to right and you are only 11lb front and 8lb rear that is awesome. I do not know why I have so much weight off on the left. I have nothing to move to the right side of my car I am surprised at your weight too 3467lbs.

Can anyone else post their set-up sheets?

0Robert@SPEEDSOUTH

Some have shared already but I still think it would be neat to see at what exact ride heights folks were able to achieve what weight. Include driver weight, full of fuel or not, anything that would be considered good add'l info.

3X2

Unless you are using the Z and D dimensions, all other measuremnets are not what are used to set up a Corvette.

Mark

Falcon

FBB, is that 3,180#'s with you in the car and gas in the tank?

fatbillybob

What is Z and D? And Falcon I think that number is near empty or 1/8 tank. I can't remember but I wrote it down somewhere in my notes. I'm also not as large as my "handle" would imply. I was also too lazy to see what would happen if I raised or lowered one side of my car or the other to see if I could shift the left/right weight and yet keep the cross the same. I saw the cross and nearly 50/50 and just left it that way. So if I want to move weight to the right I lower the right side ride height?