info on lowered vettes going back to stock height
 

Okay so I have been reading this whole year, but I have been in OIF, getting ready to come home, I bought an 04 Com Edition Coup M6 in 2008, its been siting with a friend of mine giving her a little bit of exercise twice a month.

So what I need to know is this how can I tell, if it has been lowered on stock bolts, I would like to be able to look at it and be able to tell, I would be one of the few who would want his vette at stock height I have a very steep driveway in Alabama and I will be returning there and it currently scraped the air damn that forces air up into the radiator.

If someone has pcitures of what the suspension looks like lowered on stock bolts and maybe someone has what it looks like when its not lowered that would be great??

thanks

Jimmy

oh bye the way how hard would it be to return it to stock height depending on how it was lowered if it has been??

It's real easy...just turn a bolt at each axle...don't forget to get it realigned after you change the ride height..by the way, the front air dam is design to be flexible and is spring loaded to move upward...so scraping it doesn't hurt the Vette.

It's not quite that easy. The rear is, but the front bolts are rubber coated where they contact the lower control arm. You have to release the tension on the bolt or you will tear the rubber loose. Trust me I know. You can't buy replacement bolts, they come with a new spring.:eek:

What do you mean you can't buy replacement bolts for the front? Are you saying you have to buy a new front spring to get the two bolts that adjust the ride height??:bs I can go to the dealer and buy C6 front bolts to lower a C5 even further than I can on the stock C5 bolts. Why would GM sell C6 bolts separately, but not C5 bolts?

I went to the dealer, looked at the exploded view with all the part # and it said you couldn't get the bolts seperatly. I didn't ask for a C6.

If you do a search you will find lots of info on lowering. Obviously, do the opposite to raise the car.

There are bolts threaded through the spring on the front and a bolt and nut in the rear. The easiest check is to look at the rear and see if there is say 1/2" or so of threads left past the nut. Also, a stock car tends to have about 2x the gap above the wheels compared to ahead of and behind the wheels.

FYI, if the C6 bolts are the ones commonly sold as lowering bolts then they aren't much good. Mine have been in about 15k miles and I've got it up on blocks for some work and noticed that the rubber pad has self destructed on the drivers side. Most likely the seat on the A-arm is not the correct shape for the bolt to sit on without wearing the pad funny.

Peter

You can't get the C6 bolts unless you buy the spring. Checked with a local dealer today. Parts guy showed me the exploded view and entered the part and it isn't available separate from the spring.

Here is something I put together showing the various heights on my 2004 Z06 after various changes.

Toque

http://mysite.verizon.net/res0aae8/z06/zzz07.jpg

Not correct... After market is a great thing... :yesnod:

C6 front bolts, and longer rear bolts for $39.99 see below.

Go to http://www.zip-corvette.com/
Search for "97-04 Full Corvette Lowering Kit"

Toque

Peter:

My C5 stock front lowering bolt came out worn on one side (after 4 yrs installed). The same one sided wear showed on my front C6 bolt (after 2 years installed). Its not the fault of the bolts, its just how the suspension works. The lower control A arm will have more contact on one side of the bolt. The side towards center of car will wear more because it has more pressure on it at all times. It never really sits "flush" on the lower A arm. There will always be more "pressure" on the bolt on "one side" because the suspension moves in a non linear form.

The bolt will make contact to the lower A arm in the below pic. See the clean spot ? Its not a perfect circle like the C6 bolt is shaped.

I wish I had a pic of my stock C5 bolt when I took it out. It was highly deformed to one side (both pass and drivers)....:yesnod:
I noticed the same wear on my C6 bolts when I removed them a month ago to install my Coil overs.

Toque


http://mysite.verizon.net/res0aae8/c...coilover18.jpg

Here is a pic of the Stock C5 front lowering bolt on top of the C6 front lowering bolt.

You can see the C5 bolt is deformed because of the inside wear is sees.

Toque

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...stockbolts.jpg