How to stop scraping the road???

[Clipz99]

OK guys, I have a 99' Eclipse GS. I have Eibach lowering spring and a camber-kit on all 4 wheels. The car is about 2 1/2in off the ground in the front and 6 1/2in in the back. Now the problem I have is that when I pull out of my driveway my cat. converter and the bottom of my chaise scrapes the road. I was wondering what would be the easiest way to correct this problem. Would simply upgrading my wheels from 17in to 18in do the trick or should I just buy new springs? If I buy new springs do I have to buy a new camber kit?
(and yes i already posted this in the suspension forum)

 

[dsmturboawd]

solutions:

put stock suspension back on

get taller tires

get 18's

dont go over curbs

 

[97eclipseRS]

dont park in your driveway

 

[Clipz99]

, its either i park in the driveway or out on the road and the last thing i want is my car on the road all night.

 

[Turbonium]

the anwser here is not how can i fix my car but what can i do to my driveway to make my car not scrape. duh! haha good luck
Ryan

 

[Colossus]

I scrape and drag my front end over big enough dips. That's why I'm saving to buy an Air Ride kit from AIM Industires. $1300 f.b.s.s. Ive riden in an Eclipse with this kit...rides nice and smooth, raise up for curbs sit down low for cruisen. It looks good

 

[igs]

You have to drive at an angle.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Originally posted by igs
You have to drive at an angle.

Learn to take things at angles and you won't have this problem. Going at them straight on not only gets your car as far as possible into the dip but the suspension also compresses more if both tires go over or into a dip/bump at the same time. Attack it with some angle and you'll be golden.

Tom

 

[JeRmZ]

Taller tires solved the problem for me! I went from a 215/40R17 to a 225/40R17 and I didn't scrape anymore!! Of course now I have my Blazer sittin on 31's so I don't scrape at all! HAHA!

 

[Clipz99]

hey guys, thanks for all the ideas. im going to try and pull out of the driveway at an angle and if that doesn't work i guess i buy new tires or something. Thanks

 

[thehyena]

get 18's

 

[dsmnate]

Originally posted by JeRmZ
Taller tires solved the problem for me! I went from a 215/40R17 to a 225/40R17 and I didn't scrape anymore!! Of course now I have my Blazer sittin on 31's so I don't scrape at all! HAHA!

What you just said doesn't make any sense.... going from 215/40R17 to 225/40R17 doesn't give you a taller tire it gives you a wider tire. You have to change the second number to a higher number to get a taller tire.


To answer the question......

As other people said, take things at about a 45 degree angle or at least make sure your tire hits a bump before the front of your car. If that doesn't work you need to look at how to fix your driveway.

 

[beast_bl]

Tell the road to back off and stop scraping your car or else you're gonna kick it's ass, then when it stops, kick it's ass anyway.

 

[wret]

Originally posted by dsmnate


What you just said doesn't make any sense.... going from 215/40R17 to 225/40R17 doesn't give you a taller tire it gives you a wider tire. You have to change the second number to a higher number to get a taller tire.

Actually the middle number is a percentage of the width. In this case 10mm more width would give you 4mm more height. Not a lot but every little bit helps.

 

[dsmnate]

Originally posted by wret


Actually the middle number is a percentage of the width. In this case 10mm more width would give you 4mm more height. Not a lot but every little bit helps.

I have never heard that before... how does making the tires wider (215mm -> 225mm) give you height? I was always told and understood that changing the 40 series to a 45 series or to a 50 series would increase the height, not changing the width.

 

[wret]

Tire manufactures, in an effort to keep us outsiders in the dark devised an insidious sizing scheme that only really makes sense to themselves, masons, and space aliens.

This site is a good tool to use to see how a wider tire with the same "middle number" affects the overall diameter.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

 

[Wiggy44k]

Changing from a 215/40 tire to a 235/40 tire will give you 8mm more tire height, since the second number is a % of the first number. Therefore 235-215=20, and 40% of 20 is 8.

 

[goalieman24]

get some quik-crete and make little ramps down the bump and drive down them

 

[thehyena]

get out and bang your head against the ground as hard as you can....yea, that should do it

 

[wret]

I've been house-hunting recently. Two of my requirements are a basement to party in and a garage to tinker in. The real estate agent showed me a house that looked pretty good until I noticed it had a full size curb running across the end of the driveway! I would have to make ramps going about 8 feet into the street!

Needless to say, I kept looking.

 

[dsmnate]

Thanks for the explanations and the link.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Originally posted by wret
I've been house-hunting recently. Two of my requirements are a basement to party in and a garage to tinker in. The real estate agent showed me a house that looked pretty good until I noticed it had a full size curb running across the end of the driveway! I would have to make ramps going about 8 feet into the street!

Needless to say, I kept looking.

Yep, the driveway was the first thing I looked at when we were house hunting. This one has a pretty good incline for the first 3 feet of it but the driveway extends straight from the culdesac at a 45 degree angle and it's easy to get up it for this reason. If I can navigate nearly anything with a 2" drop on 19s with a blitz kit then you can manage .

Tom

 

[JeRmZ]

Originally posted by wret


Actually the middle number is a percentage of the width. In this case 10mm more width would give you 4mm more height. Not a lot but every little bit helps.

Yup, that's exactly right!
I have a buddy in the tire buisness and he had to explain the same S**T to me about a million times before I understood what he was trying to say!

 

[wret]

... and they probably thought we'd never figure it out. Those tire engineers are so full of themselves.

Hah! Take that!

 

[98SilverGS-T]

hmm...you've been taking the driveway straight up!? I can't even do that w/ stock height...the tip of my exhaust scrapes...