Coilover ride height and leveling

[Ninharu]

I just reinstalled a new set of coilovers and am curious as to how you set the ride height. when i say set i mean the actual distance/gap for each corner. what do you use as your reference point? i want the car to look normal when it is on the ground so i just measured from the underside of each wheel well to the top lip of each rim. is this the right way to do this? or should i use some other point like a frame rail or some part of the undercarrage of the car. i have read and found that our cars are left leaning and yes my settings on my left side are way higher to keep each wheelwell at the same gap. also for a awd should the gap be the same for the front vs the rear or should the rear be marginally be higher. i also measured at a random part on the frame on each side of the car and even though the gaps for each wheelwell are the same those measures to the ground are not. Which is the proper way to do it?

 

[asian312]

If you are doing this from a performance stand point, you need the ability to corner weigh the car. This will determine the height of each corner.

If you need just a starting point, do your measurements from the center of the wheel to the highest point of the wheel well on the fender.

 

[Scrymerr]

I was thinking about this the other day also. When I decide to adjust my coilovers, I will make all measurements from the ground to the frame of the vehicle (was considering using the jacking points). I think this way will be the most accurate. I really don't think it matters too much if you are just trying to level the car, so long as you choose two points that will ultimately be the same height off the ground (or one higher than the other if you do not want the car to sit entirely level). I wish there was a better standard to measure right height than the difference from stock height. Once you are on coilovers, there is no way to tell where the car sits relative to stock. I guess the only downside to this method is that it would be affected the wheel/tire size, as the method of measuring from center of the wheel to the fender would not.