Lowering my car 1/2". Will this affect Toe In/Toe Out ?

[95EclipseGST]

I have Tein Flex and i just raised it up 1/2" and took it to get an alignment. If i ever decide to drop it just a 1/4 " more, will this affect just the camber, or will my Toe in/out be messed up again? Thanks

 

[DSMunknown]

In my understanding, making any adjustment to ride height, rim and/or tire size, or suspension upgrades will effect tire wear and (of course) that particular suspension setup. (Isn't that the idea? ) Go and have the car properly alligned and put your mind at ease.

 

[95EclipseGST]

I just had the car properly aligned today after raising the car 1". Everything is now in spec. Now, if i lower it just a half an inch, will that throw my toe back out? OR just make the camber from lets say -1.2, to -1.5 and the tow would be okay?

 

[DSMunknown]

Actually, I want to correct myself with the quote below from a very knowledgable individual.

Toe determines how much wear. Camber determines where it happens.

 

[95EclipseGST]

Thats why i was asking if lowering it 1/2 inch will affect Toe. I dont want to ruin my new Falken RT-615's if i lower it a half inch. The alignment was done today and the toe is perfect and the camber is -1.2. If i drop it another half inch, will the toe remain the same?

 

[50trimgsx]

lowering your car makes the car handle worse! not the best choice unless you are lowering by putting coilovers on the car!

 

[AK_4g63t]

Okay, heres the real answer:
Your vehicle has something called caster. Caster means that your front tires are not straight up and down but a little bit behind where they are connected (just to make it sound easy). Now, this helps keep your car going straight on the road. With that in mind, with your vehicles tires held in place from going left and right with your tie rods...these are connected to the front of your tires. When your cars height goes up or down AT ALL it also pulls your tires forward and backwards. Lowering your vehicle or raising your vehicle will mess up every angle on your car. It will make your vehicle handle like sh**, respond like sh*** and make driving terrible. Now, there's only so far you can lower your vehicle before you can't set your vehicles caster and toe anymore. This is when you can remove the strut bolts in the engine bay, remove your struts and actually make slits using some porting tools that go from the front to back of your vehicle so you can adjust your caster some more. Your toe can easily be adjusted no matter what but to adjust camber you will need a camber kit. So there you go. I hope all that makes sense, if not just let me know and I will explain better.
-Donny

 

[95EclipseGST]

Thank you for the info. 50trimgsx, i do have Tein Flex coilovers on the car. What i did NOT know is that:

"Lowering your vehicle or raising your vehicle will mess up every angle on your car"

I thought the toe would remain the same and "only" camber be effected by lowering it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Spades]

lowering your car makes the car handle worse! not the best choice unless you are lowering by putting coilovers on the car!

Try reading the question over again smart guy


95EclipseGST - yes it will alter the toe & camber, lets put it this way... when you lower 2" it changes those values by "X" amount, so when you lower it only 1/2" then you will still change those values, just by less of an amount, everything is proportional

 

[95EclipseGST]

Thank you Spades

 

[AK_4g63t]

And also don't forget caster will be out of spec also. When you get your alignment, talk to the guys and see if they can get your caster back to the specified amount. If not your car's steering will feel terrible. If they cannot get it back to spec, get out some porting tools and get to grinding.
-Donny

 

[95EclipseGST]

My camber is at -1.2 degress and the toe is zeroed out. Im pretty sure thats pretty much a good spec to be sitting at.

 

[wret]

And also don't forget caster will be out of spec also. When you get your alignment, talk to the guys and see if they can get your caster back to the specified amount. If not your car's steering will feel terrible. If they cannot get it back to spec, get out some porting tools and get to grinding.
-Donny

We're talking about a 2g with psuedo double wishbone suspension. Moving the top of the strut around wouldn't change caster. Neither would lowering the suspension (significantly).

The steering rack is behind the front wheels and normally the tie rod ends angle down a bit. As the suspension is compressed (or lowered) the TRE's will push out at the back of the wheel creating some to in. Compress a little more and the toe will straighten as the angle of the TRE's is forced to pitch upward and they start pulling back of the wheel in. Continue the compression some more and you get toe out.

If your car was already lowered and you are lowering half an inch more, you are probably in the toe out range. Personally I wouldn't wory about half an inch.

 

[kenamond]

We're talking about a 2g with psuedo double wishbone suspension. Moving the top of the strut around wouldn't change caster. Neither would lowering the suspension (significantly).

The steering rack is behind the front wheels and normally the tie rod ends angle down a bit. As the suspension is compressed (or lowered) the TRE's will push out at the back of the wheel creating some to in. Compress a little more and the toe will straighten as the angle of the TRE's is forced to pitch upward and they start pulling back of the wheel in. Continue the compression some more and you get toe out.

If your car was already lowered and you are lowering half an inch more, you are probably in the toe out range. Personally I wouldn't wory about half an inch.

I don't know anything specifically about the DSM suspension, but if the dual wishbone suspension has non-parallel mounting points, then raising and lowering will change caster. Like if the lower link's two mounting points are parallel to the ground, but the upper link's two mounting points are not, then the whole kingpin rotates about the lateral axis when the suspension moves, which changes the caster.

My $0.02