Corner Weighting
Discussion
I have enquired about getting the suspension properly set up once I get the rear back together, the price I was given included corner weighting. As much as I would like to get it corner weighted I though that you needed 4 ride height adjustable shocks to do this, only the rears will be ride height adjustable with the front just dampening adjustable am I correct or has anyone had their Wedge corner weighted?
Cheers
Cheers
From my limited understanding of corner weighting for road use the most critical thing is to get the diagonals to match and this can easily be done with just the rears being adjustable.
If the rear-left is an inch off the ground then the front-right will have minimal weight on it (all the cars weight will be on the front-left rear-right diagonal pair)
You can rectify this rather extreme situation from either rear corner up on one side gives the same result as down on the other side.
Of course there is a lot more to it than this but that is probably all that your garage are going to do.
Also BMW clearly understand the subject even less than I do as they market their cars based on the misconception that 50/50 weight distribution is the optimum.
Anyone else who understands the mechanics better is welcome to contradict or add as they see fit
If the rear-left is an inch off the ground then the front-right will have minimal weight on it (all the cars weight will be on the front-left rear-right diagonal pair)
You can rectify this rather extreme situation from either rear corner up on one side gives the same result as down on the other side.
Of course there is a lot more to it than this but that is probably all that your garage are going to do.
Also BMW clearly understand the subject even less than I do as they market their cars based on the misconception that 50/50 weight distribution is the optimum.
Anyone else who understands the mechanics better is welcome to contradict or add as they see fit
If the chassis is straight then corner weighting is pretty much a waste of time for a road car. Just set the left and right spring seats to the same position and that will be fine. The poin of corner weighting is to take the torsional preloads out of the chassis, but if your chassis is straight and your suspension is set up the same on both sides, there won't be any. The only real danger is where people squint at the car and reckon the body isn't flat and then try to 'correct' it by changing the suspension height. Recipe for disaster, don't even think about it.
I do corner weighting as part of a suspension set-up .. but it's all placebo on road cars. I guarantee the owner wouldn't notice a blind bit of difference if i'd done it or not .. but it would always be in the back of their mind "would it have been any different corner weigthed?" .. for the extra 20mins it takes I do it anyway .. but it's largely a pointless exercise as GreenV8S says.
shpub said:
It makes a real difference but it has to be done for a setup. If the guy doesn't ask you how much you weigh and if you drive alone or with a passenger then be suspicious as the setup will be wrong.
Maybe he doesn't have to ask, Steve. A case in point being I once went into Selfridges to buy a hat, and the guy behind the counter just looked at my head and told me what size it was, no tape measures or anything. And he was bang on! So - a quick squint might be all that's necessary!!!
BTW go into Selfridges now to buy a proper hat, and you just get blank stares, so maybe you're right...
If the chassis isn't straight you have far more fundamental problems than a bit of corner weight in the wrong place! And if it's straight, then the corner weights will be more or less right with the suspension set symetrically left/right. The only reason I can see for corner weighting a road car is to compensating for uneven sagging springs, but really that's not the right answer to that problem.
adam quantrill said:
shpub said:
It makes a real difference but it has to be done for a setup. If the guy doesn't ask you how much you weigh and if you drive alone or with a passenger then be suspicious as the setup will be wrong.
Maybe he doesn't have to ask, Steve. A case in point being I once went into Selfridges to buy a hat, and the guy behind the counter just looked at my head and told me what size it was, no tape measures or anything. And he was bang on! So - a quick squint might be all that's necessary!!!
BTW go into Selfridges now to buy a proper hat, and you just get blank stares, so maybe you're right...
Door opens… Beeb boop… 189 kg. Shopkeeper says "Hello fat bloke" then looks up.
Sounds like unless you're intending some serious track day action or competition it's not worth spending huge amounts on but it would at least be interesting to have it measured (post alignment adjustments of course) so you can tell if anything changes in the future.
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