Recommended ride height and geometry

[cerbfan]

Looking for some help if possible. Got new Goodyear Eagle F1's for the rear of the car last week to replace the knackered Toyo Proxes. However realised after driving it a few miles that the car is now rubbing on the arches due to the F1s having a much squarer shoulder than the Proxes, something I never thought of at the time. I have Spiders and Nitrons so the possibility is there for me to raise the ride height to get some more clearance. The question is what do people recommend for ride heights as I think I may need to raise it quite a bit. It is currently at 170mm at the rear. I also seem to remember that the camber also needs resetting if I fiddle with the ride height, does anyone have the correct setting for the geometry. The reason I need all these figures is as being in Aberdeen I don't have access to a local specialist so I'm going to need to go the local alignment place and give them the figures to set it up to.

As a temporary fix I thought I would stiffen the suspension up to stop it rubbing, I found a thread with someones recommended settings for Nitrons, 4 from fully hard for the front and 6 from fully hard for the rear, so set it up to this and set off on a 140 mile round trip with my pregnant wife (running late so no time to test it). Blo*dy hell, I can't remember whose thread it was that recommended those settings but they must live somewhere where the streets are like a billiard table. I'm sure I've got a hernia now and the wife has vowed to never go in the car again. Respect to the person who can live with the car like that although it was so stiff the car would be much slower on the road might be ok for a track though.

[cerbfan]

Anyone??

[jensena]

I can't remember what the ride height sould be, but the rake (diff betweent front and rear)should be 35mm - ie rear is 35mm higher. Altering the ride height affects the camber of both front and rear wheels. But the correct setting is to get get the all 4 lower wishbones as close as possible to parallel with the ground, that should also give the correct camberr.
So adjust the height to get all wishbones parallel, and make sure the rear od the car as close to 35mm higher than the front. Take the meausrement fron under the fron and rear jacking point. The extreme ends of the chassis rails that rub along under the 'sills')

Hope this helps

[ridds]

Don;t think it's that high. Mines set at 15mm with 50/50 front/rear weight.

[jensena]

I think it is 35mm for standard Ridds.

[ireland]

I've been trying to get mine back to factory height to get clearance off the bad roads here.

The front should be 630mm and the back 670mm, measured from the floor (flat ground) to the highest point of the wheelarch.

[cerbfan]

OK thanks for that, I'll try it once I get home from offshore in a couple of weeks. I also considered increasing the camber at the rear to give just a bit more clearance in the arches as well, but hopefully tweaking the ride height will be enough. Out of interest Ireland where did you get your figures from, is this the standard setup out of the factory?

I wish I had just bought Toyos now, ah well live and learn.

[Ireland]

cerbfan said:

Out of interest Ireland where did you get your figures from, is this the standard setup out of the factory?

I got the measurements from on here.

I'm having serious clearance problems with some of the bad roads over here.

The car was lowered when I got it and I've had to raise it to save the bottom of it.

[TT Tim]

I wouldn't use the wheelarch as a datum point, there can be huge discrepencies between left and right sides of the car.

You need a flat piece ot tarmac and measure from a point on the chassis to the floor.

Tim

[ridds]

Ahh Think Joo suggested 15 to me.

As for using the arches, I wouldn't. Nice safe chassis point close to the wheels like the ends of the outriggers would be good.

[alinton]

As far as I recall, isn't the stock minimum ground clearance 130mm? I think thats what it says in the owners manual.

That would be at the front. I got mine raised slightly to get to this figure and now it clears everything, even on Irish roads.

Andy.

[Ireland]

That's right.

On page 66 of the Owners Handbook it does say 130mm ground clearance.

[byker28i]

I've got Eagle F1's on mine without rubbing. I think mines about 135mm clearence as I was measurign to see which of my trolley jacks would go under.

[jesfirth]

Hi cerbfan,

If you email me on [e-mail] i will scan and forward a copy of the data/set up sheet for my car which also has nitrons and 235 Toyo R888's on the rear.

Jes

[Julian64]

jesfirth said:

Hi cerbfan,

If you email me on [e-mail] i will scan and forward a copy of the data/set up sheet for my car which also has nitrons and 235 Toyo R888's on the rear.

Jes

YHM, I would be interested in that info

[cerbfan]

Thanks for the offer, YHM.

[frankgilbert]

JUST HAD MINE SET UP AFTER FITTING SOME NEW AB SHOCKS WHAT AN AMASING DIFFERENCE TOTALLY DIFFERENT CAR AMD SO MUCH SECURE ON THE ROAD RIDE HEIGHT SET AT 192MM REAR OFF REAR OF CHASSIS AT POINT IT MEETS THE BOOT ,FRONT 145MM AGAIN AT POINT IT MEETS THE FIBRE GLASS BODY BENEATH THE RADIATOR. SHOCKS ADJUSTABLE FOR HEIGHT,STANDARD ARE NOT AND SAGG WITH AGE .LIKE EVERY THING!!!!