Raising ride height
Raising ride height
Author
Discussion

Storer

Original Poster:

5,024 posts

245 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
OK all, I need a bit of info on how to raise the ride height of my Cerbera a bit, if you would be so kind.

With 2 up (about 15st each) I get a lot of rubbing on rear wheel arches plus I ground the bolt heads on the plate under the exhaust on speed humps (horrible noise).

I have yet to try the car with daughter in the back but I think that would be almost impossible as it is presently set up.

What can I do to raise the ride height.

PS On standard 17" wheels with adjustable shocks (1500miles old).

TT Tim

4,168 posts

277 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
To raise the ride height, raise the spring seats, that is assuming that you have this option. Do it evenly all round and double check the ride height after you've done, on a flat surface measuring between outrigger and ground.

The gold bit at the bottom of the shock in these pics, is the spring seat.

You may need a 'c' spanner to turn the seat as they are under load.

But, do remember that your's may not look exactly like this as these are Nitron aftermarket shocks.

Good luck

Tim


Front suspension - Close up, sorry don't seem to have any pics showing the complete assembly. Ignore the spanner I was tightening the lower bolt.


Rear suspension

HTH

Tim

Nefarious

989 posts

295 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
Oooh, what lovely shiney components you have.

Whitey

2,508 posts

314 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
does raising the ride height by say 1cm, affect geometry?

dumbfunk

1,727 posts

314 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
Yes it will - if I'm picturing it correctly you will lose camber as you raise it.


dumbfunk

TT Tim

4,168 posts

277 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
dumbfunk said:
Yes it will - if I'm picturing it correctly you will lose camber as you raise it.


dumbfunk
You do, but this can be sorted as both front and rear have sliding adjustment at the top.

I would have thought, that for normal road use, adding a cm or so to ride height, would make little difference.

We need Jools, to confirm/dismiss this. As I'm no expert.

Tim.

jammy_basturd

29,778 posts

242 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
Over a couple of thousand miles, if you've raised the ride height by 10mm, I would say you'd have noticeable wear on the outside of the tyre.

Byker28i

92,358 posts

247 months

Wednesday 25th June 2008
quotequote all
I had my tracking etc rechecked and adjusted after I raised my car by 35mm to accomodate the SP exhaust system. It needed to be adjusted.

Storer

Original Poster:

5,024 posts

245 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Thanks for the replies. Excellent pictures too. My suspension seems to be painted orange............no wait a minute, it's rust.

I will try this at the weekend and if necessary make a tool to adjust.

The car needs to go and have the geometry checked so they can sort that for me then.

Old Geezer

3,598 posts

224 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Dumb question??

When they set the Geo up, do they load the car with a driver and passenger weighting?
Or whatever specific requirements one would request?

Steve


PS - Tim how much to do a refurb job on my suspension??wink

G1ABB

857 posts

234 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Which make of shocks do you have? PM me if you prefer.

Thanks
Graham

Storer

Original Poster:

5,024 posts

245 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Graham

Don't know until I get a wheel off at the weekend and have a look. Too busy until then.

Storer

Original Poster:

5,024 posts

245 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Tim
Is that paint or powder coat on your front suspension?

TT Tim

4,168 posts

277 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Storer said:
Tim
Is that paint or powder coat on your front suspension?
It's white Hammerite over Epoxy Mastic.

I only used the Hammerite to make it white as the Epoxy mastic was grey.

Tim

Ireland

3,517 posts

244 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
I've had my car raised since I got it.

I had the rubbing issue as well but sorted it by adding a small bit more negative camber.

This solved the rubbing and also it seemed to improve the handling big time.

I changed the springs on mine and I'd recommend this as, by fitting the right ones for the job, you retain decent travel in the suspension and have comfort as well.

I promise you that once you do this you'll drive it more and enjoy it even more than you do right now.

neil0205

443 posts

245 months

Thursday 26th June 2008
quotequote all
Mine used to scrape over every speed bump. I used to slow down to a snails pace and it`d still catch. Until I bought my spiders (which also look good) this raised the car enough for me to go over speed bumps at 30mph!

volospian

494 posts

227 months

Friday 27th June 2008
quotequote all
neil0205 said:
Mine used to scrape over every speed bump. I used to slow down to a snails pace and it`d still catch. Until I bought my spiders (which also look good) this raised the car enough for me to go over speed bumps at 30mph!
Your ride height was raised just by adding the spiders? If that's the case then the hubs must now be higher than they were in relation to the ground. Surely that means the radius of the overall wheel has increased quite dramatically?

In which case... careful through those speed cams!!biggrin