981/911

88 911 Carrera 154,000 miles, street only, daily driver. I DIY my front control arm bushings, spring plate bushings with polybronze bearing all bilstein shocks, front strut mount bushings, trailing arm bushings, rear wheel bearings. Set my ride height @ 25.5 front (floor to fender and 25.25 in the rear. Brought it to the shop for 4 corner balancing and alignment. He said it took 8 hours to get it right. $100 per hour was $800 plus $200 alignment, ouch!
front left 624 front right 615 pounds
rear left 865 rear right 830
Rides well but height is now:
front left 25.25 front right 26 1/16
rear left 24.50 rear right 24 7/8
I have also measured wheel center to torsion bar center which is right rear 2.3cm, left rear 4.0cm, right front 14.0cm, left front 15.0cm
Mechanic says leave it alone. Seems to me that if right front was lowered and left rear was raised, I could have better ride height and still be balanced. Was I overcharged and was the advice correct? He says we can put it on the scale again which might be more expense and require alignment check again. Please advise. Thanks Glenn Spiegler

Amber Gramps

Problem is worse when you get in the car, no doubt? Steve Weiner, where are you on this one?


Welcome to Rennlist by the way. Pictures are a must and you must tell us more. Where in the world are you? I would think you could get a perfect job for that kind of money.

981/911

Thanks for the welcome. Have an 88 911 Cab. Bought it in 1993 with 14000miles. Its been my daily driver. Live outside of Richmond, Va. I do all my own work and maint except deep engine stuff. Also have my first car which is a 1948 *****'s Jeepster. Love them both and enjoy a good project. If Steve Weiner is the master on this, would appreciate the help. The car certainly is more responsive and tighter since I did the suspension. Appears that the balancing numbers are good, but I get the sense i feel the height being off. Feel raped with the price, mechanic says he's hourly. Probably can get him to
finish with me their on a Sat to get both height and balance. Then would have to realign which is done a different location. Full align is $200, but in this instance I would think less. If I get both ht and balance
right, could I not realign for what I hope will be a small elevation in the left rear and decrease in the front right? Thank for any advice, Glenn

981/911

PS My real love is windsurfing and family.

Dave 86 930 Fl

I had my 930 cb by Dave White Racing (Vortex) and it cost $450.

981/911

Was alignment additional?

Dave 86 930 Fl

Yes

dbanazek

It usually takes me 5-8 hours to balance and align a car, but I do about 1 a month at my shop DART auto in Denver. It is always faster if I do the torsion bar install because it is closer when I start. I have never had to be more than 1/8" (~3mm) off on height side to side at the torsion bar center. Basically the left side of your car is too high. It could be lowered w/o changing the corner balance, which is pretty good. It would need to be realigned. I would not feel comfortable sending a car out with that sort of height differential and charging 8 hours. But if you don't have a guy in town who does a lot of them it could take that long to get it right.

981/911

Thanks for last response. You must mean right is to high. I did start with decreasing the front right, but that does change corner balance. Ended up raising left front, both rears to decrease ht problem. I put 8 hrs more in it with the mechanic and this is what we have with half tank of gas and my body wt in driver seat. One smashed finger which is rough being a surgeon, typing this is painful.
front left 25 5/8 666lbs. front right 26 1/8 620 lbs
rear left 25 5/16 935 lbs. rear right 25 1/2 858 lbs
Diagonals are 1524 and 1555 which are good
front left right difference 46 lbs acceptable
rear left right difference 77 lbs. is high
I could lower rear left a tad, but I am ready to accept this for a street car. Got rid of the severe ht discrepancy which was bothersome to look at. My mechanic wants to keep going. Had a deer hit my lt front fender and windshield years ago, may have fender height assymetric which is forcing a weight/height comprimise. I'm desperate, please advise whether to quit. I will then realign again!

981/911

Have also measured height from torsion bar centers which has not helped

left front 142 mm right front 137 mm
left rear 19 mm right rear 14 mm This is without my body wt which was present for Corner Balancing
According to Bentley front is 108 +/-5 can add 15mm for older cars = 128mm max
rear is 16+/-5 can add 15mm for older cars = 36 mm max
therefore rear is correct, to get front in range would actually need to raise car further which is contrary to all fender measurements and advise.
Is there a chance that torsion bar setting and fender height can be pushed in different directions by the bilsteins which supposedly make your ride higher?Could it be the Bilsteins pushing the fender hieght up, while the torsion bars say I'm low in front?
After I took the above measurements realized the car had been sitting, ride heights after sitting, without being bounced to mid range as Bentley says to do for Bilsteins, as done on original measurements are
front L 25 3/8 front R 25 5/8
rear L 25 3/8 fr R 25
Drive and bounce the bumpers to midway Front 25 3/4 26 1/8
Rear 25 1/2 25 3/8
It's a crazy game.

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Last edited by glennspiegler : Today at 05:37 PM.

Ed Hughes

I think you overpaid by at least a few hundred $. Sounds like the guy was "earning while learning", and you paid the tuition.

scarceller

My 84 Carrera Factory Wide Body measures about 140mm trim hieght on the front as well. This had me stumped because the specs say 108mm, I just don't see how I could go to 108mm? I went with fender at about 25.5" and left the trim at 140mm. I simply figured I did not understand the trim specs. But now I'm wondering if the specs are hard to understand? Can someone comment on this 108mm front trim? What are we missing here?

jester911

I think you overpaid. I did all the work you did to your car and my total bill was probably about 1/3 of yours. I do have a pretty good relationship with my mechanic and have sent him new business so I think he has cut me a little slack but still I believe with you have the ride height that close he should have been able to do it in much less time. My car was done in about 1 1/2 hours.

981/911

OK guys, here are the final #'s. Learned alot, even though I paid and had to eventually do it myself with the same guy (No additional charge). I chose the tradeoffs best for me. Built the ramps Steve suggested which are an absolute must. Get everything perfectly level, roll car on and off scales with a "bumper bounce".
With my body wt and 1/2 tank of gas: Goals as per Steve for height front 25.5 rear, 25.0
front left 25.5 inches, torsion bar ht to center of wheel, 15.1 cm, 693 lbs.
front right 26.0 inches, torsion bar ht 15.9 618 lbs.

rear left 25.0 inches, torsion bar ht 3 cm, 905 lbs.
rear right 25.0 inces, torsion bar ht 2.3cm, 871 lbs.
Diag 1523 and 1564 = 41 lbs difference
front left to right differencial 75 lbs.
rear 34 lbs.
It was a trade, when I had diag 2lbs. apart, with less than 20lb side to side difference, the right front was an inch greater than the front left. Cosmetically and sense in car just not acceptable. For a street car I gave up the perfect numbers to make front only 1/2" apart, which is not noticable in or out of the car. Upper limit of acceptability as per Steve.
Will now realign.