polecat702

When I had my 89 S4, up on the lift yesterday, I raised the front 4 turns on my Koni Reds. Do I need to have it realigned?

I check search, but nothing came up.

Thanks,
joe

FredR

Joe,

As the height changes the toe changes- as I recall [and logic supports] lowering height causes toe out and increasing height causes toe in. It also has impact on camber as I remember.

As to how much height change causes a need for realignment remains to be seen but at a wild guess I suspect a couple of turns might be forgiving but four- hmm?

Hopefully someone who has tested for such can chime in. Adjusting the toe a turn or two both sides is quite simple and relatively painless to do as it can be done on the deck whilst on full lock.

soontobered84

Joe,

It won't be right until the suspension resettles and you have it realigned.

I know that you will want it right.

polecat702

Thanks Guys!
The alignment shop is just around the corner from my house, and it's only $60.00, for a complete 4 wheel alignment. Cheap in my estimation. I'll have to put some miles on it before I drop it off. It's a hoot to drive with the blower, like it has a 2nd engine in it!

jeff spahn

Don't remind me. I am still waiting for mine.

GT6ixer

That is a great price. Just make sure their alignment machine keeps the weight on the wheels and that they don't lift the car before they do it. Like John said the suspension needs to settle before the alignment can be done.

hacker-pschorr

Here we go again.....

This is all fine & dandy if we know for a fact the suspension is fully settled before they lift if from the wheels.

Best to follow the factory procedure:

dr bob

Jeff --

The qualified answer is "yes" to deserving an alignment, but the actual toe change varies depending on the actual height that you start and end up at. Four turns will gain you somewhere around 5mm of ride height change once everything settles out again. If the car was way low when you started, that 5mm will cause the the toe-in to increase. If the car was close to design height with the lower control arm level, ball joint pivot height same as the rear bushing center height, the toe change will be negligible. Porsche was pretty careful in the rack fitment and positioning so that the inner tie rod connection roughly falls vertically in the plane between the upper and lower bushings, so that toe changes only slightly as the body rolls going around corners. It needs to change some as camber the changes, but at design height it tries to cancel out most of that effect so solve scrub among other things.

We look for the correct toe when the car is level side to side with steering parallel to the centerline of the car, and that can easily be different as you move the car up and down away from the ideal level lower control arm height. Plus, almost nobody sets the front height up at the factory 180-190mm design height, or fine tunes that target number based on actual rolling radius on the tires.

dr bob

Adding to Erik's reminder on pulling the suspension down to achieve settled ride height: Be Sure To Record All The Ride Heights immediately before and after the car is aligned. Somewhere down the road, you'll want to recheck ride heights to verify that the car has not settled further from the height at which it was aligned.

My car came to me with 22k on it and close to ten years of sitting. It was already below factory ride height and continued to settle more as time and miles accumulated. Twice in my first five years, I had to crank the front suspension up some just so I could get into my driveway without scraping the nose. I started paying a lot more attention to actual height numbers by the time I had to replace front tires with almost 30k on them. Others at the time were reporting less than 20k life expectancy, so I was feeling pretty good. Of course, these were factory US-spec BFG T/A's, somewhat akin to blocks of ice for ride and handling. Yes, the car came with BFG T/A's when new.

Anyway, monitor and record the ride heights regularly, adjust as needed to maintain those heights as the springs sag, and your tires will love you.

SwayBar

For $60, why not, that's money well spent.

polecat702

I haven't put 50 miles on the car since we did the swap. First the alternator, then both fuel pumps, fuel pressure regulator, fuel damper, temp II, CPS, Hall sensor, some took a dump, and died, others needed replacement when we did the swap.

Patience my son, all good things in their time!

GT6ixer

Is the special tool needed for this? What does your guy use?