After installing lowering springs ---
 

After installing Eibach lowering springs, should I get an all wheel alignment again? Also, are their any adjustments that are needed, such as toe-in or toe-out required?

Thanks in advance for sharing your expert knowledge.

Yes, lowering the car will effect camber and toe. The front camber is not adjustable, so either accept and enjoy, or get the adjustable upper control arms from SPC. The rear is fully adjustable but you may run out of toe adjustment. There is plenty of toe adjustment on the front.

Yes, definitely get an alignment to correct the toe. Unless you dropped like 3" the added camber should be just fine and make the car handle better.

Thanks for the advice. So should an all wheel alignment from the shop get things in order? I have the Eibach kit that lowers the front by .9 inches and the rear by .8 inches. I've heard that I should wait a month or two for it to "settle" before getting the alignment. Lastly, should I look into getting adjustable upper control arms? I do not plan to track the car on a regular basis. Maybe once or twice a year at most. If I do decide to pick up the control arms, how much should that set me back?

Thanks again for the quick response / advice.

The arms aren't cheap, somewhere under $400 shipped. Installation should be $60-$100 at a suspension shop.

With a 1" drop the camber shouldn't be too wacked. Get a 4-wheel alignment and if the front is beyond -1.6 then you can consider getting the camber adjustable arms if you do a lot of miles. I have -2.5 dialed into mine and love it, but then again I only get about 6-8k miles out of my front tires as they see lots of auto-x.

So should I let the springs "settle" for a month or so prior to getting the alignment, or can I have the alignment done the minute they are installed?

The longer you wait the more unnecessary wear on the tires.

A few hundred miles oughta do it.

i installed those springs in my car, and my rear camber is def out more than i would like it to be...

do you think there is enough adjustment to not get rear camber arms ? Or should i pick up a set of Ichiba Camber Arms ?

I am having mine installed as I type this, I am having them align and slightly tweak the camber in back right as they install so I hope the "settling" doesn't throw things out of whack.

on a side note...

How many hours should it take a competent mechanic to install the set of springs? I was quoted at 6 hours which sounded a bit high to me (especially at over $100/hr)

We charge 2.5hrs for a full set of springs.. Keep looking..

EDIT: Sounds like you agreed to that.. That's way too much.. Coilovers are 4 hrs..

Holy sh*t thanks for the heads up, I am going to walk down there right now and mention this to them...

*After walking down there they guy didn't seem to believe that it could take less than 3hrs, though he said if it takes less time he will not bill me for the extra time. So hopefully it will only take them 3hrs once they start...

3 hrs.. Ok, maybe if they don't do them a lot I get it, but that's not your fault either if that's the case. This is as standard as it gets.

That's good to know, thanks much Josh. Too bad I'm not in SoCal, I would drop my car off with you for a week...

We've had plenty of guys drive down from NorCal for big installs.. Let us know if we can help, and would be happy to give you the tour of the STILLEN complex when you're in town.

I will be sure to keep that in mind for future installs, I make it down there for business semi often. I'll bring the GTR down when I pick her up :tup:

its not hard at all to install springs. Air tools make it easier but you can do it without having to pay tons of cash.

Yeah I got it all sorted and paid a reasonable price. The car looks great now hunkered down a bit, the wheels just need to come out a touch...

Did you tweak the camber just after the install?

who did the install?

I have not, It is going into the dealership early Jan (1 year service already) and I am going to have them install Stillen Sways front and back along with some H&R Spacers and at that time I will have them align and adjust as necessary. If needed I will get the camber arms and toe bolt...

American Automotive on Harrison between 4th and 5th, they had really great Yelp reviews and the folks there were quite pleasant, though I don't think they usually handle jobs such as this.

On a side note, the aftermarket springs are considerably heavier than the stock springs, the box with my stock springs in them felt about half the weight from the Eibachs.

man iiunno if i could even do lowering springs. I scrape my front bumper as is when i go into parking lots or w/e.

So basically besides adding the Eibach or SPC rear camber/toe alignment kit, it can be aligned back into factory specs front/rear? Nothing is needed for the front?

Has there been any discussion as to how low the factory stuts will last with the Eibach spring kit?

Also...can anyone report on how the ride is with the Eibachs?

I aim to find that out here very soon, I hoping that will be the case.

Ride quality is excellent, I was able to get out for a drive this morning and cruising down the highway the ride is very near stock.

what the negative camber you usually get after installing ebiach springs with 19" wheels?

So I just just got the Eibach Pro Kit installed and there seems to be a lot of negative camber in the rear, and I can't find a local tire shop that will do the alignment, because they tell me they don't have the specs or their machine will scratch-up the front bumper.
Anyone know what are the original alignment specs??? I found one shop that said they will overwrite the computer for a 2008 350z and plug in the OE specs. Help!

Factory specs
Front (degrees)
Camber Min -1.41, Max 0.08, Nom -0.67
Caster Min 4.42, Max 5.91, Nom 5.17
Toe Min 0.05, Max 0.11, Nom 0.08

Rear (degrees)
Camber Min -2.16, Max -1.17, Nom -1.67
Toe Min 0.09, Max 0.21, Nom 0.15

Note that front camber and caster is not adjustable with stock components.

Thanks a lot Slicks!! Just want to confirm that this is for the 370z, right? Not sure if my first post was confusing and you might have thought I had a 350z. Thanks again.

It is tough to find a shop that has a quality alignment tech, and can attach the alignment heads to a lipless rim, and can see round the front end of the car.

I went to six or seven different shops before I found one. and i got lucky because they're really good . would like to be able to do it at home manually.someday.

Exactly, every shop I went into, they were like "sorry, can't help you. Don't have have specs for your car, and don't have the new hunter machine that your car can fit on". I almost started regretting my decision to lower it. Hopefully tomorrow goes smooth and he's able to tweak it as close as possible to OE specs.

For what it is worth...I took my lowered 350Z to a local Goodyear Service Center. When I do my 370, I'll take it back to them.

the easiest way to find a shop is To ask in the regional forum. Or ask in the 350z regional forum. There are shops that will align a car that is very low to the ground.

Yes, those are the 370z specs. I went a little more aggressive with my setup to suit my driving style. -2.5 camber up front, -2.2 camber in rear, 0 toe all around. If you do predominately highway driving you should keep a slight amount of toe and front camber to around -1.0.

As far as suspension shops look for places that advertise themselves as a "race" shop, they will have the right equipment and will do custom alignments. In my experience they aren't any more expensive.

Ok, so I got the alignment done yesterday and it feels much better. There still seems to be a bit of negative camber on the rear wheels, but definitely less drastic. They were able to get the rears within range of the OE specs, but the fronts weren't adjustable (as stated by Slicks). Car rides straight, and feels stable. I'll keep monitoring the tire wear going forward.

I'll take a few pics this weekend and post them.

Thanks for all your help guys....and happy holidays!!!

Here are some pics of my car lowered on Eibachs. As you can see, there is still quite a bit of negative camber, even after the alignment. Oh, and these are my winter tires/wheels.

What are the numbers. You might want to re-check.. That looks like more than a -2 degree camber. If they can't make it any better than that, you need adjustable lower arms to bring it into spec.

Jeez that does not look pretty. :icon14:

I was told they were -1.8 on the rears. Do you have a recommendation on adjustable lower arms? Do you think it's possible that the springs weren't installed correctly?