Dear Every Coil-Over-Driving Legend Owner--
You should corner-balance your Legend; otherwise you're not taking advantage of what your coil-overs were designed to do. Lowering is only a side effect, or perk, of installing coil-overs.
On with it! Believe me when I write that my Legend is difficult to align--so difficult that I've been turned away from a couple shops (including the dealership). Without a doubt, West End Alignment in Gardina, CA offers alignment and corner-balancing perfection, even for meticulous folks like myself. The guy is a suspension genius; he asks the right questions; his advice is solid. These words cannot describe how satisfied I am, or how my face hurts from grinning the entire two-hour drive home. For once, my Legend is as it should have been. It feels super agile and nimble on its toes.
The Legend about to be corner balanced:
My corner balance results:
The guy moved ~75lbs. of weight off the driver's front wheel, which roughly equates to removing a 400lb. guy out of the driver's seat. As you can see from the results above, relocating the battery to the passenger rear of the car (directly above the wheel) should almost perfectly left/right balance the coupe with me sitting in it.
My alignment is a perfect 1.5 degree camber on both front tires with 4.5 degrees caster and no toe (zero). Both rear tires are running 1.25 degrees of negative camber and 1/16 inches of toe in. I think this is a perfect track setup for a Legend. If you do not track your Legend, or drive aggressively, then run much less camber or you'll be roasting tires!
I wish that you guys could drive the before and after. If you have any questions about corner balancing or alignments, please ask. I can hopefully help. If you would like to schedule an appointment with West End, see below. I cannot recommend them high enough!
18008 S Vermont Ave
Gardena, CA 90248
(310) 808-9233
See you all at the Nationals tomorrow!
Cheers,
Keith
P.S.
Both the alignment and corner-balancing were done with me sitting in the car the entire time.
cost? I'll have to get this done after I get the ksports in. Too bad they are not already in!
You had better be there in the TT tomorrow, or else!
He spent about 3.5/4 hours with me and the cost was $215.
k.
Disclaimer:
If anybody thinks to chime in with babble about $215 being a ripoff because mechanics should work for free, then I hope somebody e-punches you in the face for being an asshat.
Car 1: 95 LS Coupe 6 spd
Car 2: 02 TT225 Quattro 6sp
Car 3: 94 L Cpe 6spd - sold
iTrader Score: 20 reviews
$215 for a well aligned car is a good investment.
I notice you're still on those big heavy wheels! Nothing lighter/smaller for the track? I guess you have to have something pretty big to fit over those brakes though.
3565 with you in the car huh? sounds pretty light. did you pull out 160 pounds of stuff? like the rear seat and the contents of the trunk? I know the coupe weighs in a bit over 3500 from the factory, and I thought the autos weigh more than the manuals. I'm guessing you weigh about 160 or so, putting your coupe right at 3400 pounds. Were you on a half tank of gas?
edit: I forgot about that carbon fiber hood - how much does it save, I wonder?
Car 1: 95 LS Coupe 6 spd
Car 2: 02 TT225 Quattro 6sp
Car 3: 94 L Cpe 6spd - sold
iTrader Score: 20 reviews
I punched it up in Excel - ideally you want to move exactly 46 pounds from the front driver corner to the rear passenger corner. The stock battery weighs about 37 1/2 pounds.
The only other things I can think of in that corner are the battery tray and the windshield washer reservoir. If you pull those out you could be getting close to the perfect number.
Code:
relocatable weight
46
1070 1068
714 713
DC 1782 1783 PC
50.0% 50.0%
F 2138 60.0%
R 1427 40.0%
1784 1781
50.0% 50.0%
L R
another thing to consider is how much the extra wiring will weigh - I guess it would throw off the calculation a bit.
Car 1: 95 LS Coupe 6 spd
Car 2: 02 TT225 Quattro 6sp
Car 3: 94 L Cpe 6spd - sold
iTrader Score: 20 reviews
I really wish I could make it - as of right now I have an appt to take my car in so I can start the process of fixing it.
Anyway, on further experimentation, Keith, I discovered that if you added 14 50 pound bags of rice to your trunk, you'd acheive truely prefect weight distribution: 50/50 front-rear, side-to-side, and corner. of course your car would also weigh 4275 pounds.
Code:
relocatable weight ballast l/r rear Total weight w/driver
47 355 4275
1069 1068
1069 1069
DC 2137 2138 PC
50.0% 50.0%
F 2137 50.0%
R 2138 50.0%
2138 2137
50.0% 50.0%
L R
Car 1: 1995 KA8 *R.I.P*
Car 2: 1997 S14 *SOLD*
Car 3: 2004 GTO
iTrader Score: 8 reviews
Word. An aligned auto period will do wonders on crisper handling. If anyone in Atlanta area wants corner balance alignment let me know. The shop I go to does an awsome job.
Word. An aligned auto period will do wonders on crisper handling. If anyone in Atlanta area wants corner balance alignment let me know. The shop I go to does an awsome job.
I'll be hitting you up about that ATL area shop once I get my Ksports installed and have some extra $.
Keith, just curious as to how you moved your battery to the trunk. I've been considering some weight-balancing for a while now but I'm still not sure as to how great the benefit is (esp. since I have yet to see track action in my Legend and the closest thing so far is local twisties). But of course, I'm interested in maximizing my car's handling potential =)
Also, is this something that can be done only with height-adjustable coilovers? My suspension adjusts damper levels only =/
__________________
-8000K HID low-beams/PIAA Spark 8000 high-beams/PIAA Plasma GT-X corners
-Type II brakes/some weight reduction/new tires every 4-6 months
-NA1 NSX wheels: Kumho Ecsta SPT 225/50V-16R in front, Kumho Ecsta ASX 205/60V-15R in rear
-Custom built six-puck kevlar clutch/Lightened (aluminum) pulleys
-[Mugen/Showa] suspension with remote-adjustable dampers
-C35A1/C32A1 hybrid swap; smog legal (by GreenLight Auto)
Keith, just curious as to how you moved your battery to the trunk. I've been considering some weight-balancing for a while now but I'm still not sure as to how great the benefit is (esp. since I have yet to see track action in my Legend and the closest thing so far is local twisties). But of course, I'm interested in maximizing my car's handling potential =)
Also, is this something that can be done only with height-adjustable coilovers? My suspension adjusts damper levels only =/
Ohhh, you won't be able to sensibly corner-balance your car without adjustable spring rates.
There are battery relocation kits for purchase online, but you should ask DV8 or anybody who's relocated theirs. I haven't started mine, yet. Let us know what you find out! I'm thinking that we could remove the storage container on the right and stuff a smallish battery there.
Originally Posted by Thai.95LCoupe View Post
Word. An aligned auto period will do wonders on crisper handling. If anyone in Atlanta area wants corner balance alignment let me know. The shop I go to does an awsome job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coilover Boy I'll be hitting you up about that ATL area shop once I get my Ksports installed and have some extra $.
mrkeith - do you have aftermarket ball joints to adjust your camber?
i tried to get my car aligned, and they said that the ride hight directly effects the camber, so with where my car sits right now, i have about -2.5 degrees in the front, and -1.75 in the rear.
i HATE it b/c i am eating up tires....so i need to find a solution soon. any help would be awesosme.
if you want to take the conversation to PM thats fine, or u can just post back here.
__________________
The Performance Handling Sedan
Ksport Coilovers, MLS strut bar, Fut's rear tie bars, ADDCO rear sway bar
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