[swartzentruber]

As the title suggests, looking for opinions/feedback. Worth the money? Get done every year, or once? Had it done last year based on a recommendation from my performance shop, and I'm trying to decide if I should do it again or not, so just looking for thoughts on this practice. I recall it being a few hundred in cost over a regular alignment.

[The HACK]

In my not so honest opinion, the biggest reason to get height adjustable coil-overs is the ability to corner balance the car.

As to whether or not you need to do it annually...I know the club racers do it since it's part of their annual maintenance on the car anyway. If it's just for DE purposes? Hard to imagine that enough of the car or the driver has changed to require another reset. But what do I know? My MZ4 Coupe is still riding on stock suspension.

[Hit_Apex]

I would only do it when you adjust ride height or change weight dist (ie lightweight battery)

[MuchMoore]

I did it on my street car...yes I realize theres no point, but I wanted to.

[J Tyler]

If you're going to do it, do it right; i.e., at a shop that uses laser-leveled scale pads. Just setting the pads on the garage floor does not work (and I am amazed at how many shops do this).

Once you corner-balance the car, you can adjust front or rear ride height without messing up the cross-weighting as long as you adjust BOTH axle corners equally. I.e., you can raise your front ride height without messing up cross-weight as long as you raise both front corners an equal amount. Stick to this, make sure your spring perches are secured (mark their position with a Sharpie so you know they haven't moved) and you shouldn't need to do another corner balance for a long time.

Also, for a new set of coilovers, you want to drive around on them for at least 1 week to allow the springs to settle in before doing the corner balance.

Hope that helps!

[swartzentruber]

Thanks a lot for the advice guys. So it sounds like since I had it done last year, unless I changes something in the suspension, I'm probably fine only doing it that once (at least with the frequency that I do schools).

[mike-y]

right, if you haven't changed anything, there is no need to do it again.

[zsapphire7]

yes, only go back if u did it on new springs that just settled, or if you changed the weight around significantly in ur car.

[swartzentruber]

Originally Posted by zsapphire7

if you changed the weight around significantly in ur car.

Speaking of this, how sensitive is corner balancing to weight removal? I track an 04 R32, and when it's in summer "track mode", I completely remove the rear seats as a weight reduction exercise. I think when I had it corner balanced last year, I stupidly had it done with the seats still in, and it's been bugging me that my corner balancing may have been a waste with that level of weight reduction. How much weight change would be enough to screw up the corner balancing -- 20? 50? 100?

I'm thinking I may need to do the corner balancing again, but this time with the car in as close to track mode as possible, with everything removed that I remove when it's running on the track. Thoughts? Thanks again for the advice so far.

P.S. I know my question isn't actually for a BMW track car, but this is one of the more active track focused subforums I've found, and I'm on e90 post anyway since I also have a 335xi, which I've considered but am reluctant to put on the track due to overheating concerns.

[Stanky19]

Originally Posted by swartzentruber

Speaking of this, how sensitive is corner balancing to weight removal? I track an 04 R32, and when it's in summer "track mode", I completely remove the rear seats as a weight reduction exercise. I think when I had it corner balanced last year, I stupidly had it done with the seats still in, and it's been bugging me that my corner balancing may have been a waste with that level of weight reduction. How much weight change would be enough to screw up the corner balancing -- 20? 50? 100?

I'm thinking I may need to do the corner balancing again, but this time with the car in as close to track mode as possible, with everything removed that I remove when it's running on the track. Thoughts? Thanks again for the advice so far.

P.S. I know my question isn't actually for a BMW track car, but this is one of the more active track focused subforums I've found, and I'm on e90 post anyway since I also have a 335xi, which I've considered but am reluctant to put on the track due to overheating concerns.

similar to the previous post, i doubt you'll feel a small sub 50lb difference, however on the scales even 1-2 lbs will show. So depending on how meticulous you are, you get the idea.

Having said that, in all my experience even with Tube frame race cars, hardly does a car go out in one SESSION and come back with the same "corner balance" that was just set, no matter how well you bounce and roll in between ride height changes. This coming from multiple race teams that do set up's and set downs before and after sessions in F2000, Atlantic, and Grand AM. Some degree of movement or change is normal as they are mechanical devices with lots of variables.

[swartzentruber]

Thanks again for the advice. After finding out I needed to spend $2k this spring on a new clutch, re-cornerbalancing kind of dropped in importance.