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When I first got my 2004 E55 about a year ago, I lowered the front using the "washer" (I used a nut) method and the rear by bending the bracket. The rear was a pain as it was hard to bend, and the smallest of movements had a dramatic impact on ride height. I ended up tweaking it 20 times to get it right.
This week I took the car to a dealership for an alignment, and I think they re-calibrated the height because the rear was about 1" higher than normal...
When I went to re-adjust it tonight, I didn't want to bend it 20 times to get everything just right. Instead, I thought to wedge a piece of metal between the bracket and the sub-frame so that bracket would naturally lean towards the back of the car.
After trying a few things, it worked perfectly, and was very predictable. Here's a few things I noticed:
1) Go with a very thin piece of metal. The first thing I tried was two washers about 3 mm thick, one in front of each bolt (see pic below). This was way too much and the car was slammed afterward. A single 1mm thick washer worked perfectly.
2) There's two bolts, the closer you place the washer to the passenger side bolt, the lower the rear will go. The closer to the driver side bolt, the less impact it will make. To get to a nice tucked ride height (25 1/8"), I ended up with the 1mm washer about .5"- .75" from the drivers side bolt. This dropped the rear almost an inch.
This method was much more predictable and simpler to execute than bending the bracket. From scratch, I got a perfect ride height after 4 or 5 tries.
This was with 2 3mm washers, one at each bolt. It was complete overkill and slammed the rear...
This was with a single 1mm washer about .75" from the drivers side bolt. Brought the height to 25 1/8" with 275/30/19 tires.
Lowering after the alignment will change it dramatically and chew your tires.
PS. A chainsaw file slots it easy.
I know... Which I why I am annoyed that the height was almost a full inch off after the alignment.
That being said, this car stock can adjust its ride height quite a bit between low and high, and the three suspension settings. I think it may not be a big deal... But who knows, I may take it to an independent alignment shop to be sure.
09-20-2015, 11:27 PM
