tbone

For those of you who lowered your car via ELM, will aligning your car do any good? Let's say you like to ride at different heights on different days. Does that throw off the alignment? I would assume that you align your car at your *normal* driving height, but what happens to the alignment if you decide to ride lower for an extended period of time?

Fr33kn63

I installed my ELM a few months back and yes do yourself a favor and get the alignment done. If you dropped it the way I have then your camber front and back will be really off. If your on a fairly new set of tires get it done. If they are old and you have been lowered a while and already wearing back then hold off til your next set of tires.

I had just thrown on the TOyo R888's so I wanted to make sure I was wearing properly.

Bottom line: Yes you need an alignment. Have the tech perform the alignment with your ride in the position you intend to drive around with regularly. ELM ON.

Hope that helps. You can see my ride height in my sig.

teolax

What are your settings? I just installed my ELM and I had read that if you only drop 1/2" then the alignment is not needed. I have my rear on 7 and the two fronts on 6.

Fr33kn63

Mine is MUCH lower as i like a low stance.
My fronts are on 1 and the backs are on 4.
Thought about going to 0 on the front but thought that extra 1/8 inch might come in handy. I have NO RUB and just use the button to raise the car some for steep incline entrance/exits.

Fr33kn63

Oh and I have done 0 in front and 0 in back before...but only in parking lots...
Dont think I would want to try and move the car like that.

Fr33kn63

One last thing...
If you goto the 1/4 mile tracks turn your ELM off. Lower stance is nice to drive around on and to hit the twisty roads but you will lose 1/4 times. Mine greatly increased when disabled.

teolax

Really? Your sig pic doesn't look that low. I've played with mine a bunch and lower settings hide a lot of my tires. I think the pic below was actually in 5,5,7.

Fr33kn63

notice i am running the stock 18's Your pics I think are the 19's so might look a little different. My fron and rears at 1 and 4 put my wheel well lips right on the tires edge...maybe 3/4 inch on below edge. Not much more.

I like the 19's but not dragable. And i dont want to deal with swapping tires and all so i run the stock 18's with R888's on em

teolax

I hear you. Your height looks really good in your pic. IMO perfect...

Fr33kn63

Thank you

tbone

Thanks for the replies. I guess I should have made my original post more clear.

I agree and know that an alignment is necessary anytime one lowers their car. I currently have my E500 lowered on unadjustable links.

I'm just wondering if it's a waste of time/money to do an alignment on a car with ELM (since you can raise and lower your car). Let's say I lower the car 2" using ELM and then have it aligned at that height. Wouldn't the alignment specs be set *just* for that ride height? If I then lower it an additional 1/2", wouldn't it throw the alignment specs off? If I raise the car back to the height I had it aligned at, would my alignment specs be *back on*?
I'm obviously not a suspension expert!

Fr33kn63

As far as I know....
Whatever ride height you had your car aligned at can go up or down 1/2 inches without alignment being affected. Anymore and it will be.

That is why in my case it is never driven very far at the stock height(usually on way to dealer so they cant tell anything is different from stock) or when I need additional clearance for a short stretch. But since i drive it 90% or more of the time in its lowered stance I opted to align at that height.

In your case I would recommend aligning your car at whatever height you plan to spend the majority of the time driving at. and know you can go 1/2 up or down without abnormal tire wear.

Does that answer your question a little better?

Fr33kn63

As quoted i answered them as you asked...

I'm just wondering if it's a waste of time/money to do an alignment on a car with ELM (since you can raise and lower your car).
It not a waste if you want proper tire wear. If you dont care..then...up to you.

Let's say I lower the car 2" using ELM and then have it aligned at that height. Wouldn't the alignment specs be set *just* for that ride height?
Yes it would be with a 1/2 variance being ok in either direction.

If I then lower it an additional 1/2", wouldn't it throw the alignment specs off?
No, but anymore will.

If I raise the car back to the height I had it aligned at, would my alignment specs be *back on*?
Yes they should be.

Neoii

You just align to the height you will be driving on the most.

tbone

Freekin63 - yup, that answers my question. Thanks!

psk145

is it really going to help much to do an alignment? I thought the camber is whats usually affected the most, and it wasnt adjustable?

My insides are pretty worn, but I've got 16K miles out of my bridgestone RE050 tires.

2K6E55

+1. Do the aligment so your tires will wear evenly.

Fr33kn63

when I was on stock tires and stock ride height my origional alignement was done. Put ELM on and lowered to 1 in the front and 4 in the back.
Drove around for just a about 3 months. Recently had new tires put on and there was significant inner wear to the origional tires. Outer edge was fine. still above wear indicaters. When I lowered it almost 2" in the front and about 1.25 inches in the back my camber was REALLY affected. Thats what caused me to wear through what life I still had left on these tires.
Reason i know this is because just a late last year I had my alignment checked while i was in Tennessee visiting some freinds. I hit something bad on the road and insisted in having it checked before driving home. Alignement came back ok and while it was on the lift I was looking at my tires and noticed how even my wear was. Measured inner and outer edges and it was pretty damn close.
Bottom line..From whatever height your car is aligned as you lower it obviously the camber starts to kick out the tries and will put more pressure on the inner edge of the tire. The lower you go the more it will be out.
Since I got new tires and ELM, I had the dealer do the alignment for $95 at my lowered stance.
Even with the lowered stance he was able to bring my camber into spec so my wear should be even with these new tired. (sorry so long)

teolax

BTW, did you get the new unit with remote (is the remote even out yet)? Where did you mount or leave your unit? Did you extend it to put it underneath the cup holder?

Fr33kn63

dont have the remote. I have mine installed under the cupholder.I attached some pics in this link...

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/247216-mounting-renntech-elm.html

tbone

Improper toe will wear out your tires a lot faster than negative camber will.

psk145

damn! Good to know. I guess I'll get an alignment even though the tires are pretty worn. Figure I'll have to do it sooner or later.

tbone

Good move. I had my car lowered way back when, even had a camber kit on the front, but that wasn't enough. Correcting the toe got me much more mileage out of my tires.

neveo

i wound up replacing my rears at 6k. they were down to cords on the inside edge. my camber and toe were out of whack.