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I lowered my ‘98 base w/38,500 miles on the clock. I read as many previous sites, comments, and experiences I could find - and I read one members comments that he had found info stating that at the GM plant they purposely adjusted the Corvettes higher so they could be loaded onto the car transports - and that the dealerships were supposed to lower them once received. The cars are suppose to be lowered as far down on the adjusters as possible which would give the car it’s proper ride height. So with this being said—-
Comments please.
Lower it however you want is the simple answer. Who cares about what the factory did. They look best lowered on the stock bolts and ride exactly the same. If you have the stock sized wheels you may not even go the whole way down or it might look too low. The adjustment is there. Put it where you want.
If this is true about the dealership supposed to lower the cars once received - I wonder if the alignment settings done at the plant are done based the car being lowered. If this is the case then the cars not lowered at the dealership are sold with wrong alignment settings.
The amount of lowering you can do on stock bolts does not require re-alignment. A primary goal of suspension designers is that toe, etc., should not change as the wheels go up or down - if it did, hitting a bump would cause the car to veer left or right.
p.s. the whole story sounds unlikely to me.
Last edited by jackthelad; Sep 5, 2020 at 10:21 AM.
Alignment specs will change when you lower your car, you will get more negative camber & negative toe, I think the recommended by GM for Z51 cars was 15mm which is in the middle of 1/2"-5/8" which I would imagine still keeps you within the alignment specs but they will change from stock ride height. When I purchased my coupe it was all stock with 5,000 miles I lowered it about 3/4"-1" in the rear & 1/2"-3/4" in front then took it for alignment & you can see how much from the stock settings it changed, but most of the settings were still within the range. I would have liked to see what it was at before lowering to get a better idea as an actual change, the guy who did the alignment said it looked as it was never touched so I would assume it was still at the stock coupe & convertible specs.
Also if you over lower your car then you would run into the bump steer problem & also shock stroke would be shorter so you would possibly hit the bump stops on compression strokes.
The 2nd & 3rd photo is the trim height gauge the dealers used to set ride height, I do recall threads & photos where the cars mostly Z06's were raised for transport purposes & the dealer was required to reset the ride height once at the dealer using the pictured gauge.
Last edited by 6speedsteve; Sep 5, 2020 at 11:52 PM.
If this is true about the dealership supposed to lower the cars once received - I wonder if the alignment settings done at the plant are done based the car being lowered. If this is the case then the cars not lowered at the dealership are sold with wrong alignment settings.
My belief was that the car was designed to be at the lowest setting, but was adjusted up to meet the GM ground clearance spec. When I lowered my Z all the way down, the alignment needed a slight adjustment.
My belief was that the car was designed to be at the lowest setting, but was adjusted up to meet the GM ground clearance spec. When I lowered my Z all the way down, the alignment needed a slight adjustment.
For regular daily driving if the stock bolts are adjusted to a max low setup are there any issues with speed bumps, etc.
Lower it however you want is the simple answer. Who cares about what the factory did. They look best lowered on the stock bolts and ride exactly the same. If you have the stock sized wheels you may not even go the whole way down or it might look too low. The adjustment is there. Put it where you want.
I'm third owner. First owner had her for almost 15 years. I found him and got all his records. He dropped her down front and back as far as he could on the stock bolts. Now I have about 2 inches between the pavement and the air deflector. I drive out of my driveway sideways and very slow but I love the ride and the looks. Here are three pictures that might show the height and it's on stock "wagon" wheels...ps, I love the stock wheels...almost no one has them anymore. And the last picture is what I did to her today...personalized plates.
I say go ahead and drop it down...you'll love it...just be careful of the driveway...lol
Beautiful car - love the blue - I always like the “wagon” wheels - hardly see them any more - the stance is perfect - my ‘98 now has the same stance - thanks for sharing
For regular daily driving if the stock bolts are adjusted to a max low setup are there any issues with speed bumps, etc.
my 2000 c5 was my first and best corvette. I’ve had a c6 and 2 c7s with a c8 in the works. Lowered them all. Scrapes and bumps have a lot to do with how you drive. You need to look ahead not take chances and experiment in areas you frequent. Like driveways, there are certain driveways I could only back into at an angle.
My c6 gs was the worse. A couple of times I had to back out of an entry because I misjudged the exit.
But imho the cars look so much better.
And if you find it is too inconvenient, you can always raise it back..
Definitely can have issues, love the look but makes driving a chore if your roads arent great. Who wants to be that guy whos slowing to a crawl so they dont scrape if theres a dip in the road? Up to you.
I was that guy yesterday at the Costco gas station. Had to crawl over the speed bumps and I actually bottomed out on one of them. Two vehicles passed me by ( I didn't care).
I found out that I can enter the exit area next time where there are no speed bumps.
One of the two previous owners slammed the car down pretty low. I love the look, but I will have to raise it a bit to feel comfortable driving at speed and not bottoming on a bump or dip.
The car looks fast just sitting there as low as it is.
Follow up:
I got the alignment done at the local Chevy dealer and it was way out of alignment in all areas, but my driving experience has not changed as far as my driveway and speed bumps, etc. Getting in and out of the car is a little harder but it definitely looks better.
I ordered and bought my 2004 convertible new. That was the roughest riding car I had ever been in! It has the F55 Mag Ride and I was so disappointed. The day after I got it, I took the wheels/tires off to paint the calipers red. And I discovered why it rode so rough. The damn technicians at the dealer had NOT taken the shock stuffers out. I popped them out as I did each caliper.
The next week, I was near the dealership so I swung in there to tell my salesman what they had done or NOT done. He had no clue what I was talking about. So I told him we could walk out and look at another Corvette on the lot so I could show him. And guess what! It still had the shock stuffers too. So we walked and looked at all of them and by God, they all still had the shock stuffers in place.
Guys, this is a perfect example of a dealership having no idea about what they are selling. That is so sad that they sell a car of that caliber and that price and have no idea of what they are doing.
Last edited by dooscoop32; Nov 11, 2020 at 06:44 PM.
Lowering my C5
