I see people repeatedly saying to wait a few weeks after lowering your car to let the suspension "settle". My question is this. My OEM shocks and springs have been on the car for ~9 months and ~2300 miles, what is going to settle after turning the bolts? I could understand it if I was installing new springs or shocks....

Thanks, Shawn

 

it still settles a lil bit with the bolts turned, nothing major tho. you could get it done 2 or 3 days after. i still havent got mine cause its too low. oh well its not off that much and my tires are wearing evenly, even the back ones that are bald after 3 mo

 

Shawn, I agree with you. Mine will be lowered and aligned the same day.

 

Just make sure you drive it a few miles after the lowering and before the alignment. When I lowered mine, I could not tell a big difference in height untill I drove it.

 

Doesn't need time to settle, just get the suspension to move around and it will be fine. The reason you need to do this is because as the spring flexes, the bushings on the adjustment bolts move side to side just a bit relative to the control arm. When you take pressure off the spring and then release it, the bushing ends up resting in a different spot and it cannot slide back into place while supporting the weight of the car. Driving the car and getting the suspension to stretch and compress will let it slide back to it's normal place.

 

If the car is off the ground for a short time and you merely turn the bolts, the car should not need much time before alignment, though a few spirited miles would be a good idea to make sure everything is in place.

But... I had my car up on jack stands with wheels off for about TWO whole weeks once... after I put the car back on the road it took several whole days and about 100 miles of driving before the car settled back into its original position. Alignment felt off at first, then got better after a few days. These springs have a serious memory.

I will say this... if for some reason your car has been up on jacks for a while (like several days or more), I'd wait at least several whole days if not more after the car has been put back on the ground before getting an alignment.

I suspect the reason that so many brand new C6s arrive to new owners with poor alignment has to do with this spring memory issue. Maybe the cars are aligned at the factory "too soon" (before the springs have settled), or, the springs become overly compressed when tied down on the transport trucks, possibly causing them to remain compressed for a while, etc, etc, etc. This is also a reason to not jump the gun and get an alignment on a brand new car too soon. These springs need settling time.

If the car is off the ground for only a short time, I'd think it would not be a problem though. I've had my car off the ground for half a day and had not detected any issues.

 

I've lowered three Corvettes, and never had any of them aligned. They must have been okay, because after two years nothing bad happened.