Black Snake

Still looking to buy, hopefully Wednesday, but I was wondering what lowered on stock bolts is and if I buy a car that needs to be lowered is this something I would want to do? Thanks Ryan

blaplant

the suspension is able to be adjusted by turning the bolts to lower or raise the vehicle. This is something that you can adjust after you purchase the vehicle if you want. Is the one that your looking at lowered?

blaplant

Mine is lowered down on stock bolts and these are 18" wheels all the way around to give you and idea of how the stance is able to be adjusted. sorry for crappy pic its from the dam iPhone

Black Snake

The one we are looking at is not lowered, we did however look at one Sunday that was lowered and it was supposedly lowered on stock bolts, we drove an 07 not lowered on Saturday and hoped to drive the lowered one on Sunday but the battery was dead. I am not that old but I thought the non lowered car rode kinda stiff, DOes the lowered on stock bolts ride more rough. If I understand it correctly its like a torsion bar type set up so if you lowered it, then it gets stiffer?

PS blaplant I cant see the picture

Thanks Ryan

boraxman

Yup Vettes are fairly easy to lower....If you do consider getting an alignment.

el es tu

the car has special threaded height adjusters attached to the springs (hence the term "bolt")

sometimes people will crank the adjuster bolts to the limit of the threads in order to lower the car. sometimes they actually cut the adjuster (it has a rubber pad on the bottom) to make it shorter and get even more lowering

a lot of people lower their vettes without problems, but overdoing it will mess up the performance of the suspension

height adjuster (the black one)

Wayne O

There are adjustment bolts on the car that allow a minimal height adjustment to the setup....to the 4 corners of the car. I'd recommend you drive the car in its stock trim for a while before deciding to play with the setup. I tend to think most who lower their car do so simply for looks...to reduce the gap between the tires and the 'fenders' and/or to give the car a more aggressive look. Not to mention most probably don't adjust the setup properly there are trade-offs to lowering. You might find your car bottoms-out more frequently on speed-bumps and inclines or even your tires might run on the wheel wells. There's a functional purpose as well....some adjust the setup to better 'level and balance' the car for track use. There are also aftermarket 'lowering' bolts you can buy that will give you a greater range of height adjustment.

There are certain steps and procedures to follow when adjusting the setup to insure accuracy. Many new cars aren't setup precisely from the factory (mine wasn't) so just turning bolts an equal number of turns is no guaranty your car will be setup right. It's not a difficult procedure but IMO the most essential 'tool' is having a dead level lift to drive onto (so when you start adjusting bolts the car is sitting on a perfectly level surface. Also, when you adjust one corner of the car it affects the other corners...the one diagonally the most. There are some preliminary steps to prepare the car but it's a process of measuring, adjusting, re-measuring, re-settling the suspension and repeating the entire procedure several times until its right.

Again, I suggest you drive your new car for a good while before deciding to adjust the setup. Good luck and congratulations on your expected arrival!

Black Snake

Blaplant: Now I can see the pic and Wayne Thanks for the update!! Good info!! Ryan

haljensen

GM didn't design the bolts as "lowering bolts". They are designed to adjust the corner weights of the car for handling, NOT to make the car look lower.

Every time you lower the car you give up suspension movement. Lower the car by an inch and you've taken away an inch of vertical wheel movement. You will bottom out more often.

Every time you change the height of a wheel you change the alignment of that wheel so lowering the car by the corner weight bolts isn't cheap, you need an alignment every time you change the height of even one wheel.

Black Snake

So is there a better way to lower it, I am sure it is more expensive, LOL. I am not familiar with the vette suspension, springs or what? Ry

el es tu

coilovers and/or drop spindles

not cheap though

Vivid1

Coilovers. They are pricey for vettes. Lowering on stock bolts is easy. Took me about an hour or so. Then you need an allignment.

Bedouin

FYI, I just lowered mine last night, but only a by 1/4" at all 4 corners, as that's all the rear factory bolts allow;

I marked the stock bolts & turned the rears 2 turns each, as they would only screw 2 turns max, & turned the fronts 3 full turns each, but they could've gone 4+ turns.

I did a 'rough' camber & toe measurement of all 4 wheels beforehand, & there was no change to the settings after driving the car 6 miles to settle it.

I did this with full knowledge that it'll get weight-measured as close to 50/50 as possible, then I'll get it aligned. It's only got 1,000 mls, but it sounds like the factory alignment is sometimes incorrect & I'd prefer not to toast the F1's due to misalignment.

It scrapes easily on severe surface undulations, but I've become more attuned to road issues & know when/what to avoid a litle better. I think the GS springs/shocks are softer then Z06's, hence the more frequent scraping.

designerRob

What is "Lowered on stock bolts"

This


Never bottomed out the suspension or rubbed the fenders.

CO Lightfoot

Some cautions about lowering: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...-07-vette.html

I've never lowered my C6, but apparently it's easy...

"Lowering a Corvette obviously isn't for everyone. Sure, it makes the car a little more difficult to get in and out of. And yes, you have to employ some interesting navigational tactics in order to negotiate steep driveways. Plus, the black plastic air dam scrapes more often . . . all the time, actually. But who cares? 'Cuz it looks bitchin', and that was the whole point of this project."

The above is a quote from DIY article for lowering a C6 on aftermarket bolts: http://www.vetteweb.com/tech/vemp_07...#ixzz1mmUod7c3

DSOMC6

Here some basic information everyone should know when considering raising/lowering your C6. Many may not notice a difference after making hight adjustments when driving at lower speeds on the street. But at higher speeds on a road course small changes become VERY apparent.

The ride height is the distance from the bottom of the car (or sometimes some other reference point) to the ground. This is a very powerful tool affecting the overall behavior of the car. It directly impacts the CG or center of gravity of the vehicle, the front and rear roll centers, and the rake of the car (generally difference between the front and rear ride height or ground clearance). It also has a less direct but important impact to the aerodynamic drag and downforce of the vehicle.

In general, you want to run as low of a ride height as possible without frequently/excessively bottoming the car. This provides more mechanical grip caused by the associated lower CG and lower roll centers and typically decreases aerodynamic drag and increases downforce because of the enhanced ground effect. However there are a number of factors and interactions to consider. Positive rake (where the rear has a higher ride height than the front) is normally desired to improve downforce (generally under 1” max front to rear difference), and NEGATIVE rake needs to be avoided as it has bad effects on downforce and drag. Too low of a ride height (ground clearance) can hurt downforce by “choking” the underbody flow, reducing the amount of suspension travel (especially a problem on bumpy tracks), and may often put the suspension in an area where it has an unfavorable geometry.

Front:
Lower ride height: Lowers CG, front roll center, and increases rake. This will shift more weight to front, improving front‐tire grip and thus shifting the balance to less UNDERsteer and/or more OVERsteer and typically reduce aero drag and increase downforce. Raising the right‐front ride height on an oval (when turning left) can increase front grip if the right‐front tire is being overloaded, resulting in an adverse camber effect. Optimum ride height can vary greatly depending on other chassis settings and the degree of banking at a particular track.

Increased ride height: Raises CG, front roll center, and reduces rake. The change will shift weight to the rear, improving the grip of the tires at that end of the car and shifting the handling balance toward UNDERsteer and typically increase aero drag and increase downforce.

Rear:
Lower ride height: Lowers CG, rear roll center, and reduces rake. This will shift more weight to rear, improving front‐tire grip and thus shifting the balance to less OVERsteer and/or more UNDERsteer .

Increased ride height: Raises CG, rear roll center, and increases rake. The change will shift weight to the front, improving the grip of the tires at that end of the car and shifting the handling balance toward OVERsteer and increase downforce. Note the positive downforce effect may dominate the negative mechanical grip impacts and reduce oversteer, especially in high speed corners. Another potential downside – less rear braking available – may need to be addressed with an increase in brake bias to the front of the car.

MisterMidlifeCrisis

It will take several hundred miles of driving before the suspension fully settles down to its new ride height. It seems that the pad has to squirm its way into equilibrium by moving along the spring, and that's not an easy task with the weight of the car on it. It takes a lot of miles and a lot of bumps.

haljensen

Rough meaning what?

Since $100,000 alignment machines work in fractions of a degree what determines rough measurements? A piece of string and a ruler?

el es tu

Bedouin

Well haljensen, 'rough' obviously means I just laid down on my garage floor eyeballed that sumbitch...I'm sure she'll feel rock f-kin solid next time I'm at 140..