Torque everything to spec under there and go get an alignment
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A few months ago I lowered my 9G (2007 SE) Galant with Eibach Pro springs and brand new struts (Monroe). It dropped the car pretty good in the back (about 2in from wheel well) and a bit in the front (4-5in? from wheel well). I didn't do an alignment.
The car drove fine afterwards. I even took a 1600mi trip to MT (windey roads at high speeds (90mph+)) and the car felt better then ever, but recently (about 2000 miles after lowering) I've noticed a few times the back end gets a really scary wobbling feeling. I can't explain it extremely well, but it's similar to if I hit a patch of ice going really fast only at the back end. Even though it's only for a few seconds at the time it's pretty scary, like I don't have a lot of control and it feels like the car is going to flip or something. I can't pinpoint exactly when it happens. I drive about 20 miles each way to work and it's happened a handful of times to various degrees on different parts of the road at different speeds. It's always only during traveling at 50mph + though.
I'm worried I didn't tighten everything down enough or something, but I'm a pretty big stickler of heavy tightening and spent all day doing the strut/spring job. I've relooked under the car and nothing feels loose at least to a hands touch. Should I break out my tools and try to retighten?
The online reading I've done sounds like I either need to get an alignment done, or my axels aren't handling the drop. Anyone have any experience with this? I'm going to a dealership across the street tomorrow to hopefully get an alignment done and 2 new tires. I'll see if that fixes it, but if not I wanted to ask around on here for any advice.
Here's some pictures, I'll try to upload better ones up close as someone on here earlier mentioned they couldn't get a good picture of the drop from these.
Monroe shocks are a P. O. S
Even on stock springs I've seen them blow within the day. Should have went with KYB. I'll bet money the shocks are gone.
Bleh, I rotated my tires and checked the bolts for everything accessible back there. Everything was tight, but when I yank on the springs I can shift them away from the strut a tiny bit. Not sure how to phrase that better... I'm trying to say the springs don't seem to be compressed strong enough. Guessing this is a case of being an idiot and not tightening the bolt on the top of the strut enough. I had problems with the fronts not getting tight enough and had to take it to a shop to have then hit with with an air ratchet. I did the backs by hand and they seemed tight enough, but apparently I was dangerously wrong.
I'll tear the back seats out and see if I can tighten that nut any better. If not I'll take the backs off and bring them into the shop again to have them use the air ratchet on it too. I hate not having more tools, but it's tough without a garage to store them.
You need some torque wrenchs.
Could be the problem. Or those Monroes are done. I have one of mine lowered on KYB GR2s and Tein S Tech springs and there is definitely no play in the springs.
I'm thinking it's more likely that I just didn't torque the nut down enough. When I did the fronts by hand I couldn't even break the plastic bushing in the nut before the spindle started to rotate. I remember the backs I could get past that plastic part so I just assumed it was fine, which I really think is the error. I'm buying a torque wrench on the 8th (20% discount then) and I'll crank em down and see from there. If I have to switch out the struts the wrench will make the process a thousand times easier anyway.
Torque them down, drive it again. If the problem persists, remove and reinstall.
What do you think about getting an alignment done? Is that necessary after changing out all 4 struts/springs?
Good idea to align the car after lowering because ride height affects camber, caster, toe, etc...
My lady picked up this for $80 with her discount! Here's to hoping it gets the job done. I'm pretty stoked to have one of these though even if it's pretty entry level.
Bookmarks