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Having owned this car less than one month .. I'm already tinkering ...

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... can you guess what might be going on here? Car is at the local performance shop for a few days. I'm utilizing the help of my friends at HS Tuning -- a local VW/Audi/Mercedes/Porsche tuning shop -- to help with this task. Though we don't expect the corner weights to be particularly different, the car WILL need an alignment when we are done.

In case you were unable to guess-- the car is being lowered. Since my car has the spring/coil setup not the optional smart air suspension, we'll be adding extra c-clip locations to the shocks (thanks to lolachamps' great write ups/info). After the work is done the car should sit 1.5" lower than original, and will feature a set of the EVSE rear upper arms to help offset the camber gain. I have an alignment scheduled for Saturday, assuming all goes as planned.

Photos coming soon... though I won't have "proper" pictures until Spring, when the 20x9 TSW wheels I recently purchased make their way onto the car. And so it begins... :love:

PS: Thus far the car already has the aftermarket wheels (purchased, but not installed -- factory 19" winter setup on the car right now). I've already removed the Model S and 85 badges from the trunk. Window tint 35% all around. And a ProClip iPhone dash install. That is it for now... perhaps more down the road. This setup will be far more mild than many of the cars I've owned.
 
Wonder why the RF is carrying the lowest load, by 100 lbs left to right, and 200 front to rear...was the air pressure in all the tires equal? Maybe hit a pothole or curb and tweaked it slightly?

i've used torsion bar adjustment on porsche 911 to dial in the side to side--be interesting to see how it's done on the tesla.
 
Wonder why the RF is carrying the lowest load, by 100 lbs left to right, and 200 front to rear...was the air pressure in all the tires equal? Maybe hit a pothole or curb and tweaked it slightly?

i've used torsion bar adjustment on porsche 911 to dial in the side to side--be interesting to see how it's done on the tesla.

As I was not there when they performed the scale test, I cannot presume to know if the photo they sent was with the car completely unladen (nobody in the car) or not. It is possible they had someone sitting in the car during that test which would have shifted the weight slightly to the front-left obviously. And perhaps Tesla doesn't work that way. Of course we're also jumping to the conclusion that the shop's weight scales are calibrated properly, etc.

I did not ask them to weigh the car, though I did appreciate them sending me the photo for my enjoyment. I figured I'd take it with a grain of salt -- and of course the car will need an alignment after. Perhaps I'll have them do a proper test AFTER the alignment, to compare and see how it looks. :)

Cheers!
 
I'm trying to figure out how to edit the main post and the TITLE of this thread but can't figure it out... I wanted to mention that I'm updating with new photos etc... but oh well... whatever... here goes.

Here are some photos of the installation work and rear arm comparisons thanks to my shop:

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And then here is the BEFORE and then AFTER alignment. Note that they were unable to remove enough front negative camber to "meet specs" -- however, this is actually preferred by me. This means I have similar (almost a good match) front-to-rear camber. This should help handling (at a slight expense of front tire wear). However I love how the car drives now, with the snows. So I'm happy... (the "before" is the one with all the red, the "after" is the one where the only item out of spec is front camber, just barely over)

Alignent AFTER 01-31-2015.jpg
Alignent BEFORE 01-31-2015.jpg


Last but not least, some photos of the car, before, during, after alignment...

Photo Jan 31, 9 40 36 AM.jpg
Photo Jan 31, 9 40 46 AM.jpg
Photo Jan 31, 9 42 54 AM.jpg
Photo Jan 31, 11 35 35 AM.jpg
Photo Jan 31.jpeg


Hope everyone has enjoyed this! Ciao - Ari
 
Can somebody post a side shot of a silver car with air suspension in the lowest position?

That would be nice to see. They had cars at the service center (alignment) that were air at Normal suspension and the level was quite different. I'll scan or take a photo later of the data supplied to me by HS Tuning -- they gave me a slip of paper that showed before/after weight scale data AND before/after height difference (ground to fender, etc). Sadly I forgot to scan that in, so it wasn't on my Dropbox to update the thread.

But, from what I recall, the drop "took" more in the front versus rear. This was a 38mm adjustment (1.5") on the shock body, but the car actually settled even more up front than in rear as you can see, creating a slick rake look which I actually enjoy. From what I recall, the "net" adjustment should mean I have about 0.5 to 0.75 less ground clearance than a "low" set air car.
 
The picture of the lowered car in this thread was taken at a different angle than the stock photo (distances from bottom edge of photo to where tire meets ground are not consistent) giving it a more pronounced raked look -- even if it weren't slammed.

A ruler zeroed on the hub center straight up to fender arch, front and back, would say a lot.
 
Set the front to a little toe-out. You'll really like the way it turns. Going from 0.1 dgr toe-in to 0.1 dgr toe-out in the front made a big difference on my P85+.

I'm amazed at your rear 2.5 dgr toe-in. That's the most out of spec toe I've heard of. I thought mine was bad at 0.8 dgr toe-out.
 
Set the front to a little toe-out. You'll really like the way it turns. Going from 0.1 dgr toe-in to 0.1 dgr toe-out in the front made a big difference on my P85+.

I'm amazed at your rear 2.5 dgr toe-in. That's the most out of spec toe I've heard of. I thought mine was bad at 0.8 dgr toe-out.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll consider changing toe up front. Though then I have to remind the SC every year of this alternate. So there may be something to be said about factory specs.

Also don't put too much thought into those specs. Remember the car was lowered. And my tuner shop made zero efforts to adjust things per se. So what you're seeing in alignment being off has mostly to do with the strong changes in ride height. It wasn't like this was something wrong, just a collateral issue with suspension changes which were resolved 24 hours later as the final spec shows. :)