Steve, what tires on yours?

I've got 25K on the BFG KDW-2's. As far as I'm concerned even with the neg camber, the Lex is nice on tires.

 

yea we lift my car every Friday to make sure everything good. so far it seems like its fine. wearing evenly everywhere. like i said its weird to me haha. i dont understand it either. but thank god my friend works at lexus free tires fo me so far time to go driftin

 

that is true but it is Toe, not camber, that wreaks the most havoc on tires if it is more out of spec.

sry steve, my specs will have to wait since im in school now and wont see my car til saturday

 

yup, incorrect toe will mess up tires within a few hundred miles.

 

That is good longevity. I am running Nitto NT 555 after using Michelin since new. They have a tread wear rating of 300. So far the are a good second choice to Michelin. I run BFG on my 350Z and they are also a second choice to Michelin.

I am pretty sure my alignment is fine since it is in the green on the printout. I guess the tires started a particular wear pattern on the inside and since I cannot rotate, it will keep wearing the same way. It hasn't gotten worse though.

I am going to raise my front Bilsteins to the top perch to see what it does this weekend.

 

try just evening your car out, i found that when i dropped the *** end of my car (i had it raised because my old LSportline exhaust scraped against EVERYTHING) the ride got smoother, the tires wore more evenly, and the car generally felt a LOT less nose-heavy.

 

be careful changing the height, by raising the front you'll add positive camber and thereby change your toe as well.

 

Thanks, I will even the car out and then have the alignment checked since it is for the lifetime of the car I can get it done as often as I like. When I lowered front and back struts to the lowest perch I didn;t know the front would be quite a bit lower than the back. It looks like Mike's and I like it. I can live with 1/4 to 1/2" more gap to even it out. I will raise it Saturday and let you all know the results. Thanks for the feedback.

 

I evened the car out - raised front spring perch to top settings out of the two. It took about an hour since I have now done this three times. It added one finger to the gap so now there is about 2 when empty. It compresses to less than one with 1-2 people in the car. As for handling it is much better than before when the nose was lower. I think the lowest perch is too low for the H&R maybe. It looks awesome lower but the handling is nowhere near it being at the top perch. The handling now is razor sharp unlike before but it is 1/2" higher.

 

Now I wonder if using both lower perches will achieve a similar handling feel? Amazing what 3/8" will do.

 

I don't think so at least on mine. My rears are set on the lowest perch where the front is at the top perch. Raising the front evened the stance out and really improved the handling. It is like the H&R springs were stretched to the point where they could not support the vehicle in the same manner as they do now.

I am wondering what my Bilstein's would sit/drive like with Tanabe's since they give a lower drop.

 

they feel fine to me. a little on the ruff side sometimes i can feel the street a little bit. but nothing to annoying. but damm when i whip turns they whip . but tanabe springs tend to be on the soft side for comfort. because sometimes when i go over speed bump my car drops hard and u can hear the speed bump hitting againgst my exhaust ahhhh. but other than that i cant complain. im purdiee sure your setup right now will give you the better handling since its on the stiffer side. bilstein and tanabe a lil on the soft side but its coo with me.

 

buy some eibachs if u want stiff

Steve: try having bilstein re-cut the case, if you want i MIGHT be able to dig up some pics of mine that you could possibly use for measurements? the way my bilsteins are cut lets me put the front and back all the way down and be relatively even (not nose-heavy).

i needa get some stiffer sways or some new bushings to get rid of the corner-entry understeer i have

 

Yeah Bilstein said they'd re-cut the case. I am pretty convinced that my problem was a result of the fact I relied on the strut to increase the drop rather than the springs. The H&R gives a 1" drop all around and I increased the drop by 1/2" to 1" all around by lowering the spring perch. By increasing the distance between the spring perch and strut top, the springs ability to support the car as designed is affected because I have exceeded it's operational range. The reason I think this is because now the car is back at the top perch up front and the handling difference is significant. Before the front would sag a bit and was less responsive and softer in turns, etc. Now, I realize because the front was lower than the rear, this would contribute to strange handling. For the most pat I am sold that I picked the wrong spring/strut combo for what I was looking for (More than 1" drop).

It seems like there are a few options:
(1) Stick with H&R and the 1" drop and don't use lowest perch settings up front on the Bilsteins HD's.
(2) Change springs to another vendor that gives more than 1" drop - maybe Tanabe. That way you could use top perch still and have good handling, etc.
(3) Get rid of entire setup and go with coilovers form Tein, Megan Racing, etc. Of course this is the route I will take on my next LS since there is full adjustability.

Hope this helps any others out there contemplating lowering their LS.

 

coilovers all the way :]. im trying to look for a set right now. but so hard to find with the steep prices . so far i have seen tein cs which i heard are decent. the k sport like but i heard they really suck. there is jic magic, but some people have blown them, but i head they have really good customer service. But i seen people ride low low on them hehe. you can try the tanabe setup since its very inexpensive. just beat it up a little before you pick up a new set .