corner weighting worth it?

[S14DriftR]

Im sure several people on here must have their cars corner weighted, what was your impression after, could you tell an improvement? There is only one shop in my area that can do it and they charge $150, does that seem like a fair price? My car feels pretty damn nice already but i figure if ive already spent so much on suspension i may as well maximise its potential.

[Zemus]

Im going to get mine done this weekend. 200$ getting it corner weighted and aligned and everything. custom specs all over the place should be good. Also they are going to bolt my battery down in the best place it can be to help distrobution. Ill let you know how it feels

[Ghettokracker71]

What is corner weigthing? Does it actually add total wight to your car :eek3:


I'm not a newbie!! I fucking swear! look at my post count!!!

[S14DriftR]

cool, thanks man, i just had it aligned to custom specs at the same shop, I think they will re-check the alignment and make any adjustment needed caused by the corner weighting process for free.

[S14DriftR]

What is corner weigthing? Does it actually add total wight to your car :-\

they take weights at each wheel/tire with the driver in the seat and then use the height/preload capabilities of coilovers to equal it out, sometimes the car may sit higher on one side but thats the only way to really acheive optimal handling.

[Ghettokracker71]

:eek: So its something I wouldn't want to do....cool,thanks and best of luck.

[wootwoot]

i corner weighted my car with scales i bought at homedepot. you guys are getting ripped off.
j/k. make sure to post a follow up if you think it was worth it. it is something i'd consider

[thx247]

Hard to say if its worth it or not. I've only used a corner weighed car.

The idea behind weighing the car out is to make cross weights even, thats weight on either side of the car. A car thats not even will want to turn a certian direction more than the other direction. This is called wedge, or reverse wedge. Wedge is cool if you make alot of left turns (nascar) but otherwise its a bad thing.

This site has more info on corner weighing http://www.grmotorsports.com/cornerweight.html which read pretty well.


Another important reason that I get the cars weighted is our alignment shop checks other things like bumpsteer, stroke and binding on the suspension. When I can just throw a bunch of adjustable arms on the car, toss on some coilovers and give them the car to sort it out its more than worth the money.

[Steeles]

:eek: So its something I wouldn't want to do....cool,thanks and best of luck.

I dont think you get it.... they WEIGH YOUR CAR AT ALL FOUR CORNERS then adjust your coilovers so the weight is EVENLY disperessed. (setting up for 50/50 weight distribution for example)

yes you want it done. it sets the balance of the car

[Colorado S14]

Speaking of suspension geometry, do you guys have any tips for those with RUCAs and toe rods who will need to understand how to personally setup the suspension geometry. I have a lack of shops in the Denver area that know what they are doing, but I do have access to an alignment rack so I was hoping to do alot of it myself.

[Var]

I dont think you get it.... they WEIGH YOUR CAR AT ALL FOUR CORNERS then adjust your coilovers so the weight is EVENLY disperessed. (setting up for 50/50 weight distribution for example)

yes you want it done. it sets the balance of the car



I dont think you get it sir..some people would rather have an even drop :jerkit: over performance

[AceInHole]

I dont think you get it sir..some people would rather have an even drop :jerkit: over performance

of course, if your coilovers are adjustable at the spring and lower mount, you can preload the spring and keep the car even.

[Var]

and that would work? the ride height would remain the same for that corner so how would you be transfering weight to another corner?

[nightwalker]

yes, as long as you have "double height" adjustment, the weight can be adjusted without affecting height. You want to be in the car when this is done, or it's worthless.

corner weighing a car is nice, but I noticed that when I had a passenger the handling was thrown off. But that's just me, some people may not notice it.

and yes, it's worth it. I don't know about paying 150 though.

[Steeles]

I dont think you get it sir..some people would rather have an even drop :jerkit: over performance


oh I get it allright. those are people with drop zone springs or cut coils on stock springs. people that know what they are doing have both cause they have coilovers with independent height adjustment and know enough about their suspension to use it.

:Owned:

[Var]

i dont get it then. I'm gonna go read that link about cornerweighting


I still dont get it.The link says nothing about it.

By adding preload, are you raising the spring rate of that corner and effectively making it resist more weight?

[Var]

oh I get it allright. those are people with drop zone springs or cut coils on stock springs. people that know what they are doing have both cause they have coilovers with independent height adjustment and know enough about their suspension to use it.

:Owned:

huh?
:confused:

[Steeles]

you... still... dont.... get.... it

[Var]

nope, but thanks for helping.

[citizen]

pre loading compresses the spring, when a spring is compressed it exerts force outwards. the more it is compressed the more force it exerts. the more force it exerts the less force being applied to it (weight from the car) effects it.

so if you have a spring with lets say 100lbs/ft resistance and you compress it 5" it will exert 500lbs of force. if you put 500lbs of force on top of it the spring won't compress further because it is already exerting enough force upwards to counteract the force being applied downward from the weight.

hope that helped var. did i win yet?

[Var]

win! thanks for being helpful

[thx247]

Speaking of suspension geometry, do you guys have any tips for those with RUCAs and toe rods who will need to understand how to personally setup the suspension geometry. I have a lack of shops in the Denver area that know what they are doing, but I do have access to an alignment rack so I was hoping to do alot of it myself.


Get something to measure bumpsteer, you can make a guage for cheap, or you can buy one for 100 bucks? Maybe a little more.
You need an alignment rack, scales for each wheel and alot of time. Now that I think about it, the alignment rack should do bumpsteer if its worth anything.

The process as I recall is this:

Air up the tires to your hot run pressure (40psi for me on azenis), put a drivers worth of weight in the driver seat, put as much fuel as you plan on running at the track (5 gallons in my case) in the gas tank. Put the car on the rack, disconnect the sway bars, get the ride height of the car sorted out, then start preloading springs to try and get the cross weight as even as possible. While thats happening setup your alignment as you go. Ride height changes alignment settings which is why you want to get that done first. Spring loads adjust balance of the car which can change ride height AND alignment slightly. Once you've got those sorta figure out, start hanging off the car, compressing the suspension as much as possible. As the suspension goes through its compression the alignment will change. My guess is the machine will register any bump steer settings, but I really don't know because I've never done the actual work before. Bumpsteer is a change in the suspension geometry that affects your alignment. I had an issue with bump that made my car steer left as it crested a hill. Not cool at all.

Dial the bumpsteer out as much as you can while keeping alignment and ride height where you want them.

When all that is done, hookup the sway bars again. You might see a change in corner weight at that point, if you do then the sways are tweaking the ride height. You need to get adjustable endlinks on the sway bars to cancel that out. Its worth it because a slow sway bar SUCKS. Sways are slow to respond in a suspension already, but having to uncompress a sway bar and then recompress it in a turn blows.


I really doubt you can't find a decent alignment shop in your area, there are racers everywhere. Hitup a real racing forum if you continue to have trouble. If you find out where your local SCCA boys go I'm sure you'll be fine.

[shoes59]

My car feels pretty damn nice already but i figure if ive already spent so much on suspension i may as well maximise its potential.
Do you race the car? Are you using R compoound tires? Are you looking to shave a few tenths off your lap times? If you answered yes these questions then yes it's worth having it done for $150. If it's only a street car that occasionally see's track duty then no. Especially if the car "feels pretty dam nice already". Your better off putting that $150 towards a competent driving school. There are far to many drivers out there with more car than skill.

[yudalicious]

Do you race the car? Are you using R compoound tires? Are you looking to shave a few tenths off your lap times? If you answered yes these questions then yes it's worth having it done for $150. If it's only a street car that occasionally see's track duty then no. Especially if the car "feels pretty dam nice already". Your better off putting that $150 towards a competent driving school. There are far to many drivers out there with more car than skill.

well said... come to think of it, that describes me to a tee...

[thx247]

I seriously question how decent of a corner weight you can get for $150 bucks. Maybe if you got a great hookup somewhere, but its not as simple as just making things even on both sides. I think it took a guy with 15 years of experince 6 hours to do my car.

imo if you are going out to drive and trying hard to improve then its worth it. Being competitive in autox taught me that the difference between "new" stock and 13yr old and busted stock is several seconds and LOTS of frustration. A corner weight gets you up to "new" stock for not alot of money.

[S14DriftR]

Do you race the car? Are you using R compoound tires? Are you looking to shave a few tenths off your lap times? If you answered yes these questions then yes it's worth having it done for $150. If it's only a street car that occasionally see's track duty then no. Especially if the car "feels pretty dam nice already". Your better off putting that $150 towards a competent driving school. There are far to many drivers out there with more car than skill.

I dont race the car and will probably never record any "lap times" with it. It will however see quite a bit of track time. Every suspension component ive added so far has made the car much smoother and more controlled so i figure if the corner weighting will improve upon that the its absolutly worth it.

[S14DriftR]

I seriously question how decent of a corner weight you can get for $150 bucks. Maybe if you got a great hookup somewhere, but its not as simple as just making things even on both sides. I think it took a guy with 15 years of experince 6 hours to do my car.


The shop im taking it to is very reputable, the owner races nasa events and the shop did the suspension tuning work for the falken/bride sponsored S14a and the first jdmrice when the owners lived up here.