Ok here is my qestion, whould you need to get your struts alligned if you take them off and put them back on with diffirent springs? And if you don't get them alligned with the new springs what kind of damage if any could it cause in the future? If you could not figure it out by now, I had my kyb gr-2's put on a year and a half ago with my stock springs, and had a tire shop allign my struts for me. Cost me about $40.00 to get them all done. But later on me and a friend put on a set of used B&G lowering springs and lowered it 1.6" all around. But I never took them back to get alligned. That was over a year ago and I'm still running around on the kyb gr-2's with b&g springs. Yes I know this was a bad setup in the first place but then I was a major noob, and I know better now. I just don't have the money for the new struts yet, but I'm getting there. To tell the truth I'm not really sure if my struts are shot or not, the ride is still really stiff, does not bounce at all. The only time I feel that something might be bad is when I hit pot holes or go over rough rail road track. It feels like my wheels are going to fall off and not sure but on bigger potholes it feels like they bottom out. Besides rough conditions they ride fine. I can push on down on the car and the car bounces back up and is still stiff. But sometimes when I pull into a driveway my rear sturst squeak. Is that bad? Overall I'm getting a new setup as soon as I can but until then should I spend the $40.00 and get my struts alligned again? Thanks for the answers.
My car has two speeds, fast and faster.
This is when you need an alignment-
anytime the strut is seperated from the spindle
anytime the ball joint is seperated from the spindle
anytime the control arm is removed
anytime a tie rod end is removed from either the spindle or the tie rod
If you changed the springs without fully removing the struts (by leaving the spindle bolted to it and tipping it down to remove the spring), you should be ok.
James Cahill wrote:This is when you need an alignment-
anytime the strut is seperated from the spindle
anytime the ball joint is seperated from the spindle
anytime the control arm is removed
anytime a tie rod end is removed from either the spindle or the tie rod
I disagree with 2nd and half of the 4th (last) statement.
If you remove the ball joint from the spindle, how does that change the alignment? You can't adjust anything there.
Also, if you remove the tie rod end from the spindle, it will not change lengths unless you twist it in or out of the tie rod. And you can't do that on accident because the tie rod has a jam nut holding the tie rod end in place.
I've also found that after I put on b+g lowering springs, it did not need any changes to alignment at all.
Having your alignment checked is usually very cheap or free in some shops. Try that before you get a full alignment.
Pulling the tie rod end out of the steering arm, and then re-installing it changes the bump steer. You can get away with pulling it out and putting it in with no alignment, but its better to be safe than sorry.
