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Re: Similar for me... Preferred solution? Posted by Snowmobile [Email] ![]() ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Similar for me... Preferred solution?, FrancoisM ![]() ![]() |
Yes, you measure from the top of the fender edge down to the lower lip of the rim. 16" and 17" rims are different diameters, and therefore have different ride heights... Aero vs non-Aero also have different nominal suspension heights.
Imho, it would have made way more sense to spec this to measure from the center of the wheel to the fender lip, as that would remove all impact of wheel size (15" and 18" can go on these cars also!)... except that it is hard to accurately put a tape measure on the center of a wheel... but honestly, if it is within 5mm, it's probably good enough.
WRT correcting these problems:
1) replacing dampers (shocks) alone will not fix the ride height - maybe a very subtle change but not much. That said, by about 80k, the oem rear shocks do get worn. I noticed a huge improvement putting konis on all 4 corners of the car.
2) spacers (different than shims) are a good way to restore nominal ride height... but that alone is not enough if you load the car heavily.
3) getting the right camber and toe will fix the uneven tire wear assuming: a) that your shocks are not toast (bad shocks can cause wheel skipping which causes uneven wear) and b) that you never heavily load the car. My Saab indy shoots for about zero degrees on the camber rather than the spec of around -2 iirc... apparently this is very helpful.
beyond that...
4) If you have a sedan and want a stiffer spring on the back to better cope with load, you could swap in wagon springs (used is almost better than new since new will eventually sag and used should be pre-sagged).
5) Saabsince93b will point out that various bushings are generally due to be changed at the same time as this is addressed. I did not do this, I probably should. I did 1, 2, 3, and 4 though.
6) What I have observed, is that even doing all of the above (but not the bushings), if I load the car, it still sinks the rear end so the rubber is up in the fenders... and I don't mean filling the car with tile (like I've done on the c900's)... I mean vacation gear for a family of 4 + bikes off the hitch rack... Even with wagon springs on a sedan! Whenever the car is hunched down like that, you are changing the camber. So in this case, I did some fairly significant tire damage in about 3000 miles of highway on vacation, and the wear ceased once we returned home and unloaded the car. Admittedly, the tires are soft performance rubber so, they wear faster regardless... but the unevenness was the main issue here. On my return, I had the alignment checked by my Saab indy. It was basically perfect, still with a camber near zero. So it was just the change in alignment with load that ate the inside edge of the tires.
My conclusion is that if you plan to load the car, and put on a lot of miles loaded, it needs some kind of progressive or cargo springs that stiffen with increased load. I'm not sure if there is a good option for that. My next step will be to look at bushings, as per 5) but I probably will still need a spring better able to support the load. My impression was that the Gary Fisher self leveling suspension does not have these issues, and that perhaps something like that makes sense? surprising this wasn't used more on these cars? probably expensive to fix...
hope that helps!
->Posting last edited on Thu, 5 Dec 2013 18:37:15.
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