Planning to lower early Model S with Air - Settings?

[peakay]

OK, I finally have the toe arms, camber arms and adjustable lowering links (bloxsport) in my possession and an appt at a shop next week for the install and alignment. Now I just need to set the rise height I want before going in and figure out desired alignment settings.

I’m still planning to lower in the range of .75” to 1”. Rationale is there used to be a Very Low setting from the factory that was .75” lower than low, so that must be about the bottom that the factory liked. Also, people who install the unplugged performance lowering brackets get a 1.5” decrease in height, but they tend to run in Normal height to raise it back up .5” resulting in 1” of lowering. So, somewhere in that area should be perfect.

Now alignment specs… gotta figure those out. Looking for these results in priority order:

1) no/little adverse tire wear

2) increased performance and run in feel to hopefully make it a bit livelier and less heavy feeling

3) Prioritize for running in Low, but ensure settings are still good in Normal.

If anyone has alignment setting suggestions to accomplish this, please let me know! I’m setting ride height Sunday and taking it in Tuesday.

Cheers.

 

[Russell]

OK, I finally have the toe arms, camber arms and adjustable lowering links (bloxsport) in my possession and an appt at a shop next week for the install and alignment. Now I just need to set the rise height I want before going in and figure out desired alignment settings.

I’m still planning to lower in the range of .75” to 1”. Rationale is there used to be a Very Low setting from the factory that was .75” lower than low, so that must be about the bottom that the factory liked. Also, people who install the unplugged performance lowering brackets get a 1.5” decrease in height, but they tend to run in Normal height to raise it back up .5” resulting in 1” of lowering. So, somewhere in that area should be perfect.

Now alignment specs… gotta figure those out. Looking for these results in priority order:

1) no/little adverse tire wear

2) increased performance and run in feel to hopefully make it a bit livelier and less heavy feeling

3) Prioritize for running in Low, but ensure settings are still good in Normal.

If anyone has alignment setting suggestions to accomplish this, please let me know! I’m setting ride height Sunday and taking it in Tuesday.

Cheers.

I'm not currently using these numbers as I had my alignment done before I found it, but it does look right.
N2itive Alignment

 

[peakay]

Ok, I finally am done futzing with the lowering links and have it set to where I want it. Hopefully by Tuesday I will have the Camber and Toe arms installed, big thanks to @Russell for posting the specs here and @Dannietjoh for all the advice.

Here is where I came out. I went with keeping a little bit of fender gap after testing various heights and seeing how badly they rubbed or the bottom scraped on driveways without using air lift. Front is about 1/4" - 6mm higher than the rear, just a tiny bit. After trying a few settings this looked like exactly what I wanted. I really hated these blox lowering links - hard to measure, hard to fasten and feel confident the lock nuts were tight enough, etc. I'd personally choose 3d printed links first, n2itive second and these blox links a distant third. The 3d printed ones seem so much easier as you are just installing something at a set length and I think I would have been happy with a variety of lengths to choose from.

I'll post again after having the arms installed and alignment done -- hopefully my rear tires will not be totally destroyed before then!

After (set on low)

Square turbines with 20mm spacers front, 25mm rear:

 

[peakay]

OK, so I got my camber and toe arms installed. Here's what ive found ou

1) they don't seem to impact ride quality to a noticeable level, which is great! They MIGHT impact noise coming through to the cabin when on rough/grooved interstate highways. Not 100% sure on that, but car tire noise sounded a bit elevated.

2) Thoe N2itive alignment settings are too aggressive in terms of limited camber in my opinion. I'm getting inner fender rubbing on the passenger side and will probably need to go to a bit more negative. It also looks a little strange with the tires poking out more and I'm really surprise how much a change in camber of 1% or so really makes.

@Dannietjoh, be careful with this as you might have rubbing. I can go down to 20mm spacers on the rear, but you can't go any lower.

Will keep this updated. I plan to go back tot he same shop to get things tweaked in a week or so.

 

[airborne spoon]

OK, so I got my camber and toe arms installed. Here's what ive found ou
2) Thoe N2itive alignment settings are too aggressive in terms of limited camber in my opinion. I'm getting inner fender rubbing on the passenger side and will probably need to go to a bit more negative. It also looks a little strange with the tires poking out more and I'm really surprise how much a change in camber of 1% or so really makes.

When i finished installing all the suspension parts front and rear i took it to the shop (714 tires in Westminster, (they do great work and its only like $150)) and they ask you what you want the specs to be so i went with exactly 50% for all settings from the N2itive page (like it says -.75 to -.85 so i went with -.80 and the same for everything else) as what i wanted and they were spot on for every single spec i gave them and the car handles great and drives vice. I keep my car on standard height but its lowered about 1 inch from stock wit the n2itive links. I don't want to lower it any further or drive on low all the time because i drive in CA and the roads are trash so i don't wanna scrape on any more crap than i already do.