Suspension & Steering

Ride Height - Quick Measurement

After the last week's discussions on ride heights, I have the car at about the right height, give or take a mm. I know all of you are just dying to go make a few gauge wires, a scissors out of yardstcks, or a telescoping gauge out of all-thread-- So here's what I found:

Measure from the ground/garage floor straight up through the center of the wheel to the fender lip. With the car exactly at the factory ride height, your tape measure should read 27 inches exactly in front, and 24.5 inches in the rear. That's right--"Tape Measure" and "Inches". :-)

I took these measurements on my '89 S4 that's never been damaged/bent/fixed. And the factory makes no consideration for tire wear in their measuring procedure so neither did I. Using the tape measure, though, consider that I have about half the tread left on the BFG TA ZR-4's (don't tell me, I know--, and they remind me everytime I drive them...) so your measurements may be off slightly due to tire and wear that's different from mine.

I knew you would all find this interesting!

I did notice that at the proscribed factory ride height, it does appear that the front is too high. I suspect it's an optical thing related to the amount of free air showing above the tire. The wheelwell arch in the front is higher so the tire can turn and have more compression travel. Look at the rear, and you'll see that it looks a lot flatter at the top. Just my observation.

To make the car look a little more level, I adjusted the front back down to 160mm, the minimum factory recommended height. Definitely better, and still high enough to clear the driveway and my rain gutter in the street.

dr bob