UPDATE: Where are you all bringing your cars with non-stock suspension for alignments and how are you determining alignment specs?

[KJ-00-GT]

I have those coilovers too and from those pics they are mounted wrong. They do mount under the factory plate but the adjustment should right/ left not back and forth.

Here's mine

 

[ttocs]

is it possible they have the left on the right?

 

[Mustang5L5]

That’s my assumption. Left coil over is on the right and right is mounted on the left.

Stare at the engine bay and picture moving them to the opposite side and how the three bolts should fit and you’ll see it.

 

[ttocs]

ok so they go on top of the strut tower but under the factory top plate right? The pic he shows it looks like there is enough space that they are mounted underneath the strut tower.

If they are on wrong that might suck because you will have to remove them and then have it realigned. Now if it were me I would go back and ask why they never mentioned that the CC plates didn't look right if they are suspension experts. If they are a reputable shop you might be able to get it done for free this time since they didn't catch/correct it the first time.

 

[Mustang5L5]

BTW, there is a very tiny bit of camber adjustment with the OE CC plate on top. If you look at this pic from the MM directions to install their CC plates, those three main bolts rest in slotted holes. You'll also notice the holes are small, which is why lowered cars really do need aftermarket plates to have a chance at getting back to stock specs.

SInce your camber is so terible and uneven anyway, i might be tempted to just loosen those up and pull the asseumbly outwards and see if you can gain anything. Park on level ground and just use a level to eyeball it. Can't be any worse than your specs right now.

All a bandaid of course. Proper fix is to swap the coil overs to the correct sides. Even better fix is to throw them in the trash and just run a standard spring/shock combo with aftermarket CC plates. Of course, that ain't gonne be cheap.

I do concur that the shop should have scratched their head at that and came to the conclusion something wasn't right. WHy would an aftermarket coil over company make a coil-over with no camber adjustment, but two layers of caster adjustment?

Maybe oyu can have a chat with them, go home swap the coil-overs and go back and have them align it then?

 

[95SN95]

ok so they go on top of the strut tower but under the factory top plate right? The pic he shows it looks like there is enough space that they are mounted underneath the strut tower.

If they are on wrong that might suck because you will have to remove them and then have it realigned. Now if it were me I would go back and ask why they never mentioned that the CC plates didn't look right if they are suspension experts. If they are a reputable shop you might be able to get it done for free this time since they didn't catch/correct it the first time.

Interesting you mention that. They did not mention the CC plates did not look right but they did not charge me for the work they did.

 

[95SN95]

After sleeping on it I’m going to try to fix what’s there by removing these coil overs and re-installing them “correctly” so the CC plate adjustments are in the right position. I’ll also reset the preload on the springs. They are currently set to cement truck. I also bought a camber tool on Amazon - it’s basically a level that attaches to a wheel or brake rotor with a magnet to set camber at home. It was 12 bucks I’ll give it a go. Thank you all for the help here I’m learning a lot about coil overs.

 

[95SN95]

I took the coil overs out today and of course just like you all pointed out the camber plates were installed wrong. To get them to go in correctly I had to swap what was on the drivers side to the passenger side and vice versa. Easy enough but while I had the coil overs out I took the time to clean them getting all of the heavy grime off of them. I noticed the height was different between the two coil overs so I set them to the same height and then I redid the preload. The coils were really cranked up which explained the hammering ride.

 

[ReplicaR]

I take my car to Firestone to get it aligned. I have purchased lifetime alignment back in 2007, and it's paid for itself many times over by now. I've heard from some people that they only do OEM spec alignment and that's it, but I've never had an issue telling them exactly what I've wanted and getting it done there. At this point I don't really mess with alignment much, as I've figured out what works for the car, and I tend to keep it there. The only time it ever goes to alignment rack is when something in suspension changes (ride height, springs, bumpsteer, etc)