Hey folks,

Last night I installed lowering springs on my 07 GT (Eibach Pro-kit) and some Motoblue lower control arms with the " alignment correction" brackets.

Everything was fine all last night and this morning. Car drove and handled awesome. I gave it plenty of abuse to make sure everything was good. No more wheel hop either. Looks much better as well!

So this afternoon I was taking a turn fairly quick and hit a bump/grove in the road. Kind of made the rear end kick out into a small fishtail. Nothing crazy, infact I have hit the same bump before in the past the same way. Felt like the rear may have even hit the bump stops with it being lowered now.

So right after that I notice that the steering wheel shifted to the left about 15 degrees and it pulls to the right a little. Hmmm....

I looked EVERYTHING over and its all still intact and nothing looks bent at. Everything is nice and tight as well.

Anyone have an encounter like this before? It's driving me nuts. I don't want to drive it like this. Something obviously is wrong.

Thanks for any help!

 

Sounds like you need an alignment. We were going to swap my rear springs and GT500 rear contol arms Saturday until my bodyshop guy said I would have to get it realigned to be on the safe side. I was well might as well wait and do all 4 corners this winter.

 

Correct, you should always get it aligned once mods like this are done....also you will notice more bumpsteer when lowered.

 

what's bumpsteer?

 

When going over bumps the car will tend to steer itself. The wheel can go left in right in your hands if you are not careful

 

+1 your definitely need an alignment.

 

Did you install an adjustable pan hard bar to recenter the rear axle?

 

I know I need an alignment after lowering it. I have the alignment bolts, adjustable panhard and a adjustable upper CA on order. So i'm holding off on the alignment for right now. That has nothing to do with my issue at hand though.

The car drove perfectly straight and the steering wheel was dead center prior to hitting that bump earlier today. It is definatly something in the rear end. I wasn't to comfortable about installing the BMR relocation brackets. I'm wondering if one got bent or something. I will put it up on a lift tomorrow at work and check everything over.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had anything like this happen to them.

 

Just to be sure I'm getting what you mean... When you say the wheel is 15* off, and the car pulls right, do you mean that if you "straighten" the wheel, the car tracks properly?

I have the BMR LCA relocation brackets, and they are quite beefy, and would be difficult to bend... If the wheel is off-center, then genreally something has shifted in the front end. If, for example, your strut bolts were a hair on the loose side, and you induced a camber change hitting the "groove", that would also knock your toe off, uncentering your wheel, and camber can definately cause a pull. If the front wheel(s) bit in the groove, it could easily have swung the rear-end around, giving you the "fishtail" you described. I could see that happening a lot more easily than something bending in the rear suspension.

 

yeah dude, even if you hit a bump in the rear end if you did not torque the front struts correctly then it could mess up your alignment badly enough to cause a slip in the steering wheel. The BMR relocation brackets are ment to handle ALOT of abuse, more than what a 300-400HP car can put out

 

So, turns out it was the right rear relocation bracket. The back part that goes up the axle bent and allowed the bracket to move slightly. That causes the whole rear end to shift causing the misalignment. I just had the brackets bolted in (not welded). I just went ahead and took them out for now. Everything is straight again. And I felt no difference whatsover in traction/handling. So I think i'm just going to leave them out. In fact it feels a little tighter in the rear without them.

Just glad I got it taken care of. When I put it up on the lift at work I measure the gap between the tire in the quarter panel and thats how I found it to be off. Easy fix!

Thanks fellas!