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Adjusting suspension height without Lexia
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Author Post
ChrisW   
Mon May 22 2023, 10:39am
Joined: Jun 18 2013
Member No: #1335
Location: Surrey
 After changing the 3 front spheres, the ride height was too high for some inexplicable reason. I don’t have a Lexia. From the various threads, it seems that trying to set the height using a Lexia can be a frustrating process and I didn’t trust my main dealer to get it right. Fortunately, there is an easy fix.

The official procedure (on the site) for measuring the ride height looks daunting but it is fairly easy. You don’t need any of the fancy tools, an extending tape does the job fine. The tolerance is +/- 6 mm, so it’s hardly a precision job. Start the engine with the car set on standard height and, when it has settled, turn off the engine and immediately put the ignition on, so it retains its height. Using the tape, I measured the distance from the ground to the centre of the wheel and the distance from the ground to the underside of the subframe (the procedure shows you where). Subtract the latter from the former and this value is the K value in the procedure.

It should be 160 +/- 6 mm. Mine was 145 mm and the height needed to be lowered by 15 mm. The height sensor has a rod attached to the suspension arm connecting the subframe to the duck’s foot, frip bearing. Correcting the 15 mm means moving the sensor downwards relative to the suspension arm so that the ECU thinks the height is too high and corrects it by lowering the suspension. It took me a while to figure this out!

This can be achieved by shimming-down the sensor. The distance from the subframe to the mounting point for the sensor rod on the suspension arm is about one fifth of the distance from the subframe to the wheel. This means that the shim needs to be 3 mm (one fifth of 15 mm).

I drilled a short length of 3 mm anodized bar to fit over the threaded studs holding the sensor. Used this to shim down both front sensors. Started the engine and set the ride height as above. Re-measured the K value and it was 161 mm. Perfect.

If this sounds complicated, it isn’t when you are underneath the car and can see everything. It then makes sense!

Raising the height can be done in the same way and it’s easier because you just have to put washers as a shim for the mounting of the lower end of the rod onto the suspension arm.

The car rides beautifully now (if you avoid the deep potholes that now litter our roads) with no thump when going over speed humps, which was happening with the suspension too high.
 

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