need help with lowered car

[asianisafish]

Hey guys. I need help and advice with a lowered car. It's and e46 330ci on style 5s with coilivers. It's pretty low right. Less than a finger gap in the front and maybe a finger gap in the rear. I was going to get some exhaust work done but my car couldn't make it up the places ramps. We tried using wood but granted they had some old water logged crappy pieces of wood from who knows where and they broke :(. The front of the car just barely make its up, the problem is when the car gets closer to the point where the ramp levels out, the side skirts of the car is too low and the we couldn't figure out what to do next. Any advice please? I have a bunch of 2x4s and phone books to use to help make it work but I don't know how. Other things to put into perspective, all of me and my friends low profile Jacks will not fit under the car. The oem emergency car jack will not fit under the car, unless driven onto a phone book or wood.

Tldr: car is low, bumper barely clears, side skirts and frame in the way for ramp how to get onto ramps with wood

[AnthonyGXP]

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[asianisafish]

Sorry I'm on my phone and forgot :(
But that's why I put the tldr :)

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Crank the coils up to max height.

[alpha]

Crank the coils up to max height.

This is one option.

The other is to get creative with how you use wood to help you get up their ramps.

asianisafish, are you having the work done by a performance shop or by a normal exhaust shop? The only reason I ask is because performance shops typically have more experience with lowered cars.

One of my previous cars was an S2000 that was stupidly low; the car was tucking tire, about -4.5 degrees of camber in the front and about -5 or so degrees of camber in the rear, and the car's frame was about 1" off the ground. The shop I usually went to for alignments didn't have underground alignment racks, so they had to drive it up ramps.

To get it up the ramps, we had to first take off the front bumper. Then we had to use longer pieces of wood to essentially extend the ramp; you may have to custom build a staggered ramp. It's going to have to be long enough that your side skirts will clear once the front is up; in my case, I had to make sure the sides of the frame would clear. The goal is to not just extend the ramp, but to lower the aggressiveness of the angle. Even with all this, the rear may still scrape, especially if you have a rear lip and/or a diffuser. My rear diffuser would scrape.

If you or the shop are not comfortable with this, I would recommend trying to find a different shop that has more experience with getting your car up in the air to perform the work.

[asianisafish]

It's a standard exhaust shop sadly. What orientation would I put the stacks of wood? I have 2x4s that are too long to fit in my car, how should I cut them?

[fly07sti]

Crank the coils up to max height.

100% agree with Mike

[Jomax]

Man, that's low. How does the bumper not get torn on the first dip in the road?

[asianisafish]

Man, that's low. How does the bumper not get torn on the first dip in the road?

I pre plan my routes and drive carefully, and no I do not impede traffic by going 20mph the whole way. I cannot go over speed bumps and the car can still go Lower but I'm not brave enough :(

[asianisafish]

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/20151006_155509-640x360.jpg

[Every_detail]

This is why I went with air ride

[FUNX650]

Your set-up(down :)) doesn't leave you too
many options. Here's a few ideas I have
that may just get you over-the-hump:

I. If you're going to use this particular shop,
then you're going to need to build a quite long, and
able to be taken-apart, approach/incline:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/image59.jpeg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100488)

...having a pitch similar to these pre-fabbed ramps:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/image57.jpeg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100486)

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/image58.jpeg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100487)

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/image60.jpeg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100489)
_______________________________________________

II. Find a shop that has an inground
work-pit, similar to this:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/image61.jpeg
_________________________________________________

III. Or a shop/friend that has a
two post lift, similar to this:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/image62.jpeg (http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/100491)
______________________________________________


Bob

[Hokie335i]

This is how you should orient the wood 2x4 pieces as you asked..

http://www.the370z.com/members/onzedge-albums-dc-s-z-s-stuff-picture39388-rhino-ramps-helpers.jpg

[asianisafish]

Thanks everyone for the help, but my front end clears the ramp and we can get the front tire close to the point the ramp levels out on the lift, but we can't go any further because the side skirts/frame touch the top bend corner of the ramp and we are stuck there

[Hokie335i]

Then what about putting the wood in front of the rear wheels once the front is up on the ramp. Then use the wood as a slowly elevating runner to slowly lift the rear tires onto the ramp