I just lowered my car with Tein S Tech springs and Ive got 19in Volk GT7 wheels. I went to get an allighment and all the local shops are worried about damaging the lips of my wheels. Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, how do you get the centercaps out of the wheels? The shop was going to balance my rims and tires and they couldnt get the center caps off. Any suggestions are much appreciated as I need this done before I ruin my tires.

 

anyone?

 

To get the center caps off, its easier if you have the wheel taken off the car.
then just use end of a screw driver and pop it out from the inner wheel side of the cap.
thats what i did with mine.

 

be very careful of course.

 

did u get an allignment with ur new wheels? everyone seems worried. they think they will scratch them.

 

Had the same setup and never had an issue with alignment. Took mine to Nissan. Have a performance shop recommend you a place..

 

I would do what zman1910 said.
I ran with gt7s on for a yr and half with no issues.

 

got my car aligned last weekend with SF challenges on. Its definitely hard to find a good shop that won't fck up your wheels. Make sure the shop has had tons of experience working with aftermarket wheels / racing wheels. I went to Luxury Motor Works here down in So Cal, they did a perfect job. I notice they used a whole lot of grease... DON'T ever take it to your average wheel shop. I paid about $75.

 

Town Fair Tire, uses a generous amount of grease and plastic pins to seat the alignment panels onto the wheel. Never had an issue with alignment.

Sull

 

ill make some more calls and see if someone can use a lot of grease and plastic pins. thanks for the suggestions.

 

any other ideas? is there such thing as an allignment where there is no metal on metal contact?

 

At what Size Wheel/Tire does this become an issue for most shops?

 

How do they align your wheels over there. Here in Spain they go nowhere near your lips. They use a mirror that has four rubber clamps that go on the outer edge of the rim, just where the rubber from the tire tuck into the rim, and then they use lasers to tell them what they need to do. Pretty easy actually. They get it done in about 10 mins.

 

im not sure the exact process, but i think there is metal on metal contact

 

Most shops clamp the wheel sensor on the outside edge of the rim. If done with reasonable care it should not damage your wheels. On the other hand, you could have the alignment done with your stock wheels, then put your 19's back on. Wheel size and offset do not effect the alignment specs ( including rear camber) in any way.

 

Yes they do. The 19" wheel and tire diameter will not be the exact same as the OEM wheel and tire diameter for each of the 4 wheels and that changes your ride height which changes your alignment. The differences won't be much and it depends on how close you stuck to the OEM wheel and tire diameter. If at all possible I would get aligned with the 19" wheels on.

 

No offense, but overall tire diameter changes ride height but not the alignment specs. Changing ride height by altering the SPRINGS changes the alignment specs, but just changing the diameter, or for that matter ANY aspect of the wheels and tires changes nothing about the camber, caster, toe in, etc. Now, if you are building a race car and you put 12" wide wheels on the rear of your z, you may want/need to change the amount of camber, but the actual degrees of camber have not changed.

Think about it, as your tires wear, they become smaller in diameter. Do you think the alignment has now changed?