I love cars but do not really know anything about them.

 

Control Arms connect the wheel spindle to the cars chassie and control the up/down movement of the wheel. On the 8 you have 2, an upper and lower control arms. In the last picture, you can see a bolt with an ecentric washer. Turning this bolt will align the suspention. The bar in the front of the last picture, is a control bar to keep the rear end from moving sideways.

 

Alright, I completely don't get it. I thought going over a rock controls the up/down movement of the wheel. Are you telling me there's something in the car that makes the wheel go up and down??

 

Krankor, no, the control arms just hold the wheel in position. The rx8 it has what is called a double wishbone set up in the front end. Think of two wishbones held flat, one above the other with the pointy ends on the same side for both; the pointy end of the top one is connected to the top of the wheel spindle, the pointy end of the bottom one is connected to the bottom of the wheel spindle. The large open ends of both are connected to the frame of the car. This allows the wheel to move up and down when it hits a bump, when you steer, the wheel pivots on the spindle.

 

Correct if I'm wrong, but in a Double Wishbone suspension, isn't there a Lower control arm w/ a sealed Ball Joint, and a Strut type setup in lieu of an upper control arm??

 

Ok, that makes sense. So it doesn't really control anything, it just lets the wheels go up and down as need be, yes? As opposed to being mounted on a fixed, unmoving part of the frame?

 

why would double be in the name then? two wish bones (A arms) = double

struts are when the shock is used as one of the physical suspension links (not just something to resist it's motion).

 

Is there a "Popcorn" smilie?

 

Yep, just lets the wheel move up and down. In the front end the shock connects to lower control arm assembly.

 

Ok, thanks!