comvr68

OK Folks. First, thanks to ALL for the feedback I do appreciate it! Second, I finally solved the problem. The issue was a tire mismatch. Normally it's not ideal to have 2 different tires on the fronts than the one's on the back. However, with the RX8 and the tuned suspension, any discrepancies are magnified. I had some perf tires (w-rated) on the fronts and some snow tires (t-rated) on the rears. Turns out the rears cannot follow the front tires.

I purchased some Blizzac snow tires about 4 weeks ago. At the time, Discount tire only had two. I was assured I would not be able to tell the difference. Since it was also Xmas and they originally wanted $226 per tire, I was being cheap and told them not to order in the fronts and we'll just go with the rears as he'd stated that all I really need are the rears.

*note I was able to get the tires for $156 per tire by using their pricematch guarantee since Sears was offering them for that price.

I knew that the existing state was not ideal, but I never thought that the delta would cause sooo much grief. Every place I took my car to stated the tire mismatch wouldn't cause such strange behavior. The next breath was, well you should match your tires though. Kind of one of thsoe secondary issues that you know you need to get to, but have bigger fish to fry first.

I finally took the car to an old man. He was clearly a master mechanic. Walked around my car measuring this and that. Finally he looks at me and says:

"Well son, I can take your money and do a laster alignment if you'd like. To be clear though, If I did I would just be taking your money. Your problem is your tires. The RX8's have such a highly tuned suspension, and the W rated tires you have on the front just expose that more so. Your car is designed to go whatever direction you tell it to go, and do so quickly. The W rated tires have almost no sidewall, and the sidewall that is there has very little flexibility to that. Add in the rear tires which are just designed to grip, with a very lose sidewall. Well you'll get the random pulls. All that is, is the rear tires gripping."

I called Discount Tire and it tuns out they did order the fronts as I had requested they not do. They were concerned about not having anything in stock for my kind of car. I drove down immediately and they replaced my front tires. Took the car out and validated the problem is resolved.

jasonrxeight

side wall really affects how true the car goes in straight line.
my 40 side wall tires on my 8 is like driving on rails and those 75's on my wrangler wonders around all the time.

shaunv74

Interesting. Good info. and glad you've figured it out!