Dear fellow RX8 owners,

I have a beautiful 2007 Black RX8. To make the story short I got in a wreck yesterday. It appeared to be only body damage done to the car. But, today I noticed that the steering wheel is cocked to about the 2 o'clock position. If I take the steering wheel back to the center it drives to the left. If I leave it in the 2 position it will drive straight. The passenger front side fender did get dented and it IS above the plane of the tire. The rim itself does have scratches and paint on it... this tells me it did take some damage. But, the tire will turn in any direction and does NOT rub against the fender well at any point. Why is my steering wheel cocked? Alignment or what?

Also, the suspension just doesnt seem right. When driving down the road when I hit bumps on the passenger side it seems to not be able to center its gravity I guess is the best way to put it. You can very slightly notice the body shifting around to try and find its center of gravity. Its hard to explain. Could this be a spring, shock, possibly the tire or wheel? Its almost like driving with a donut on one of the back tires... the body kinda sways a little bit. Please help any inputs are welcomed. I am having the insurance guy take a look at it tomorrow so I can get the body fixed... But I would like to have an idea what kind of mechanical damage has been done also.

Thanks
Mark

 

Where did you hit it ? Exactly, a picture would be better

Have it check by some body shops, I mean professional ones.

 

Alignment. With the wheel cocked that far over, you probably have a bent suspension member. The insurance adjuster will probably see it when he looks the car over. But make sure you tell him about it so he knows to look.

BTW - don't just settle for what the adjuster comes up with. Pick out a good body shop, and let them work with the insurance company. A lot of the time all the damage is not discovered until the shop gets things apart.

Ken

 

Problem is I am stationed in Guam. Not alot of professionals BUT I have found a good body shop. And I can post pics later today. We collided on the passenger side at about 35 just kinda rubbed each other. Wasnt anything big just kinda skidded along one another. It was NOT a head on or really jarring impact thats why I really dont think its anything too major like a suspension member problem. But, who knows. It couldnt be like a shock or spring or anything? I mean seriously it wasnt that hard of impact to really bend or tear anything up. I will post the pics in a couple hours

 

One more important fact. The car drives fine, turns fine, and steers fine. The ownly time you notice any problem at all is when you hit a bump on the passenger side. This is the only time that you can notice the "shift" of the car. I took the tire off earlier and nothing appears to be broken. Im kinda starting to think that it is possibly just alignment issues. But, its hard to tell it almost seems like the wheels are canted a little in opposite directions. But, then again I could just be getting paranoid and just reaching for answers.

 

If the wheel was straight before, and is now at 2 o'clock, something is bent enough to put the alignment out of whack. Ben on one side exlains the bump steer on one side.

That good body shop you found will be able to measure the car and see what's bent. Everything is fixable.

Ken

 

Ok fella here are the specs from the alignment test. As you can see everything was kinda shifted. But, good news is Triple J did a GREAT job and fixed everything. So it drives like its brand new again. The pic on the left is what the car is suppose to be set to. And the one on the right is what mine was. So if anyone has this same type problem these are the problems and answers. THanks for all the help guys.