Thanks aipex,

Just make sure I undestand this:

'Pre-load' means: raise the car into the air - loose the two bolts of control arms on each side - put the car back to the ground - re-tighten the bolts
Is that right? Or it is something else?

If that's the case, I will try to do it today after I get off work and see if that helps.

I am aware that in MOST cases this type of issue happens to the front, not rear. But if the shop didn't do it right or the guy knows **** about this procedure, I don't undertand why the front got dropped.

 

I didnt have to pre-load my rears, only the front.. I can't even imagine that pre-loading the rear would have any effect.
Regardless, try it. You might even take the time to take the rear wheel/s off and take a look at the install yourself.

 

Yes, regardless, I will try it, since Im kind of desperate now.

 

the rear is a multi-link, you need to break the bolts loose on the chassis side of every suspension arm, so it's more like 5 or 6 per side, then you'd need to realign it too since two of those arm ends are for the camber and toe adjusters

and I'm trying hard to get people on this forum to stop calling it pre-loading

Pre-loading is what happens if you don't loosen the suspension arm end before lowering the car; this pre-loads the bushing, which is what keeps the car jacked up. What you are actually doing is loading the suspension with the weight of the car before locking the control arm bushings into their new static ride height position

 

thx, teamrx8.

 

Today after work, I jacked the car and loosed (very loose) 5 bolts (yeah, teamrx8, there are 5 of them) on the rear passenger side. Then lowered the jack and put it to the ground. No change at all.

I didn't do the driver side since it was already close to dark. But there was no need to bother though.

So I guess that's not the reason.

 

you could try to load the trunk up with weight for several days to see if that helps settle the springs, but generally speaking quality springs don't settle

 

That's exactly I am going to do --- last shot.
Thanks teamrx8, for always being here with me, as well as all of other members who gave your thoughts. Really appreciated!

If it doesn't work either (probably not I'm afraid), I will have to pay for another set of springs and installation. Sucks.
Sigh..........

 

Are you 100% sure the markings on the springs in the front have the F as indicated by another thread member?

I got eibachs put on mine, but prior to install, the shop let me check them out. if i recall, the shorter springs went on the rear, and the markings on the eibachs I had specified which were the front and which code was for the rear.

Sorry to double check you on this, your last statement was 'it looked right'. So please confirm either by the box/manual install instructions or manufactures reference.

Once you've inspected the code on the spring to match for it to be front or back. Feel free to rule this out, but this looks to be the most obvious cause, especially since your front is lower then what the manufacturer listed for a drop.


best of luck!

 

he already did several posts up, they were OK

 

whitebeau, teamrx8 you both were right!! -- the dealer put the front springs to the rear and rear ones to the front.

I finally clearly checked the part # last night. I jacked the car and removed the rear passanger side wheel and put my head inside there as much as possible, then I found out they were messed up.

Tanabe now uses these part #:
Front: 0705 SE3PGF
Rear: 0705 SE3PGR

Tanabe added an addition letter 'G' to both fromt and rear #, compared to the thread that was posted before. The first time I checked the #s was yesterday morning and I was in a hurry to work. Didn't have time to jack the car and remove the wheel. Since it was still kind of dark outside and the angle I was looking from was very tough for my neck. I saw that 'G' following 'SE3P' and believed it was a 'R'. (I though there was only on letter following 'P'). My bad~~~

So, I drove it to the dealer this morning and they re-did the install for me. The car basically looks fine now but the front is 1.25-1.5 finger higher than rear. I think this maybe because the earlier wrong positions made them settle differently? I hope they will get settle closer after a couple day's driving on their correct positions. I have no idea if previous wrong installtion would cause any potencial damage to the springs which I will suffer later. Hope not.

But at least the springs now sit at where they are supposed to. I really appreciate EVERYONE's kind help during the past two days!! You guys are the best!

 

There is just another thing.

My '05 rx8 was a used car when I bought it. Before upgrading the suspension this time, I found the car's body leans toward drives side if looking carefully (when parking on a very even ground). When I checked more, the left rear gap between tire and fender is about 0.3 - 0.4 inch lower than the right rear side. Both front sides are almost even though.

I was believing either the spring or the shock might be damaged when the first owner had it. That was part of the reason I made this upgrade, hoping to fix this issue. But now with the new springs and shocks installed, the situation is still the same. So I think it should have nothing to with the installation this time.

Could this be a chassis problem? My car still has fully warrenty, which should cover this if something else is broken.

 

if they loosened the bolts on the front arms after the spring install and had it on the ground, it should settle a little in the next couple weeks depending on how you drive. those springs are wound to seat a specific way, but i can't imagine damage occurring, the whole 'seating period' is basically the expected breakin period of the spring that's expected.

My eibachs had 1.25 drop on all 4's, and the front appear to be higher, but depending on the perspective when you look at it sometimes it looks like it's sitting lower on the rear. measuring the clearance before it was lowered, and the clearance from the ground before and after... i've had 1.2 +/- .2 all the way around, so looks can be deceiving.

In regards to the car leaning? i'd check for any section that looks like it has been completely replaced. I've taco'd a suspension side in my 240sx drifting over a curb (little 2 fast, and not enough brake) had the whole right side suspension replaced, even after that I think the frame had a slight bend.

unless other people have a better suggestion, once the suspension linkage looks good (inspection). i'd go coilovers and get it corner balanced. of course unless you find an offending bent arm, control arm....etc.


Have a good weekend!

 

My car's clearance is almost the same front/rear on the passanger side and about .3 difference on the drives side, due to the leaning. So I think to make it perfectly even, the front gap should be somewhere higher than the rear, as a stock 8 is.
To make some aggresive look, like using s-tech, the rear clearance will be slightly higer than front. This would be a personal perference about how to lower your 8.

Sorry to hear the accident you had before. I will check my suspension with a better mazda dealer later to see what they can find.
Thanks for the info you provided and u have a nice weekend too!

 

you have to be on PERFECTLY flat surface to get accurate measurements, I wouldn't sweat it

post some followup pics

 

I will take & upload some pics tomorrow.

 

Follow-up: here is what my car looks now.

The first pic shows the front part #

 

very nice.

glad it worked out..

beers

 

Thanks, actually I am drinking beer right now when reading threads

Today I jacked the car, loosened and re-tightened the front control arm bolts when the car was on the ground.
It turned out the front drop about .3 inch more on both sides than the pictures above.
I did this because I doubted the dealer guy actually did what I told him to do.

Stupid questions it might be, but do I need another allignment becasue of what I did today?

 

yes,

but better yet. loosen them up again and drive around the block one or twice. then tighten them up...

wait 2 weeks. till it really settles. then have them realign it.

dont ask me how i know.

beers

 

Will do that.
Thanks, man!!

 

Question: I noticed that it looks like your spring has a black piece of rubber around it. Did it come with this or did the mechanic add it? I think I may need to add that since I'm hearing some noises from the MS suspension and I think it's the springs rubbing. Anyone know where you can get this?

 

Looks much better.

I got the eibach's and had to do the antiSwoope "pre-loading" thing afterwards since the shop where I got them didn't do that. Also, I'm kinda small (5'4") so I've had some BIG people at shops/dealer drive my car and that helped the springs settle, I think.

 

I had the same problem. Loosen the bolts on the suspension arms and drive around a little bit to load the suspension. The probably tightened the bolts before loading the suspension properly

 

The black plastic coating came with the springs. You can check the picture in post #5 of this thread, it was taken right after I took the springs out of shipping box.

The plastic is near to the end of each spring, where will be highly compressed once installed on the car. My understanding is for the protection purposes.
Other guys can give you more accrurate answers.
So your MS springs didn't come with the plastic coating? Maybe that's fine since manufacturs have different designs. Other MS users?

Recently I always 'kindly offer' other people a ride. The real reason is the person can sit on my passanger seat to help me settle springs on another side