the way that works the best for me is.

leave the 4 lower control arms hand tight.
put on wheels. lower car.
drive the car around the block. speed bumps help..
stop car with wheels turned all the way to one side.. reach to the bolts you can get to and tighten them to the proper tq.

swing wheels to the opposite side. repeat...

done.




beers

 

Lowers or uppers? I don't want to get confused all over again......

 

Charles, no prob... heat of the moment stuff, you know....

True... and he admitted that to me. But, to his credit, he is willing to work with me on a solution. He is going to investigate their spring choices for this car on Monday, and call me back. I thought that was pretty stand-up of him. Hopefully we can work thru this and get to the happy ground - or at least something "closer" to the ground...

 

Tom, Charles is not the type to put people down, he is very helpful in every question you may have about the RX-8 even if you aren't a customer of his.

I understand completely his point and it is just people using the general knowledge they have to figure out problems for every situation when sometimes certain vehicles or objects may be out of the ordinary, we all know our cars are definitely out of the ordinary. My uncle did that generalization because he has never worked on an RX-8.

I was a little late with this reply, it appears you guys already kissed and made up.

 

Tom, as a token of my appreciation I'd like to be allowed to offer you a great deal on those springs should you decide to swap them as I am a Tokico retailer. PM me with a part number and we can discuss it. Figure my margin will be zero and that is your price.

 

wow

the head of the line for dont have a clue.. i am not sure what industry you are in, but knowledge is power..

you do not have it here. with this day and age i bet you loath the uninformed callers, but i bet you are more annoyed by the ones that know more than you..

sometimes i get bored with the level 2 techs in the computer world, but i have to talk to them to get where i need to go.. and they learn.

beers

 

uppers. ****. i had lowers.. (edit)


wow, if i had light i would be doing a diy. right now..

beers

 

Now you have me confused... Which arms do we loosen drive around then re-tighten? You just said lowers but the picture you linked to showed the uppers.

Whats the exact procedure with out the back and forth confusion?

 

i edited what i said.. they seem low when you reach in..

the pic is perfect.. i just saw it...

btw, where in fla usa sux are you?

beers

 

I'm about 15 mins from Tampa

Seminole is between Clearwater and St Petersburg

 

Can someone explain how loosening the control arms wont mess with the alignment. I can see it if your marking the cams before you loosen or getting an alignment after maybe?

 

You should always get an alignment after installing springs.

 

upper control arms are in a fixed position..

the lowers not so much. they have the adjustment cams on them.


beers

 

as i said before. if you need any help. send me a pm..

i am close.

beers

 

... PM comin' at you Charles.

 

Thanks, I'll keep you in mind
Good to have experienced Rotor heads nearby.

 

I was just under the car prepping for tomorrow and I can visually confirm what Swoope already mentioned- the upper control arm doesn't have an alignment cam.
The LCA does.

 

It's magic... I did the pretension release on the uppers and the car instantly went down 1/2". I've been driving around on it for probably like 50 miles and am waiting to see if it settles another 1/4" but it already looks 10 times better.
rztom it is down to 26" now.

You can actually just do the adjustment in your driveway, I just loosened it while it was on the ground by turning the wheels all the way to each direction, then drove it around the block over 1 speed bump and a couple of driveway entrances, then tightened it back up and it dropped before my eyes.

Thanks for the information everyone.

 

See how this forum works?

I may do this myself just to see if I a couple different issues I have magically disappear.

 

That's good news, Rocket... guess it's humble pie for me, although I would like to understand the mechanics behind the magic....

Better go grab my 17mm socket and give it a shot too....

 

It seems that the bushing is pressed again the a arm and kind of holding it all bound with pressure and doesn't allow the arm to extend past what it was intended to with stock setup. You can hear the unbinding when you first loosen the screws from the the uppers.

Here's the final resting height...

 

just had my tokicos and apex'i springs installed today and the front still had noticeable gap, gonna try this out, thx!

 

alright, took it over some speedbumps with the bolts loosened and made an instant difference! thanks everyone, i'll get better pics soon

 

[QUOTE=Kingsfan;2424140]alright, took it over some speedbumps with the bolts loosened and made an instant difference! thanks everyone, i'll get better pics soonQUOTE]

Be sure to measure both sides after a few days. I measured today and the passengers side was at 26" and the drivers was 26 1/4". I went ahead and loosened the drivers side again and repeated the precedure entire making sure I loosened it enough this time and drove over many speed bumps.

After the second round they both measure 26", they are supposed to be 25 3/4" but the springs might need to settle since they were stuck in a higher position and didn't get to feel all the weight of the car.

I'll measure again in a week.

 

Nice Galaxy Gray, the best color out there!