millchan

Just like the title, yesterday I got the new spring on my 8...but...
The rear is lowered as expected
The FRONT is "RAISED" even higher than stock...

Help...did someone experienced it the same way?
and how to make it right...

Kafka

Ask Footman...he is getting one soon and he may be able to provide you some advices.

01Racing

Who installed them?

millchan

b2 racing.

prospectjtaz

iTrader: (1)

dude PM your homeslice Footman, he might know

swoope

iTrader: (5)

take it back to them and tell them to loosen the two lower control arm bolts on both sides.

then drive it around the block slow...

while the car is still on the ground. turn the wheel to full lock and tighten the lower control arm bolts on both sides..

the car will drop, and drop more in the next couple of days.

dont for get to have an alignment done after that. and call them stupid.. bad service.

beers

01Racing

I would suggest they either reversed the springs or the front ones arent in the perch properly. DO NOT drive the car with the control arm bolts loosened off!

ZmFnZm

Why in gods name would anyone drive a car with loose control arm bolts.... DANGER Will Robinson DANGER!!!!!!

Thats just asking for damage/loss of control, even at slow speeds.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

hahah... "Homeslice".. taken straight out of Eddie's mouf.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

I'm very interested to see how this plays out and Millchan's eventual resolution was that fixed it.... and I hope 01Racing is reading this thread too!!!

Footman

iTrader: (2)

http://www.hi-impact.org/ryang/modif...ock_front.html

Last picture, Steps 10,11,12

PaQuiN

My lowering springs left the front a little higher. You do know the front rests a bit higher stock right? Not much, but it's noticeable when the rear drops a bit. FYI: I don't have Eibach but i have a similar set, 1.4 inch drop on all 4.

I'm thinking this is why the Tein kit has a lower drop in the front over the rear, to level the car.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

Tein S-tech = 1.4F / 0.7R
Eibach Prokit = 1.2F / 0.8R

On paper it looks much different, but in reality ... -0.2F / +0.1R is hardly noticable to the human eye.

01Racing

I am reading this thread and am a little amused by it. The spring swap on and RX8 is one of the easiest as it is a "coil over" system from the factory. The biggest and most common mistake is swapping the spring rear to the front by mistake when reinstalling the springs. They look almost identical and its a common error. The Eibachs have numbers on the spring that tell you if its a front or rear. I have swapped dozens of springs myself and its not complicated with the right equipment. All this loading before tightening is great with solid bushings on race cars etc, but with mushy factory bushings it doesnt make any difference. 2-3 bounces on the road and everything is back where it should be.

rotarygreg

Al, i disagree with two things here. if you were to reveres the springs (intall fronts on rear and rear on front) the back end would be so low. the front springs are so much shorter than the back springs. Also, in regards to preloading the control arm bishings, this is a must IMO. it has little/nothing to do with ride height, as Al said, the bushings are soft rubber, however, if you tighten them down with the suspension at full droop, then lower the car down and just drive like that you are going to tear that bushing to peaces in no time. you want to have the control arm at ride height when you tighten those bolts so that the bushings arent always twisted or loaded up when at rest. I dont think it will have any dramatic effect on ride height if you screw that up though unless like al said, if they are urathane bushings or something.

01Racing

In the past 3 years we have had 4 cars in here with reversed springs (lol). I have never seen a rubber control arm bushing tear when someone has loosed and retightened a bolt, including the rear control arms on my Speed 6 , where we pry the arm down as far as it can go to remove the stock spring. Greg you are right about what your saying if you have all time and money to pay someone 4-5 hours labor to do the job. We have learned many ways to do the job properly without many of the labor intensive steps that would result in a $500.00 labor bill just to install a set of springs. I have seen some people not even use a spring compressor to remove the old springs...........it aint pretty but it damn effective and fast (lol) When we installed the Eibach in the Speed 6 they want you to remove the rear arms............that aint gonna happen either when our way worked just fine and saved our customers a bunch of money

Footman

iTrader: (2)

Al, would Mark just do that extra step of putting an extra jack on the lowering arm and lifting it up to preload it and then tighten? That shouldn't take more than an extra 5 minutes of work

01Racing

Andrew I have no idea. He has been building race cars for the last 20 years and I have learned many things from him, from chassis set up to engine building. No different when I refer my customers to Eurasia, I dont question how they are going to repair the car I trust in their experience and workmanship. Mark has done springs a dozen time for me and I have never had a complaint. I referred you to him to save you money and get the work done in the time frame that suits your needs. If you want the job done a specific way, I am sure someone or some shop on this forum would do it for you. I trust my life to these guys when I am on the race track as well as my own personal street cars.

Footman

iTrader: (2)

Fine... trust is a very important word. I will trust in Mark's expertise and in your advice. In the slim chance that this is indeed the correct method, we can only find out after the install is done (the front is jacked way up), and I can bring it back to you to correct it.

REV-illusions

iTrader: (3)

dude.. I know you're not trying to be a dick or anything... but what's with the tone of your messages? Al and co are trying to help you out.. they've been doing this for a hellva long time. As with most things in life.. experience is worth more then the theory.

Thief

Ya mang, I've been saying that word since 2003 now.

REV-illusions

iTrader: (3)

i prefer homefry myself...

swoope

iTrader: (5)

wow,

common sense would dictate that you just back them off. not loosen them to the point of concern of them backing out.

a slow lap around the parking lot is enough to settle them down.

to the op, if they reversed the springs the front would be slammed and the rear jacked up.

as to the height of the eibachs. they will drop ~ 1.2 front and rear. mine are that way. and everyone that i know that has them is the same. i took the time to add another perch to raise them..

good luck.

beers

rotarygreg

i wasnt talking about doing the job the way the manual says. if you actually read how they want you to do it according to the factory service manual, its a joke. Basically they want you the remove almost every link/control arm from the rear of the car to get the strut out. there is absolutly no need to do all that. I completely agree with being smart and doing things your own way to save the customer money, or time for yourself. But what im talking about is a bolt that needs to be removed anyways, and taking just a few minutes to use a tranny jack (if the car is on a hoist or a floor jack if you are workign on the ground) to move the suspension up to ride height, then tighten the bolt. Im sure your mechanics do this whenever they do supension components with bushings in a pivoting part of the suspension (I.E. mazda 3 rear shocks. We do these easily more than once a week. they have a bushing at the bottom of the shock, and i always always see the other techs preload said bushing). race cars are different in this topic, so that doestn really apply. You are talking about heim joints or at least urathane bushings on a race car, so its apples to oranges there.

do you mean you see rx8s with reversed srpings, or just cars in general? i cant see how you could reverse them with the length of each pair of springs (front and back) being so different. still...you never know with people.

footman, dont worry so much. trust in Al. He knows his stuff, and better yet, he knows his people know their stuff. You're making an issue out of something that hasnt happened yet, and likely wont happen. just to hit home how al does know his stuff, when i installed the catless midpipe as a temporary fix for my clogged cat, he said just by standing beside the car that there is soemthing else wrong with it. long story short, clogged cat is an effect from the problem i have, and not the cause(still chaising down the cause). Al knows his stuff. Trust him.

Also to the OP, remember springs take a while to settle. my car dropped about 1 1/2 front and nothing in the back right away, but over 2 weeks, the car ended up settling down to about 2 1/4 drop front and i think 1 3/4 rear.

Kafka

I just want to say the whole saga of lowering springs ticked me off big time.

Al was very busy today dealing with customers and rx8club members, and what he get after all the advices and services he provided to forum members most of the time is this:

"oh i bought it from <insert some cheap *** racing shop name / friend's hook up> since its 20 bucks cheaper"

I want to say something to those guys...but I will refrain from doing so. Just to let you know, when you

1)took advantage of others,
2)refuse to believe the advices, or
3)go buy it cheaper from somewhere else, and promptly
4)screwed up big time, then
5)come ask for help to the guys you screwed over.

ie, When shxt hit the fan next time, don't come to ask for help after you screw the same guy over.

Last but not the least, rotarygreg, I really like your attitude and knowledge...too bad you live so far or I will ask Al to grab you as another rx8 expert mechanics!