Is it normal for the alignment bolts to stretch on an RX-8? My car won't hold an alignment and I wanted to ask here before I get new bolts. I've had it aligned half a dozen times over the past 18 months and every time the steering was off center after only one autocross. Since my last alignment, I've been having oversteer issues in left-hand turns. I quickly attributed that to my new suspension setup, but now I'm more inclined to think the oversteer may be due to the car being completely out of alignment.

I have a feeling that my alignment shop isn't torquing the bolts properly, but they're blaming it on the bolts possibly being stretched. Admittedly, my car has been autocrossed its whole life and has been through its share of alignments, so I didn't want to discard the bolts as a possible culprit. Just wondering if others have had a similar experience.

Thanks!

 

I had to replace my all of my rear camber and toe adjustment bolts/cams/nuts to resolve a similar problem last year. They don't so much stretch as get sloppy on the cams and the cams will also warp losing some contact area over time. Getting them tightened correctly is still important, but the new ones made a lot of difference for me.

 

Thanks Mark! I just ordered new alignment/cam bolts all around, hopefully that fixes it. I didn't think the bolts could be an issue on the RX-8 like they are on the Miata, but apparently they can be.

Good luck in Toledo.