Most of us are on the stock springs as you can't change them out in stock.

 

Am I reading your post right? You cant use aftermarket springs with the Koni's?

 

What Imp said was that the rules that apply to us (in SCCA Stock classes) prevent us from using anything other than the OE springs.

 

Ah, makes sense. Sorry, forgot what forum I was in. I was in the "suspension" forum frame of mind, not the "comp/racing".

Let me rephase, if you werent worried about the SCCA rules which springs would you run?

If you'd rather I start a new thread in the suspension forum, let me know...I just figured this one is already going.

 

Holy crap, just got done with the rears..... It is a BIZZACH. in 14 years of setting up my own autox cars the rear of the RX8 has got to be the worst I have ever done. The first side took 1 1/2 hrs, second side was 45min. I am sure with practice I will get quicker. btw do not plan on doing quick adjustments, you must take them all the way apart and out of the car to adjust.

They are way stiffer than stock. They are not uncomfortable, just stiff. I would say only buy these shocks if you are going to autox or do track days. For the street guy looking for an upgrade go with the Mazda Speed shocks.


You might see the need to do it, but you WONT do it, way to much work to change for no reason. My guess once we have tested and got the rears where we like them they will not change. Much like we did on our AS vette, once the rears were set they stayed that way for years. Just changed the fronts depending on the course.

As mr. Sipe, AKA team RX8 said, you can get koni to convert the rear to external adjustable, This would cut the work of adjusting the rears in half. You would still have to unbolt the shock from the car, but you would not have to take it out or pull the spring. I think they charge like $150.00 ea to do this.

 

If I was not worried about stock class rules, I would call Ground Control and get a coilover setup to work with the konis. I could not even guess at a rate, but I am sure they could help you with that.

 

Thanks!

I know that Koni's/GC are a popular set up for the 7 guys.

 

wuss :p

 

I haven't done it in a while, but with the external adjustment, it takes me about 45 minutes (with a helper) to adjust both sides from the time I get the jack under the car to the time I let the car off the jack. I'm sure that a number of people could cut time from that too. Still a pain, but not so much that it would prevent me from changing it after Day 1's runs if it was really, really wrong.

It's still a bit of work and, like I said, I haven't changed it in a while. :D

What we've kind of been wondering about is whether there might be holes on each side of the rear bulkhead that would let us access the top of the shock while it's mounted in place. If there are, we could put holes in the trim that would let us get in there and reach the tabs on the shocks with some kind of tool (might be a PITA without being able to see, though). There's a fair amount of interior dissasembly that needs to be done to get to the point where you can take the plastic shelf trim pieces off and look, though. I started one day last summer, but didn't have time to get all the way there. The drawings that I've seen in the service manual don't give me a lot of hope, but they are far from conclusive. Maybe there might be pics in the audio forum?

 

I think this would work if you did a nascar job, holes in the back window and a very long adjustment tool..... "Look at Clyde over there, putting a round of wedge in". :D

It would be nice if the rules would let us put a hole/slot in the side of the shock bulkhead. Make things easy.

No big deal, full stiff and forget em.

 

Bouncy is how I would describe my ride feel now. But from having driven a car with coilovers, I think this is the way its supposed to feel (where others are describing it as stiff). At least this is what we were all waiting months for so I can't complain.

If I ever go back to the stock shocks its going to feel like a limo ride.

 

 

OK, so half of my box of yellow goodness showed up today. rears only, SANS instructions. Figuring out the installation will be a joy (NOT) but do-able.

So, how the fsck do you adjust the rears? Suggestions on an initial starting place?

 

2nd procedure:

http://www.koni-na.com/adjustment.cfm

be aware that you have to take the springs off to adjust the standard Koni rear RX-8 shocks

see the factory manual for installation particulars, you have to align the top spring perches properly on all four corners

 

This is the way the car should have felt from the factory, IMHO.

Just put them in today. Found 2 nice little faux pax from the factory... the camber washer on the rear right control arm was upside down, and the in trunk shock brakets on the drivers side, the 2 that weren't attached to the strut (the ones that secure the shock to the mount... were hand tight/loose.

And a couple things about the front Konis, the spacer that goes inside the bottom bushing (cylindrical thing about 1.5" long), didn't fit over the upper part of one of the shafts, but fit over the other. Had to put it on a drill press and bore it out a hair so it would fit over. Also, the stock bump stop brassish holder (that rests on the shelf) had to be drilled out on both fronts for them to fit over the 1/2 part of the shafts.

Anyone else discover any issues with theirs?

--kC

 

the sleeves can be a tight fit, I had to use a deep socket to knock one on, it wouldn't go by hand, but once I knocked it on it would come on and off by hand,

yeah, you have to drill the front bushing washers because the Koni's are a larger diameter shaft, this is because the shaft is tubular for the adjuster to go down the center, so it has to be a larger diameter to accomodate this

 

On a side note, does anybody else have a problem with their Koni's making "klunking"
noises? Yes, I've tightened everything down but I still get a noise on rebound. Would
this be something that I can have Koni fix under warranty or am I stuck with it for life?

 

I don't have a clunking, yet. Check to see how close the top bushing washer (the silver one that came with the shocks) are to the tower. I assembled mine wrong the 1st time around and they clunked pretty severely until I put them back together properly.. like started backing up and heard a 'clunk' and said.. 'ohh that's not right'.

Had to take the back off the car and reasemble them realizing I had left a part off on both sides. DOH!

--kC

 

Noises?

I have noises that are audible at low speeds (<35 mostly) most of the time, but from what I've been able to gather (through phone calls to Koni, discussions with other people that have/had DA Konis and making compression adjustments) the noises are from the discs used for the adjustable compression on the DAs. With each adjustment, the pitch of the noises changes. Sometimes after making a compression adjustment, the noises go away almost entirely, sometimes they get lounder or more frequent.

I don't know what, if anything, that might have to do with the regular SAs though.

 

Ed,

it shouldn't be klunking, mine don't and never have on any other car except if something else was loose or hitting somewhere

is there any oil dripping or running down the strut? Unfortunately about the only thing you can do tofully assess it is to disassemble the strut and play with it by hand.

please send me an email: TeamMazdaRX8@aol.com

edit: BTW, the suspension has to loaded to it's normal position before tightening down the control arm bolts,etc.

 

A great way to do this by the way (ie: IMHO simulates a loaded/normal position) is while the car is still on jack stands, put the jack under the control arm and jack it up to where the car just comes off the jack stand. Then tighten them down while the wheel is still off the car. Makes access easier.

The points in the front to be loaded are: the 2 upper control arm bushings and the shock bushing/mount.
In the rear, the shock bushing/mount and on the control arm that was removed. The bushing in the rear control arm that you do the camber adjustment should not be tightened until the car is on the ground... that's really the only one that the car has to have both wheels on the ground before tightening (since you need to reset camber to where it originally was afterwards... when the car is on the ground and on a level surface)

Any issue with doing them that way Mark?

--KC

 

Thanks for the info guys!

I tightened the front control arms under load but I did not do that for the rear
control arm, and most of the noises are coming from the rear...duh. :/

I'll go back and redo the rear under load and see if that makes a difference.

 

10:1 odds that's the problem. They were preloaded and they're resisting their natural movement.

I don't think you'd have to jack up the car/remove the wheel for that. You should be able to just loosen them on the ground I would think. Loosen everything before tighetning a single one tho. I'm not 100% sure on that... so someone might be able to chime in on the above.

--KC

 

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tech-garage-22/clanking-noise-when-i-go-over-bumps-63075/

 

Quick question. Searched and found nothing. Do the Koni Sports come with lower spring perches on both front and rear, or do you have to reuse the stock ones?

Thanks!

Randy