Jerks to the left
 

To start off I'm new to the forum,so hello from Tx!
Just bought my wife a 04 rx8. Only problem were having is it lightly jerks to the left when you hit a bump in the road. Anyone else have this problem? Oh here is a few pics of her car.

Welcome aboard. It could be radial pull, out of balance tires, out of round tires, misalignment, etc.

I hope so. Was worried it might be the rack or module. It has 2 brand new tires on the front.

Nah, it's likely just a bad alignment. But, has it ever been wrecked?

+1

I've noticed from one of the pictures, the fender liners are missing... black plastic piece inside the wheel wells... and I'm guessing lower air dam and undertray is missing but it's not visible in picture.

I just bought it Sunday. Its a one owner car with 84,00 miles. She said she hit a pole with the front right fender but nothing serious. The dent is still in the fender. Haven't noticed anything missing. Will look closer though

Also car fax doesn't show any wrecks or alerts. Gonna have the alignment checked tomorrow

what you are describing is Bump Steer. This occurs when the horizontal plane or positioning of the rack has been compromised. The vertical radius of the tie rods is out of position.

The the rack is shifted from its original position the tie rods are forced work at the wrong angles. Ideally the rack will line up with the mount on the spindle for the outer tie rod. this limits the effect of bump steer. when the rack is shifted fore or aft of its proper position it compounds the effect of bump steer because the vertical movement of the spindle will demand a longer or shorter tie rod as it moves, unfortunately the tie rod can't change its length on demand; it can however pull or push the other wheel as much as it wants to and cause the car to steer itself.


Get the alignment checked but don't be surprised if they can't fix the issue. Ask to see a printout of the specs and expect to see problems with the caster and sai angles on the side that hit the pole.

Ray