Alignment With Eibach Springs
 

I want to install the Eibach Springs that lower the car 1.2 Front & Back but someone told me that if I do that I'll never be able to get the Wheels aliigned again, is this true? could anyone with this spring tell me about his/her experience? Could anyone with a lowerd Rx-8 with this Eibach Springs post some pictures?

that's a lot of crap!

re-aligning a car with lowering springs is pretty easy to do and mazda made things SUPER easy on the 8!

I had my 8 up on our alignment rack last week and i'm telling you this first hand. the caster and camber adjustments are CAKE with the right equipment.

I'm not going to suggest any settings to go with this particular spring because i'm not quite sure what a 1-1.5" drop does to this suspension yet but i'll take a WAG and say that you will probably need to knock the camber in about 1.5-2* on the front and with the multilink in the rear it can probably come in 2.5*.

the caster will probably have to be moved to compensate for the change in camber but it should still remain withing stock parameters.

finally the toe will have to be checked and reset since the other adjustments will most likely have caused the toe angle to have changed.

at any rate, it won't be rocket science to get the car aligned again with the lowering springs. for my own curiosity i would like to get a copy of your before and after alignment settings.

a word of advice - i would take you car in to an alignment shop before you put the springs on and find out what kind of alignment warranties they offer. at our shop we have a 6 month 6000 miles basic waranty package that states we will re-align your car for pretty much any reason within that time frame at no additional cost other than parts (if a camber kit is needed or a tie rod is bad... you get the idea). you may want to check with the shop to see if they will give you a before alignment and then an after at no additional cost.

if you do get the before and after results i would like to get my hands on the data so i can develope a "performance" setup for a lowered car.

Ray

Mauroavella, what you're hearing applies more to fwd cars, most of which don't have adjustable camber either front or back, and the only rear adjustment is for toe. There are solutions for that which involve modifying the strut towers to accomodate camber kits.

RX-8's suspension is very much not like fwd cars. It is very similar to the 3rd gen RX-7's with aluminum double wishbones up front and multi-link in the rear which allows for camber and toe adjustment at all 4 corners as GTray says.

You got'it Ray, as soon as I put my springs (it's going to be in about 2 Weeks because I had to travel outside Miami), I'll send you all the info that I can get. Also some before & After Pics.

By the way, your information was way more than usefull, thank you.

Mauro

guys i am very interested on buying these springs but i thought that i could buy them from ebay and bring them to my garaga to install them. i didnt knew anything about alignments. When you say alignment do you mean the common alignment of the wheels or is it something specialised for the suspension?

Most common problem of lowering your car is camber.. But also some people like the negative camber the lowering the car does. On my RX7, I've lowered it 1-1.5 inch and created a slight negative camber. It rides well during corning and I kind of prefer it. Negative to this will be tire wear.. Especially inside.

On my 8, I wouldn't want negative super negative camber as its my daily:)

I've got the Eibach Pro-Kit springs on my car, which lower it 1.2" front, and 0.8" back. No alignment issues at all. Here's a pic:

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...770_4_full.jpg

actually, its 1.2 front, and 1.2 rear. you must have purchased them before they revised the description. i have them on mine as well

^^nice. what shocks are you using GRGJTSN?

My research showed 1.2" in front and 0.8" in back. That's what it appears to be, as the front in stock form seems higher than the rear, and now they look more equal. The Ebay sellers seem to show 1.2" front and rear, but discount tire direct said they were 1.2" and 0.8".

But I did just check Eibach's website, and they show 1.2" front and rear. I guess you're right!

I don't know when they revised the description, but I just bought mine like 2 months ago.



Thanks restiller.

I'm still riding on the stock shocks. The ride is still quite comfortable, I was actually hoping for just a little stiffer than the Eibach springs alone have given me. But at least it doesn't beat me up, and it does seem to stay a little flatter in the corners.

Hey, what year MR2 did you have? I had a couple a while back, loved 'em.

So there are no issues using the stock shocks with eibachs i assume? I've only had my 8 since April new and I don't want to ditch good shocks too early.

I bought a '91 NA MR2 in 1998 and traded it in for a '91 turbo a couple of years later. I did almost everything (short of an aftermarket EMS) and sold it to a friend earlier this year. I went by "mistatwo47" and "IL_MISTA_2" on mr2oc.com. I still miss my 2.

Correct, no issues running stock shocks with Eibach springs.

My first car was a '92 MR2 NA--loved that car, drove it for 4 1/2 years and 70k miles (172k total), until an uninsured illegal immigrant taxi driver hit me and totaled it. (wasn't bad, car just wasn't worth much). Then I bought another one just like it, but it was a POS so I had to get rid of it. My first license tag read "MR2.COM" (had to add the "." with a sharpie), and my next "MISTR2."

Same set up I have, Eibach springs with stock struts/shocks. Very happy with it so far.

is it a simple swap-in or do bumpstops have to be cut, liners removed, fenders rolled, etc.?

It should just be a simple swap-in.

I know my fenders did not have to be rolled, but I think that will depened more on what wheels/offsets you are running (stock will be fine).

I don't think the liners have to be removed, nor do the bumpstops have to be cut. I believe the Eibach's even come with new insulaters (not sure if that is the correct term).

I have the Eibach springs with the Koni Yellow shocks I installed them with my friend and it was pretty easy (simple swap in) then I went to http://synaptic3.com/and had them do an alignment for me. I told them I didnt want a performance track alignment but rather something that would be better performance on the street than stock.

Front
caster: 6.0
camber: 1.75
toe: +.04

Rear
Camber 2.20
Toe: 0