How to preload...
 

pardon the ignorance, but i just got my tein s-techs installed today and they are definitely not preloaded. i searched the forum but didnt find exactly what i was looking for other than that in order to do it I have to loosen the 2 bolts on the upper control arm. um, where are these, and how should i go about doing this? do i need to do this to the front and back? any and all help (pictures maybe?) would be much appreciated. im not really familiar with these kinds of things...thanks.

there are 2 bolts when you take the wheel off behind the brakes. the control arm in the triangle shaped piece that the springs and shocks connect to. The control arm looks like the letter A upside down, with the shocks connecting right into the "tip" of the upside down letter A. Now the two bolts are what hold the control arm to the actual car. In order to preload the suspension you simply put those bolts in just like you are putting everything back together after the springs are in, but don't tighten those bolts completely (just hand tighten them.) Then drop the car down completely on all 4 of its tires like normal and then reach under and tighten those bolts.

The reason you do this is because if you tighten those bolts super tight then drop the car back down it won't complete drop to it's prefered height because those super tight bolts will be holding the weight of the car up by themselves


EDIT: just looked it up, they are 14mm bolts if that helps.

i have zero equpiment, including a jack. do i need a jack to do this? i feel like an idiot, sorry.

Yep and a jack stand.

What they said... this is what I would do:

1. Jack up the front, enough to easily access the front upper A-arm bolts.
2. Break 'em loose and turn them just a tiny bit tight.
3. Put the car down on the ground. You are now looking at your new ride height. Maybe move the car forward and backwards a bit to make sure things are settled.
4. Rotate wheel all the way to the left, this exposes 2 of those bolts for pretty easy access. Tighten them well (60-70 ft/lbs of torque).
5. Rotate wheel the other way and tighten the other two.

Hey astral, did you stiffen up those rear Koni's yet?

So, is there any benefit to "preloading" the stock suspension? Has anyone gone through the process just to see if it lowers the front a bit? Would there be any good reason not to try?

some people are so clueless, do not preload the RX-8 suspension bushings

fwiw, preloading = tightening the suspension bolts up before dropping the car, some of you have it backwards

I haven't yet. I have Mazdaspeed springs I'm going to put on, I will do it then.
Like TeamRX8 said, it's not really preloading as much as it is "unloading" and "not preloading". But everybody says preload anyways.

pic attached, both boths (one of each side)

Yes you'll need a jack, you have to take the tire off to loosen it, but you can reach in and tighten it with the tire on and the car fully on the ground.

Thankfully, I have now been schooled on the proper application of the word preload.

Lets not forget that the OP had a ride height problem related to the way the suspension was reassembled. So, let me rephrase the question to avoid offending the sensitivities of those who wear bags on their heads:

Given that
1) there is a variation in ride height which is dependent on the order in which suspension parts are reassembled,
2) finishing the assembly with the weight of the car riding fully on the suspension appears to solve the problem
3) many people notice that the front of the RX8 seems to sit higher than desired from the factory,

It stands to reason that
1) someone with more experience than myself may have tried loosening and retightening the upper control arm bolts with the weight of the car fully supported by the suspension
2) such person may have noted whether there was any change in ride height or camber adjustment range

If anyone wants to comment, I'd appreciate it.

Here is the rear, should be the bolt on the left and right side of the spring and the one on the bottom left of the spring also.


http://picasaweb.google.com/quatacke...93629865990866

i need to do this to my h.techs that were installed yesterday. in the absence of a torque wrench, is 'fairly tight' with a normal wrench ok??

I would imagine that would work.. I will find out tomorrow myself. Got a set of GF210 Tanabe's installed last week and the front gap is really bothering me compared to the rear. If it doesn't drop I'll be investing in something more aggresive for the front.

Hi, I had my Tanabe GF210 installed on oem shock about 2 weeks ago, the front is significantly higher than the rear, but I think it's due to our car being a RWD, every time we accelerate the rear will squat, and make the rear settle quicker than the front. I would drive the car for a month then check again to see if the front is settled more.

I have measured my car before and after the drop on the day and a week later, so I might post something later when I get a chance.

BTW, I did preload (or unload) the car, ie tighten the bolts while car is on the ground.

I wish I would have thought to have taken measurements! I am very happy with the drop now. I noticed a drastic difference when I loosened the upper A arm bolts on the ground, but today I actually took the wheel off and jacked under the rotor up and re-tightened, it looks great. I am very happy with it now. Straight out of the shop it had no gap in the rear and a huge gap in the front....it was a nightmare! If you do get a chance I would like to see your measurements and I will post mine later.

How hard is this process? Do you simply jack one front side at a time, having removed that sides' wheel and loosen both bolts, put wheel back on. Do same to other side then turning wheel tighten each pair on both sides? How accessible are the bolts when car is back on ground and wheel turned fully to one side? ? Did you just tighten by feel or use a torque wrench?

Always wanted to lower my car, but waited for someone else to ask these questions... What I have thought of doing is keep the wheel off and lower the car with a proper support under the the A-Arm. This is what I will use(Railroad Ties):

http://www.diamondk.com/images/railr...0Ties%20D1.JPG

Sorry about the delay, I've been flat out with work... anyway, here are my figures...

This pic shown a day after it is dropped on Tanabe GF210+OEM shock:
https://www.rx8club.com/picture.php?...ictureid=25155

This is how I measured the spring drop, from the bottom of wheel arch to the bottom of rim edge:
https://www.rx8club.com/picture.php?...ictureid=25156

The numbers are (in mm):

Before (stock spring):
FL625 / FR625
RL605 / RR605

After (driving around the block then measured):
FL602 / FR602
RL591 / RR593

2 weeks later:
FL600 / FR600
RL580 / RR580

So the difference between before and 2 weeks later are:
FL25 / FR25
RL25 / RR25

When I look at my rear wheel gap, the rear wheel arch horizontally lines up with the top of the tyre (225/45/18), the drop is only 25mm, which is under 1", the Tanabe GF210 claimed their springs will drop 1.4" front and 1.2 rear", this led me to believe that my OEM springs have sagged over 6 years.

The front has dropped only 25mm, not quite 1.4" (35.56mm), it's kinda annoying despite I did tighten the A-arm bolts while car was on the ground, however what i didn't do was to roll the car back and forth while bolts are still loosen, so when my new rims arrive, I'd loosen all bolts on front again and re-tighten, hopefully the front would drop a bit more.

Now, please post your numbers so we can checked against each other.

I had 3 adults and a kid in the car yesterday, the rear would drop so much that the rim is about 2" from the guard, that's when the car is stationary, when over the bump, the rim probably line up with the wheel arch! no, the passengers aren't fat, however the ride is so comfy! more so than the OEM springs!!

Cheers.

Looks good!

Cheers... front needs to drop more, and I'm still waiting for my Forgestar F14 to complete the look... goddamn... heard nothing from them for 7 weeks!!!

Nice simple drop.

That looks great! I just re-found this thread.

Fronts are 596mm
Rears are 584mm

I've driven over 1,000 miles since the drop. I'm going to loosen the A-arm bolts again this weekend and see if I cant squeeze a little more out of them. The driver side seems to be just a little bit lower than passenger, but not anything significant.