^ This.

 

Thanks guys! Ok, how much preload brings the height to stock. With the wheel off and the control arm bolts loose, what is the preloaded distance from the center of the wheel to the edge of fender lip when you torque control arm bolts. Thank you in advance!

 

I just put the car on stands and jack the hub up until the car starts lifting off the jack stands. Then I tighten the bolts and move on to the next wheel.

 

Done, car on jack stands, loosened control arm bolts, jacked up at lower ball joint preloading spring until car lifted off stand, held it there and tightened bolts to 65 lbs. Put wheels back on, put it back on the ground and then drove it like I stole it, put it back in same location to measure from center of wheel to edge of fender lip...............no change in height.

 

I guess that's the height of those shocks man.

 

Does the shop manual state the sway bar needs to be disconnected to preload?

 

I have no idea man. Never changed shocks in mine. The other guys will be able to help you

 

No it doesn't. But I have installed dozens of suspensions on RX-8's and preloading almost always lowers the vehicle after preloading. But I have always been installing suspension components that lower the car. I have never installed new shocks and put the stock springs back on.

But again, without having measurements from a stock RX-8 with fresh suspension, I can't say that you even have a problem since the RX-8 sits pretty high when stock.

 

This guy did not measure to the center of the rim but this post is from 2004 so measure the way he did see what the difference is.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-whe...-height-25571/


This one is from 2003, measured from the ground to the fender lip.

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-whe...parison-16094/

 

Ok I just measured mine.

Front - 14.7
Rear - 14.5

Hope this helps

 

I am not sure about your Spirit R but I know the PZ and other certain special edition RX-8's that use the Bilstein suspension have a slightly lower ride height so your may not be a good comparison since it is a S2 and a special edition.

 

Ah. Good point. But mine has the standard S2 sports suspension. Only the manuals came with Bilstein shocks. Does the R3 ride lower than other cars? Ive kept mine next to an R3 and they looked like they were the same height.

 

This is what 15 11/16 from center or 28 1/8" from the ground looks like.

 

Yep, that does look kinda high. If I were you, I'd just live with it.

Clean 8 you got there!

 

Thank you Nisaja and 9krpmrx8!
Through multiple preloads I've got it at 15" from the center or 27.5" from the ground in the front. By jacking up each corner one at a time I compressed the spring until the car came off the jack stand. It was stubborn I guess, but it came down. It may not be necessary to have the entire car in the air to compress and torque them. Doing each corner one at a time worked.
Thanks again for the support.
Nisaja, It is not the cleanest, but I have owned it since it had 14 miles on it and tried to take care of it. It has 105k on it now and Age has taken its toll in some places.

 

Glad you got it fixed! I didn't do anything actually. I just shared my ride height. Unfortunately that's all I could do, since I've never changed the suspension

I just checked your Instagram profile. You're a girl??? And all this time I called you "man" My bad!

 

Glad you got it sorted, don't feel bad I have gotten calls from a few people who have went thru the same thing. The RX-8 can be a bit tricky.