stock ride height
 

okay before i get flamed i'd like to say i used the search feature but either my searching skills suck or there really isn't a listing of stock ride height. I just want to know what the stock ride height from the edge of the fender to the bottom of the wheel is. front and back. i lowered my car with the eibach springs and i neglected to measure the ride height before the install. so i appreciate it if anyone can enlighten me on this subject. thank you.

From the wheel well lip to the top edge of the stock 18" rim here is what mine measured before the Mazdaspeed suspension...

Front: 5 1/4"
Rear: 5 1/8"

Standard measure to compare ride heights is from the edge of the wheel well lip to the centre of the wheel hub. That eliminates any variations due to wheel diameter, tire diameter, etc. All it's measuring is the gap from hub centre (which is the same place no matter what wheels or tires) to fender lip due to spring height.

Regards,
Gordon

To get to Gordon's measurement just add the stock rims measurement from center to edge...

thanks!

I brought back this thread bacause I need your help one more time. :)
I put on my 8 Koni sport suspension with eibach pro springs.
I noticed that the rear of my car is lower than the front.
I measured it from the center of my rims to the lip of the fender. And the results was 36,5 cm to the rear and 38 cm to the front.
So, I went to my mechanic to fix it..
He measured my car too... BUT he measured the chassis of my car. The results?? 7,5 cm rear and 7,5 cm front.
Everything looks perfect..
I m very confused. What else should I do?

preload the front suspension before you torque everything down

We did that . Your suggestion is to take them of again and preload them?
Do you know which is the stock high? Front and rear?
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c708be48b1.jpg

i never measured stock ride height and every car will be different due to wear on suspension, tires both wear and size. you dont need to take anything apart to preload the suspension. loosen a few bolts and retighten them with weight of the car on the front suspension

Thank you for your advice. I ll try that too.

That looks low/saggy in the rear. Wheel center to wheel arch should be around 14-15 inch.
It can sag if the shocks are failing.

It really looks low but it s not saggy. And the shocks have only 34000 km.

You can do the opposite in the rear; loosen all the suspension bolts and then tighten them down with the suspension still extended. It should then sit up higher. If it sits too high you might have to play with it some to get it where you want it.

The one mistake most people make when doing that on the front in the opposite direction is that they don't disconnect the swaybar end link on one side. The swaybar end link has to be disconnected and then one front corner at a time jacked up as high as it can go before tightening the suspension bolts back down **tightly**; first one side, then the other, and then the swaybar end link bolted back up last.

When you’re trying to raise it though you don’t have to do that **if you’re raising both wheels at the same time**because the suspension will sag and extend naturally. If you’re doing it one wheel at a time, then the swaybar needs to be disconnected.

The reason is that when you’re trying to one wheel at a time and don’t disconnect the swaybar on at least one side then the swaybar is working against you trying compress or extend the suspension fully.

However, in either case you have to tighten the bolts to full spec. If they’re not tight enough it will just let the suspension bushing sleeve slip and then need to be done again.

Hope that makes sense.
.

here’s the info from the 2005 service manual for both Standard and Sport suspensions; note that on the Sport suspension it was within spec for the lowest rear height to be less than the front height.

Back in the day of competing in the Stock racing classes the method described above was used to get the front as low as possible with the most negative camber possible and then adjust the rear for positive/negative rake or same/neutral because this impacts how the chassis balances through various phases of cornering


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...8994e8f27.jpeg
^^^STANDARD SUSPENSION^^^

.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...3bdee899a.jpeg
^^^SPORT SUSPENSION^^^

.

Probably a broken spring.
Mine is the same, one whole round of spring is broken on the most toper part, where the springs normally salp.
No obvious signs or symptoms rather than been a few cm lower.
Even I passed MOT and they did not notice it, it becomes obvious when I was instaling spacers, the whole broken spring loop is like a C clip hanging there for time being until I build my other springs sets.
No idea when it has happened.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...c8d557a882.jpg
This is OEM springs, this side was like 4cm lower. They break at this point where they slap. I see lots of them break in this fashion, clearly can see direction on stress loll
Powder coating gets cracks, water goes under and as it froze in winter makes the cracks bigger, and the rest of the story...