HERO

iTrader: (3)

Ive read about this happening to a lot of people out there, but dont remember coming across any cures for the problem. My rear right was substantially higher than my rear left when I was using mazdaspeed springs/struts. I just changed out my suspension to Koni SAs and S.Techs and the same exact thing happened!! What could it be?? Can anyone more educated on this topic chime in?

The way i install them is after I have the spring/strut combo in I hand tighten all the nuts/bolts, while having the car up on jack stands. Then I put the wheels back on and use a floor jack to jack up the wheels to where they seemingly should be ride height wise. Then I go under the car and torque everything down. I noticed that when I was jacking the right wheel up it wouldnt go up as far as the left side did before having the whole car start to jack up with it.

Any thoughts

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

in stock form, the driver's rear is lower than the passenger rear. only cure i found was coilovers..

Razz1

The floor is not level.

Try getting it up on a lifet and measure the height of the frame.

It's the frame that counts, not how the wheel wells look.

HERO

iTrader: (3)

^^

The floor that I do my work on is level. Also wouldn't the difference in wheel gap and body lean indicate that the frame is indeed not leveled out??

If I loosen all the bolts on the rear and take it for a quick drive around my neighborhood would that help any bit? Is that even safe?

Thanks again guys

Sam

HERO

iTrader: (3)

Well went around a bit to check the ride height again. The rear right does in fact sit higher than the rear left!! ALso, the front left sits higher than the front right!! Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this without switching to coilovers??

Anything help is appreciated

Sam

YLLO8

I put RB springs on two years ago, and my left side was lower than my right.
This past weekend I replaced my shocks with Konis, and when rereading the instalation directions I read that the end of the spring at the bottom should be facing out.
My drivers side spring was facing in which seems to be slightly lower.
Check that out!

HERO

iTrader: (3)

thanks. ill look into that tomorrow!

Astral

Whoa, you jack up each individual wheel to what you think is the right height?

I thought that the rear had no such adjustability in it--you just tighten it all with the car jacked up in the air and put it down. It's only the front (where the upper A arm connects) that needs to be left loose, and then tightened with the car on the ground.

For the front wheels, put the car on the ground with the bolts loose. THen turn the steering wheel one way and tighten 2 out of 4 bolts in the reach. Turn it the other way and tighten the other 2 bolts.

The ride height with Koni SAs and Koni S-techs is lower than advertised because of the different shocks.

Adjusting ride height by using a jack to get a wheel to a certain point seems unreliable to me.. perhaps this is what's causing your car to be uneven.

HERO

iTrader: (3)

yLLO8: I checked the way the springs are seated and they are both facing out.

Astral: With my last setup (MS springs/shocks) I didnt jack up each individual rear wheel before tightening and the rear right sat higher than the rear left. I was hoping that jacking them up this time around that would not happen again. Looks like I was wrong!! I do preload the fronts.

No cure to be found?

Teknolust72

I know its stupid, but any possibility that you installed the springs incorrectly (front to rear, or the spring is not settled on the spring seat)?

HERO

iTrader: (3)

hmmmm all the springs are all the way turned to the end of the seat. I installed the shorter thicker springs on the front and the slightly longer slightly thinner springs on the rear........ sound about right?

Teknolust72

This may be tedious work, but try swapping everything left to right (Passenger side struts over to the Driver side). If you have the same result as before, than there is something else wrong with your vehicle.

atl8

iTrader: (1)

If this is the case, then you have installed them incorrectly. I did it that way too the first time I installed new rear springs. But then later when I had the same issue I read the Mazda service manual. There is a diagram in it which shows that the bottom of the spring should be facing towards the car on the driver's side, and towards the outside of the car on the passenger's side. Honestly I can't see how it makes a difference from looking at the top hat, but maybe there's some subtle angle on it that's hard to see with the eyes.

[QUOTE=HERO;1966844]yLLO8: I checked the way the springs are seated and they are both facing out.

NgoRX8

iTrader: (1)

so your rears are even atl8?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

all you do is make sure the pigtail end of the spring is against the stop on the bottom perch, the OE diagram is for aligning the top mount relative to the lower mount because the lower rear shock mount needs to be at the correct angle for sliding onto the spindle post easily

HERO

iTrader: (3)

yup^^ both sides are stopped on the perch at the bottom. Its even more noticable now that everything has settled. Well, everything except the rear right which refuses to go any lower than it is........

chickenwafer

iTrader: (9)

I have Koni's and Sprint spring, my car sits perfectly level. Just aling the bottom windings of the spring with the bottom perch. Piece of cake

HERO

iTrader: (3)

it IS aligned haha. thats why im so confused about this!!

kevinD1226

you cut ur bump stop a little more on 1 side??

HERO

iTrader: (3)

if they are its only a couple mms off, which is a lot less than the difference in ride height on either side

Astral

the car is not riding on the bump stops when sitting stationary

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

going back to the opening post, your mistake is using a jack to jack up the wheels and then tightening the suspension nuts

you need to take all the nuts loose again, put the car on the ground and settle it, then reach in and tighten the nuts down

the problem with using a jack is that you'll never get the wheel to the settled ride height that way due to the swaybars and other factors working against you, the suspension needs to be fully supporting the car weight with all four wheels on a level surface and be settled before retightening the control arm nuts etc.

HERO

iTrader: (3)

thanks Team. Ill do that as soon as the rain lets up. I wasnt sure if there would be room for me to reach under if I set it on the ground first which is why I tried to improvise and use the jackstand. you learn from your mistakes i guess!

atl8

iTrader: (1)

On a level surface both rear sides sit at 26 3/4 inches. The fronts are at 26 on driver side and 26 1/8 on the passenger. But that all depends on where I'm parked...for example my rears are a half inch different when I'm parked at home.

What I should have said was that after I dissambled the rear driver side and flipped the top hot around it my rears sat closer together than before. This was about a week after I installed them. So who knows...maybe they just settled and that made it measure closer.