I've had the car aligned twice in 1500 miles because it's driving me nuts. I've always found that my cars tracked fairly straight without any input from the driver, but not this new rx-8 of mine. When I'd drive my Miata on the highway, I could take my hands off the wheel and the car would stay in it's lane.

Not this car. I have to put slight pressure on it to the left to keep it on the road.

Mazda aligned it, Firestone aligned it, and I 'm pulling my hair out. not that I have much. It seemed good for a while after the second alignment but soon after started this again, or so it seems to me anyway. Maybe it always did it.

What's yours like?

 

I find that my RX-8 is very sensitive to road surface irregularities, like at intersections, but I haven't noticed any consistent sensitivity to the raised center of all-weather roads. How does it track on a perfectly flat surface? Are you still running the OEM wheels and tires?

Check out this TireRack article on tramlining. Probably not exactly what you are experiencing, but it may be one factor.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=47

 

When I rotated my tires, I got a little bit of pull. I put the winter shoes on and it went away.

 

Try rotating your front tires from left to right. If you car starts pulling the other way then you have a bad tire. Sometimes radials will have a defect that makes them naturally pull more to one side rather than tracking straight down the road. Rotating the tires may also just make the car track straight down the road all in itself. But give it a shot before you try spending more money.

 

In the spring, I'm going to remount the tires and put them o hte otherside of the car in the same arrangement (front, rear) They are directional, so can't move them from corner to corner

 

If you still have the factory tires that are Bridgestone, you can't do this because they are directional tires. They can only be rotated front to back or back to front. My car experiences tramlining all the time, have to keep ahold of that steering wheel.

 

funny how this post came up. i don't have a RX-8 (got a miata), but test drive one the other day. i found it very "sensitive to road irregularities". also, the steering feel seemed a bit isolated compared with the 1996 miata.

miater,
what's your take on the rx-8 steering versus your miata? And what year of miata do you have/had?

 

hi I had a 2001SE. I 've tested the 2006 MX5 and I liked the steering in the 01 better. It felt more connected to the road to me. I have gotten used to the rx-8 though. It's a great car and I really like driving it. I've just realized I can't relax behind the wheel. I'd probably feel strange driving the 01 now. The 8's steering is very sensitive and just took me some getting used to.
I don't know if this is making any sense. the 01 had a heavier feel to the steering and I guess I was just used to that.

 

do a search on "tramlining" for otehr previous discussions on this topic

for instance here https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ght=tramlining

and here https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...ght=tramlining

are just 2 of the previous discussions