I myself went to my favorite car place: “Maach et selwer “. They offer a vast and clean workspace, two lifts and a large assortment of specialized tools for your projects. You can even order your parts there or leave the old parts, and they‘ll recycle them for you!

So let‘s get started with the install. I did my research (the Rx8 workshop book has all the technical data you need), asked friends to help and had all the required parts. What could possibly go wrong? Not too much.

I recommend doing the suspension according to each axle. So we started at the front, where my suspension was already damaged.

Step 1: Front Suspension removal

We removed the strut bar from the engine bay, removed the strut brace and removed the bolts connecting the front suspension to the chassis. After this, we raised the car and took off the front wheels. After, we sprayed the lower bolt of the headlight leveler arm and both sides of the lower suspension bolt for easier removal. Let the lubricant work its magic and then remove the lower bolt of the leveling arm with two wrenches and tuck it away, so you don’t risk damaging it. Also tuck away the break line by unscrewing the bolt connecting it to the triangular front arm. Do the same for the front ABS line.

Practical tip: whenever you can, you should put bolts back on so you don’t risk loosing it (and your mind while searching for it…).

Now comes the part where you are happy to have help: you need to loosen the bolts of the upper suspension arm to make space to get everything out. First though, loosen the lower suspension bolt and take it out. It took one of my friends to hold a wrench on one side and me unscrewing on the other side to get it done. They are pretty tight and you need to counter the unscrewing movement, or you’ll get nowhere… Now loosen the bolts on the arm and use a pry bar to get it out so you’ll have the necessary space to move the suspension out. If you have trouble getting these bolts loose, you can jack up the whole suspension a bit to lessen the tension. We actually did that too.

And finally, the wiggle game begins. While one person pulls down on the lower suspension arm, another gets to wiggle on the suspension and take it out without hitting anything around. Such fun! Be really careful when taking it out and have patience. The Rx8 is tight… After getting the old suspension out, secure the arm with cable ties to avoid it dropping out.

Repeat the process for the other side.

After the first set was out, we were happy people but realized, we were not the smartest. In hindsight, we should have marked all the parts we took out with “left” and “right”, because we were reusing parts of the old suspension, and you really really should remember to put stuff back in the right places… Luckily someone kept track and we marked them in retrospect with a chalk marker.

Then some more fun: putting together the new suspension! After assembling all the parts (please use new rubber bushings and the parts included with your new suspension!), secure the new set in the spring compressor and slowly tighten the upper bolt. To protect the threading, use a tiny bit of installation paste (Liqui Moly is awesome) before putting on the bolt. Use a hex key to secure the bolt while going at it, or you won‘t be able to tighten it enough! I‘ll talk some more about that particular issue in another post…

After assembling and tightening, you can put the shock and strut back in the way it came out. Secure back all the bolts and repeat for the other side. Easy! BUT careful, you‘re not done yet! You now need to put down the car and tighten the upper suspension bolt some more for a perfect fit.

Step 3: Rear suspension removal and install

For the rear suspension, you first need to remove your inner trunk covers to access the suspension bolts. Take out the round plastic clips (and best have some spare because some WILL break…) and take of the side carpet parts. Then take off the outer bolts on the golden strutholder plate, then the inner ones and take the plate off. Put the car back up and remove the wheels. Make space again by placing the ABS line aside and loosen the bolts on the upper suspension arm. Now remove the lower bolt of the suspension like the front one, take it out and maybe use a pry bar to push out the lower part of the suspension. Pull the sides of the arm slightly aside, then remove the last bolt holding the suspension in (located on the spring seat, the black tube on top of the suspension) and voilà. Shock and spring coming out after some more wiggling. Disassemble the old spring from the strut on the spring compressor (see Step 2), assemble your new set and put it back in place! Put back all the bolts and be done!

After the install, we checked the overall car height and as promised, the new suspension dropped my baby by about 25mm! I am now officially scrapelevel in my garage when driving down…

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me!