Installed racelands- review

17wop6mt

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Hey guys,

Im pretty new here, i bought a white orchard pearl civic coupe ext 6mt about 2 months ago. Love the car! These are a blast to drive.

I immediatley tinted the windows, threw some rims on it, and some coilovers.

I have had lots of lowered car's, and used a few different brands to achieve that "low life"

I dont track my car, and have never really tracked cars, so i have zero experience with any brand of coils on the track.

I personally find, that unless youre droppong over 1000.00 dollars on coils, they all ride the same. Budget coils are budget coils, end of story.

With that being said, when i got my car i immediately wanted to lower it. I looked around at options out there (springs and other coils) and decided to go with racelands.

I went with racelands over other budget coils because of the following reasons

1- was the lifetime warranty. Everything from manufacturer defects, to wear and tear is covered! For as long as you own the vehicle! The only thing you have to worry about is the threads, they do not cover seized threads due to neglect/weather. So, i took an extra step when installing which should be done on any coil install, anti seize the collars.

2-was obviously the price. They're normally 379.00, but they were on sale for 299.00 for promo. Alot of people think racelands are too cheap, and you get what you pay for. I definatley agree, in MOST cases you get what you pay for.. But like i said earlier, all budget coils ride the same.. But still why even risk going with a 300.00 (normally 379.00) set of coils, rather than a 7-800 dollar budget set, that at least have a chance at being half decent? Racelands are different in one aspect, in comparison to other brands. They sell direct to consumers, rather than to a offshore/dealer company. Other budget coil manufacturers dont sell their coils to consumers, they sell them to dealers that also needs to make income off of the sale. So if buying from raceland think of it as your the dealer, and they're selling it directly to you at the same cost other suppliers buy other brands of coils, but your not paying their markup on top. Make sense?

Alot of people ive heard complain about racelands, are never anyone who has actually had them installed before. They're going of of "hear say".

Well ive bought them, installed them, and ridden on them on our vehicles, and others. so let me review them for our cars.

I have a coupe, as mentioned above. I am speaking on how they ride from experience in my coupe. As of now, i was told by Raceland that they do not offer different spring rates for sub-models.


When i originally ordered, the picture on their website lead me to believe, i was either stuck ordering camber plates, or disassembling my OEM setup to remove the factory top hats to install on the racelands, as it looked like they did not come woth top hats. The image also makes it look like these are not fully adjustable. Meaning there is no preload adjustment, and by adjusting the only upper pearch on the shock body, your lowering the vehicle by moving the spring lower on the shock housing. When the box showed up and i opened it, i was SUPER happy to see they were fully adjustable! And came fully assembled woth top hats!! So i wasnt stuck taking apart my OEM suspension to steal the top hat! I like knowing i have a full set of barely used OEM suspension sitting there, ready to drop in if i ever need to. Before coils, i was also considering d2 springs for the civic. But i didnt want to have to take apart my my front struts, plus you'll blow through your OEM struts alot faster with lowering springs. So it sold me on the coil overs.


Im a licensed autobody technician, i deal with ALOT of suspension daily at work with vehicles that are involved in accidents, and having installed multiple sets myself in previous vehicles, i decided to install myself.

Coilovers are ALOT easier to INSTALL in comparision to lowering springs, since your just unbolting and pulling out OEM and sliding coils in. Springs, you pulling your OEM struts out, compressing the springs, swapping springs, rebuilding and then reinstalling. But there is more to coils. On top of the install of coils them selves, you still have adjustments to make, they obviously arent "drop in and go" like springs. there are some great videos on youtube that explain how to get a set "base" and spring preloads for your coils if you dont know how to set them up. They're all pretty much the same adjustments, regardless of brand. but in the end, you've got coils so you can adjust to YOUR desired height, so you will be the only one who knows where/how you want it to sit. It may take a few adjustments to get it there. And if you decide to switch wheel size/offset you have the ability to re-adjust again to perfect that wheel gap or height.

The install went very well. Took me a few hours to get them in and adjusted. I took some pictures, but have no idea how to upload lol!!


Installing them was pretty straight forward, i ran into a little trouble trying to get the lower front strut into the strut mount. The raceland was a few mm's bigger in diameter, so i threaded the bolt backwards through the lower mount, with a plate against the opposite side, held the coil over the lower mount and tightened the bolt down until it pressed against the plate and spread/stretch the mount open and the shock dropped right in, took the bolt back out once they were seated, and tightened. That was hard to explain, i hope that made sense.


Other than that, there was zero issues. Very straight forward.


Ive had them in for about a month now.

The ride- its great! Im extremely happy with them. There is no abnormal noises/thunks/bangs/clicks/pops/squeaks.

The ride is firmer, but its not like your riding a brick by any means! Coilovers are firm in general. You're lowering your vehicle, to close the wheel gap. OEM suspension is softer, because there is lots of room for your suspension to jounce and rebound (travel up and down) without having clearence issues. When you lower your car, you are removing the amount of wheel gap, so the stiff suspesion wont allow for a large amount of downwards travel, to prevent from bottoming out, or rubbing. The stiffer suspension also plays a huge role (really the main role) in driving experience. Since there is less amount of jounce (downward travel) it increases rebound (upward travel) which gives you much more connection to the road. Cornering is improved ten fold, minimizes body roll etc.

Overall im extremely happy with the ride! Im happy with what i paid, im happy with the fact that i have my unmolested OEM suspension just sitting there(why i eouldnt go with springs) , and im happy with the lifetime warranty.


Id upload some pictures, but have no idea how to as of yet.

I hope i covered everything. Its been a long day, and its 2am and i have work tomorrow. I obviously cant review long term ride quality as ive only had them in for a month, but life time warranty so.. Kinda speaks for itself doesn't it? Lol. I will continue to post here as the months go by, to give you a update on how they ride..

Cheers guys!


Edit: got a few pictures uploaded

Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180308_175250_HDR


Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180310_101244


Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180310_102614_HDR


Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180310_111802


Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180310_122032


Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180311_110430
 

egp507

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Do you have any pics of the whole car lowered?
 
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17wop6mt

17wop6mt

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Do you have any pics of the whole car lowered?
I dont have them wound all the way down. I have them down a 1.5" right now. I might lower them a bit more on friday. If i do, ill wind them all the way down and take a picture of them maxed out for you so you can see how low they go. I struggle as it is getting into my garage, but mostly because of front mudflaps, those will be coming off this weekend too. Gas station picture is more recent, they went down another .5 in that picture, compared to the bottom picture.

Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180320_220811


Honda Civic 10th gen Installed racelands- review 20180316_225421
 

ZephyrFlash

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Thanks for the review and feedback. What's your wheel size?
 

egp507

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Thank you! Just bought a set and haven’t gotten around to the installation yet. Good to see someone who finally has a set installed. Just by looking at them, it seems as they have the potential to slam the car as well.
 


egp507

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I cannot for the life of me get the front coils to fit into the knuckle up front.....
 
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17wop6mt

17wop6mt

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I cannot for the life of me get the front coils to fit into the knuckle up front.....

I had the same issue.. Which i noted up top. The bolt you removed from the knuckle, you need to install it backwards (temporarily) and use that to help spread the knuckle apart. To do this, get yourself something like a washer, install the bolt the opposite way into the knuckle, thread it in until you see it protruding through the split in the knuckle. Grab that washer (or something flat enough and strong enough to take a little pressure) and place it over the hole of the backside of knuckle, tighten bolt until its pushing on the washer,which is pushing on the back side of knuckle. While youre trying to slide the strut shaft into the knuckle, start tightening that bolt, with it pushing the washer against the opposite side of the knuckle, as youre tightening it will spread the knuckle open allowing it to drop in. It helps to put something like a grease or even wd40 on the strut and knuckle to slide in. Just go slow with the bolt when tightening. Dont want to spread it too much. Hopefully that makes sense. Let me know if you need more explanation. It will go in, just takes a little convincing
 

egp507

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I had the same issue.. Which i noted up top. The bolt you removed from the knuckle, you need to install it backwards (temporarily) and use that to help spread the knuckle apart. To do this, get yourself something like a washer, install the bolt the opposite way into the knuckle, thread it in until you see it protruding through the split in the knuckle. Grab that washer (or something flat enough and strong enough to take a little pressure) and place it over the hole of the backside of knuckle, tighten bolt until its pushing on the washer,which is pushing on the back side of knuckle. While youre trying to slide the strut shaft into the knuckle, start tightening that bolt, with it pushing the washer against the opposite side of the knuckle, as youre tightening it will spread the knuckle open allowing it to drop in. It helps to put something like a grease or even wd40 on the strut and knuckle to slide in. Just go slow with the bolt when tightening. Dont want to spread it too much. Hopefully that makes sense. Let me know if you need more explanation. It will go in, just takes a little convincing
I gave that a shot. I had all the threads maxed out on the bolt while threading it in backwards. Used a variety of different “plate” options. Still can’t get the knuckle to open up enough. I’m now running out of ideas trying to get them on. :(
 
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17wop6mt

17wop6mt

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Dang, i got just enough out of it to get it in there. The other option, is threading the bolt back in normally maybe 5 full turns. Getting a big flat head or a chisel/wedge and tapping it into the split on the back side if the knuckle to open it a bit. I reccomend leaving the bolt in there partially threaded, so you dont open it too much, then have problems getting the bolt to line up with the threads. Theyre a mm, or two bigger than stock, so you dont need much. Just that little bit to get it in there
 

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egp507

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Dang, i got just enough out of it to get it in there. The other option, is threading the bolt back in normally maybe 5 full turns. Getting a big flat head or a chisel/wedge and tapping it into the split on the back side if the knuckle to open it a bit. I reccomend leaving the bolt in there partially threaded, so you dont open it too much, then have problems getting the bolt to line up with the threads. Theyre a mm, or two bigger than stock, so you dont need much. Just that little bit to get it in there
Yea no luck. Ended up pulling the threads off the bolt trying to open the knuckle up. Still wasn’t enough. Now I gotta get Anne’s bolt and still fugure out how to slide it in or just return them.
 


egp507

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Got them installed, still think I need to adjust them a little more. The ride is absolutely horrible to the point where I don’t even want to drive the car it’s that bouncy. Hopefully some preload adjustments will help with that. But they do get the car nice and low!
 
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17wop6mt

17wop6mt

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Nice! Glad you got them installed! Did you tighten the top hat bolts and set preload? Just like other coils, use the width of the spanner wrench to set preloads
 

egp507

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Nice! Glad you got them installed! Did you tighten the top hat bolts and set preload? Just like other coils, use the width of the spanner wrench to set preloads
Yes, set the fronts to 5mm, and I think I gotta mess with the back with the shock length and what not.
 
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17wop6mt

17wop6mt

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Nice.

Im sure once you get everything set, they'll ride alot better. Cheers!
 

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I might have to buy these seems better than buying springs and a lot cheaper than other coilovers I have seen.
Only concern is how much trouble you guys had getting them to fit
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