E46 Fanatics Forum banner

RaceLand Coilover Review

504K views 1K replies 256 participants last post by  grayz221 
#1 · (Edited)
Yes, I bought the $258 coilovers from ebay. Flame if you want, I know a few people on here that already will. I will try and give the best review I can for everyone here.

Previous Set-Up:

My previous suspension was h&r sports with no spring pads on stock shocks. Since my car was pretty low they blew pretty quickly (a few months after install). It was pretty decent even after they blew as far as street/city usage goes. As far as canyoning/performance orientated driving they were blah, not stiff enough and really just bad, but i continued to canyon them for a good 2 years after install.



Reasons for buying Raceland:


They were cheap and my suspension was blown. My thoughts were, ****, nothing could be any worst than blown shocks and for $258 shipped, that's a deal i can't pass up. So i pulled the trigger.



First thoughts:

They were packed nicely. All the parts had little stickers on them saying "made in china". All the parts looked like they were made pretty well. All the welds looked good, nothing cheap or flimsy looking.



Second thoughts:


After installation, the car felt great... but coming from blown shocks anything would feel pretty damn good to be honest. I didn't really break them in at all, the 2nd week i had them i was in teh canyons. LOL. I felt a lot more of teh bumps on the street then when i had my spring/shock combo. As far as canyons go i thought they were pretty soft, I like my car to ride pretty stiff *insert ghey joke here* After about 1k miles they finally "broke-in" and the ride got a tad bit stiffer, but i liked it.

Just this past weekend I was out on the track with them, they felt pretty good. I actually raised them up to get some more travel out of them and they handled A LOT better, but that comes with all suspension. Like i said before a bit soft for my liking but they were definitely decent, especially for the money i spent on them. Even my buddy who drives spec miata said he liked the suspension after riding with me.

As far as the drop goes, I know a friend who has his car pretty fuking slammed on them.



The problems:

I've driven this on this suspension for a little less than 2k miles now. One thing that did happen was that one of the tabs that were welded on to stop the strut from going further into the knuckle broke off. I emailed Raceland and they sent me out a brand new one. The only problem, they sent the wrong side. :facepalm: I let them know and they immediately sent out a replacement. They also sent return labels to send them back the old struts.

My other friend who will hopefully will post in this thread hasn't had any problems with them so far.



Overall:

I find this suspension to be pretty damn decent for the money. I drive my car pretty damn hard and they've stood up to my beatings. They drop pretty low, even though the suspension feels horrible that low. As far as street driving goes, they are really great. As far as performance driving, they are decently stiff, but not close to as stiff as i wanted it, but i'm not complaining too much. I think that if you keep these at a pretty decent height and add a good set of sways it'll be pretty good.

I also recommend you get some shorter swaybar endlinks because the mount for them on the coilover is pretty low and they will go really fast. Mine did.


The only question now is: How long will they last?



I hope I've given you guys a good insight on this suspension. If you are on blown suspension and need something to drive around on for a while I say go for it. If you aren't I say just keep saving for something a bit nicer.


-Raj :hi:

UPDATE POST #16
 
See less See more
#209 ·
I've got about 2k on my coilover kit, with even a trip to the mountains, so far so good :) everything is just like new
 
#216 ·
wow! another freaking idiot i have to explain why i put quit. hey reeee-tard. is that ok...or like kevro said mr. know it all...i was on an i phone so it does auto correct and it manually put in quit! is that ok? is there a law on here that says i cant make mistakes? are you an english teacher? are you gonna correct my essay? if not then ****off!!! oh wait ****off is two words! **** OFF!!! ;)
 
#219 · (Edited)
RL coils sound like a pretty good deal, I might switch from my current ZHP to that just for fun..lol

btw, there were one member who mentioned about product out sourcing in China/East Asia. Sorry, i forgot who it was, and I am too lazy to go back. lol
I agreed with him. My dad's once had to out source some speakers for Panasonic, and found this factory in China that produces all kinds of electronics, such as TV, home theater system, etc
And he told me the factory really just use what they produce and fit them into a speaker cases that were designed by Panasonic, then package and ship them to the US for sale as Panasonic products. And so does Sony, and Samsung.
Basically, the electronics we are using in the States that costs us hundreds of dollars have no different in quality from what people in China uses, which probably cost them $50 per piece.
So at the end of the day, RL might not be that bad after all, and probably/possibly/hopefully the same quality as other branded coilover systems.

Also, I was pretty shocked when i saw the price of the RL coilover as well as other members here. $240 for the whole set!! Really? And i saw people judging the quality that we get from RL, which i did too. Well, I also tried looking at it in a business perspective, they are just trying to increase the market shares in the US. This low cost strategy seems to be working pretty well so far. I think another member mentioned something about it as well. For an example, the TV brands Vizio and Olivia are both fairly new to the market compare to Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic. Now they are both pretty mature and settle with their market position in US. People on the eletronics forum probably thought they were crap as well, because they were so cheap? I got an Olivia 27" LCD TV back in 2005, and it was around $400, when Toshiba was selling for almost a $1000. Well, my TV is still working, beside the fact that it doesn't have HDMI port, I am pretty satisfy with the purchase. I think RL will slowly move from the low end segment to at least the middle segment in the car parts industry in the next 4-5 years. And if so, they are still going to be selling the same kit that we are complaining about, but only at a higher price. And by that time, the next generation of 3series after e9x will be out, and no body will remember how much e46fanatics hated RL, but think that they are the good sh1t.

I must say $240 for RL is for sure a better VALUE than paying 1k for DDM. That's just me. =/
 
#238 ·
dayum this is a long thread... but after reading it all and sifting through... (also for those of you joining in the fun - to save you a few minutes of reading) i find only POSITIVE REVIEWS on the RACELAND COILS....ONLY POSITIVE.... i am convinced... I have ordered some in the last 20 minutes... I say try them on, be safe...enjoy and get back in here (thread) and post how they act... this is a review thread ..please help the OP in that respect... just because this is the internet doesn't mean we have to treat eachother like **** because we are safely behind the computer...

have fun and enjoy your e46 everyone.... ALSO from the earlier posts... if you decide this coil setup is for you...YOU NEED ENDLINKS... DO NOT USE YOUR STOCKS...
 
#246 ·
+1 on the summary. What suspension do you have now? youre sig seems slammed:drool:
Yea it is pretty slammed. I have a set of tein basics dancing in there. I will however switch to RL as soon as they get here just to see what they feel like. There is way to much discussion and way too many people that haven't tried them on making statements. So I want to be able to accurately participate in the discussions. That's what being a fanatic means to me. Oh, and your car is sick btw. Nice job.
 
#254 ·
Yea it is pretty slammed. I have a set of tein basics dancing in there. I will however switch to RL as soon as they get here just to see what they feel like. There is way to much discussion and way too many people that haven't tried them on making statements. So I want to be able to accurately participate in the discussions. That's what being a fanatic means to me. Oh, and your car is sick btw. Nice job.
are you gonna sell the Teins?
 
#261 ·
I've been ridding on wastelands for about 200 miles and I have to say they don't ride to bad but one complaint the rear is a little soft for my taste but if your unemployed like me and money is a little tight they get the job done.Don't get me wrong I would love to have some bilstiens our kw's but it just isn't in my budget in this economy.Overall you get what you pay for.
 
#270 ·
Wow......

I just came across this setup and I'm pissed after spending $850 for the HR Sport Cup Kit which sits to high in the rear.

Looks like the HR kit is getting sold and Raceland is the new setup
 
#271 ·
hold on to your cupkit for the time being. install the racelands and see how you like them. I took off my cup kit to install the racelands. 6 days later cup kit was back on and racelands were on craigslist.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top