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Rear Rattle After Coilovers

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I Installed some raction coiloves 2 days ago and everything was fine until today. I started getting rattles from the rear driver side and it is unbearable. It seems to be coming directly from the bottom of the spring itself as that is where the adjustable cup sits metal-to-metal on the control arm. Once the suspension is fully extended there is a small gap(please look at the picture). I don't know if this is what is causing the rattle but its driving me nuts. Does this seem accurate or can it be elsewhere?
Screen Shot 2021-06-19 at 7.56.14 PM.png
 
TS, do you have more specs on the spring rates and input on the ride quality etc?

Thx
I actually just got the same coilovers installed less than a week ago. The front spring rates are 10k, not sure about the rear, but should be the same. The ride quality at its most comfort dampening setting is a little bumpier than stock when on bad roads, on decent roads you wont notice a difference. I haven't changed the dampening setting to more aggressive yet, but I will when I go to the track. Immediately, you feel a sharper turn in and balance in the car versus stock. I'll be changing the front springs to 12k next week and give a more updated review later. You can follow me on @limit.ex on instagram and @riactionusa to see my progress. Thanks!
 
Well, for anybody else running Riaction coilovers, or are thinking of getting them, this is an install issue entirely I feel. They are a bit vague but if you just reach out to them at five8industries, who makes these, they will tell you what I'm writing below. And nobody has issues with rattling, including myself.

What I would recommend if you run at least 20mm of preload on the rear setup. This photo clearly shows basically 0-5mm of lowering height, or no height set at all except at max. The preload is entirely done on a divorced setup with the shock once you have the height set on the spring. Which is nothing for a divorced rear spring/shock setup. The fronts you could get away with it maybe, but I would still put 10-20mm of preload on the front setup.

You will need about 10mm of preload on the rear for each 10mm of drop. So, you set the ride height, by dropping it with the locks rings in the photo above on the spring perch at the very bottom, get it right to where you want/measure etc..drop the car down, because it will settle with these springs since the rears are 8k compared to a few other brands. Then, turn the shock body and get that lowered to 20mm or slightly more than what the height adjustment is. This is for a 1.5" drop example. This will provide pressure and load the spring when the car is put on the ground. Then the dampener can do it's job, and the spring will have a lot of tension on it so there should be no rattling or moving around of the metal locks rings, which you should use a flat head screwdriver and hammer to lock them good. Also, use the same method for the shock lock on the rear. Fronts are easy..preload and lock.

Then, ride around for 5-7 days and see if you get any noise/rattling from the rear.

Mine started to rattle after 5 days in the rear, because my installer didn't put enough preload on the shock portion by lowering/turning the shock body to match/surpass the ride height set...that is what gives you preload on the spring when you put it back on the ground. If it settles, well, here comes the rattling.

I would just recommend you put way more preload, upwards of 30-40mm on the shock for a 1.5" drop as an example...and it probably won't ever rattle even after settling. Then adjust ride height if you want, then get it aligned or set a touch more preload.

Don't be discouraged, the Riaction coilovers along with Mega racing adjustable arms, some spacers and after market 20s....the car looks badass and the ride if phenomenal. Others have had no issues with these coilovers.
 
You can shorten the free length of that rear shock to attain the "required" preload but you are compromising the battery with premature contact. Setting up a system like this where the rear shocks are adjustable in length takes some forethought and experience. Firstly, you need to know what the "critical" shock length is before you have any type of "negative contact." Many people will just mimic that of the OEM shock. In our case, the primary concern is the battery pack or the rear part of our side skirt just in the front bottom of the rear fender well. Our cars are definitely difficult to work with because we have a very finite amount of distance to play with. This will also predetermine the amount of compression and droop you get out of that rear shock. I will use a ziptie on the damper shaft to determine what the ratio of bump to droop is under static load. Once that is done you can start messing with the spring perch design and spring lengths needed. If for some reason the spring is too loose at this critical shock length then you should use a helper spring similar to what Redwood did with their Ohlins or get a longer spring so that it can be preloaded like MPP/KW have done. Some of this may or may not make sense to some of you but it's important to wrap your heads around this. It is a constraint that good suspension manufacturers should be taking into calculation. If you absolutely need the shock to be that short and will have premature battery pack contact then you can shim the damper shaft with "packers"/shims like KW does so that it will engage the bumpstop sooner and prevent bottoming out the battery pack. Now same principle applies to the front damper length. It's too bad use the OEM rubber isolator like BC Racing, Redwood, and KW/MPP have done on both ends. I've had issues with the UPP dampers making noise at this lower location as well but they have a small O-ring to try and help with that iirc.

Another thing to note with this damper is the sway bar attachment point. This design, as I've seen from a handful of other asian dampers, is known to fail over time. Please keep an eye on the welds to see if they begin to fail. Especially if you hit a lot of potholes.

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^Don't even know where to start with this? A lot of conjecture, hearsay and some really bizarre bigoted statements about how the (Asians) Taiwanese don't know how to weld?!?!

The after market front coilover suspension is built/designed the exact same way as Tesla's. They are pumping these cheap front suspension components out by the 10s of thousands. To make some statement "Asian" dampeners are known to fail over time is ridiculous that use this method. Taiwan has some of the most advanced manufacturing capabilities in the World, and the leader of many industries, not just computer chips, but carbon fiber etc..I know this first hand with direct experience. They certainly know how to weld amongst many thousands of other things.

Not sure where/how Tesla is making there dampeners...or again, is KW/MPP dipping their welding/metals is special sauce like Tesla to make it superior and won't fail ever? Just not true any of this. This isn't the only design/manufacturer that uses this type of setup...never heard of any of them failing over the past 20yrs on many manufacturer brands.

Next, adjusting a divorced setup and lowering doesn't make your car hit the ground and smash your battery. Or lowering in general. Sure, you slam the car, that happens with any vehicle, not just Tesla. This is common sense.

Most vendors recommend about a 1.5" drop, MPP etc..as a recommended start, for track, you can easily go lower, but daily driving on typical streets...not a problem. I've had 4 people in my car with my current drop, never bottomed it out.

As an example, real world, the 18 stock aero wheels, I replaced with 20x9 with a .5" diameter increased radius, which would mean, with a 1.5"drop, I actually only dropped the vehicle 1" from the stock ground height to the battery/side skirt. It is still 5" approximately from the ground to the bottom. Never, even over speed bumps, being a cautious person already over things like this, come close to hitting the battery. Furthermore, a properly setup coilover and height/dampening adjusted will control any bounce of the car, entire point/benefit of coilovers rather just springs to help alleviate any issues like this.

But whatever.....people can think/do what they want. I'm just giving people actual insights and info of real world experience with Riaction coilovers. Some other than $$$ MPP or UPP, Ohlins etc...



Good luck everyone!
 
I Installed some raction coiloves 2 days ago and everything was fine until today. I started getting rattles from the rear driver side and it is unbearable. It seems to be coming directly from the bottom of the spring itself as that is where the adjustable cup sits metal-to-metal on the control arm. Once the suspension is fully extended there is a small gap(please look at the picture). I don't know if this is what is causing the rattle but its driving me nuts. Does this seem accurate or can it be elsewhere?
View attachment 675417
That gap doesn't really matter as the force is distributed around the spring seat. If you think the spring seat is rocking and making noises... you would have some serious issues with the whole thing. Think about it for a second how much force, loose everything is for that spring seat too rock and make noise. If you are getting clunks when fully extended that means the spring is unloading which is bad bad. Dial in more preload so the spring is not loose when fully extended, Judging by the spring collar you have no preload dialed in.
 
^Don't even know where to start with this? A lot of conjecture, hearsay and some really bizarre bigoted statements about how the (Asians) Taiwanese don't know how to weld?!?!

The after market front coilover suspension is built/designed the exact same way as Tesla's. They are pumping these cheap front suspension components out by the 10s of thousands. To make some statement "Asian" dampeners are known to fail over time is ridiculous that use this method. Taiwan has some of the most advanced manufacturing capabilities in the World, and the leader of many industries, not just computer chips, but carbon fiber etc..I know this first hand with direct experience. They certainly know how to weld amongst many thousands of other things.

Not sure where/how Tesla is making there dampeners...or again, is KW/MPP dipping their welding/metals is special sauce like Tesla to make it superior and won't fail ever? Just not true any of this. This isn't the only design/manufacturer that uses this type of setup...never heard of any of them failing over the past 20yrs on many manufacturer brands.

Next, adjusting a divorced setup and lowering doesn't make your car hit the ground and smash your battery. Or lowering in general. Sure, you slam the car, that happens with any vehicle, not just Tesla. This is common sense.

Most vendors recommend about a 1.5" drop, MPP etc..as a recommended start, for track, you can easily go lower, but daily driving on typical streets...not a problem. I've had 4 people in my car with my current drop, never bottomed it out.

As an example, real world, the 18 stock aero wheels, I replaced with 20x9 with a .5" diameter increased radius, which would mean, with a 1.5"drop, I actually only dropped the vehicle 1" from the stock ground height to the battery/side skirt. It is still 5" approximately from the ground to the bottom. Never, even over speed bumps, being a cautious person already over things like this, come close to hitting the battery. Furthermore, a properly setup coilover and height/dampening adjusted will control any bounce of the car, entire point/benefit of coilovers rather just springs to help alleviate any issues like this.

But whatever.....people can think/do what they want. I'm just giving people actual insights and info of real world experience with Riaction coilovers. Some other than $$$ MPP or UPP, Ohlins etc...



Good luck everyone!
You read too quickly. I was saying that sway bar mount design has been known to fail due to lack of reinforcement. Not the dampers themselves. Sorry if you misunderstood.

It's very possible your shock lengths are at a good measurement so you don't have these issues. I'm only pointing out that this is something to consider when adjusting that damper to set the preload. If you have more compression stroke than you have room under the car you will have a problem. You have to measure the shock length when the shock bottoms out. Generally we will do this by removing the spring from the equation altogether and seeing what clearances we have with the shock completely bottomed out. Then we'll go back to add in the spring and see what additional adjustments are needed at the spring side to achieve the desired ride height. Either the shock length, bottomed out, or spring bind will dictate your clearances. Not sure about special sauces but I do know that I have seen this types of sway bar mounts fail but my these are on Tesla that do see track days. They are put through their paces at high speeds and always taking the fast line. I'm just pointing a few things out. Either way take from this what you will. Please see below where Redwood does touch upon this critical measurement in their install guide. They help advise what the free length should be because it can be changed with these types of shock designs in comparison to say a Bilstein or KW. I can only hope that this is insightful. It might take time to process but is something every DIY guy should understand.

1630978840843.png
 
You read too quickly. I was saying that sway bar mount design has been known to fail due to lack of reinforcement. Not the dampers themselves. Sorry if you misunderstood.

Pretty sure he just wants to find any opportunity to defend the Riaction coilovers. He downvotes me when I provide a logical and reasoned argument. Oh well.

The sway bar end link brackets are definitely not welded on the same for all struts, and it's pretty obvious which one is more likely to break at the weld. Hint - it's not the OEM, MPP, or Redwood's.
 
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Pretty sure he just wants to find any opportunity to defend the Riaction coilovers. He downvotes me when I provide a logical and reasoned argument. Oh well.

The sway bar end link brackets are definitely not welded on the same for all struts, and it's pretty obvious which one is more likely to break at the weld. Hint - it's not the OEM, MPP, or Redwood's.
100% agree with ya. The irony is we're one of the main California distributors for BC racing so it's not like I don't support affordable brands. I just want people to understand how to set things up since no instructions are included with these systems and it requires more forethought. I only want to educate whatever I can as part of my civic duty. lol. When you been around motorsports as long as you and I probably have we tend to observe these little details with fine scrutiny. Check out all the reinforcements on this lower fork alone.

1631152636684.png


This sway bar bracket is also reinforced in it's design.

1631152752876.png


You can also see this other "affordable" brand that has the same design and is very strong. I wish I had a better pic to reference. I can take one later.

If I were Riaction I would not over react and actually speak with the factory to improve on the design to protect themselves from potential fall out. It might take 1-2 years for a customer to hit enough pot holes but over time I'm pretty sure you will see issues surface and likely outside of the warranty period. You can see that Unplugged also revised their sway bar mount design to match the one I've now illustrated.

1631152816500.png
 
100% agree with ya. The irony is we're one of the main California distributors for BC racing so it's not like I don't support affordable brands. I just want people to understand how to set things up since no instructions are included with these systems and it requires more forethought. I only want to educate whatever I can as part of my civic duty. lol. When you been around motorsports as long as you and I probably have we tend to observe these little details with fine scrutiny. Check out all the reinforcements on this lower fork alone.

View attachment 706982

This sway bar bracket is also reinforced in it's design.

View attachment 706987

You can also see this other "affordable" brand that has the same design and is very strong. I wish I had a better pic to reference. I can take one later.

If I were Riaction I would not over react and actually speak with the factory to improve on the design to protect themselves from potential fall out. It might take 1-2 years for a customer to hit enough pot holes but over time I'm pretty sure you will see issues surface and likely outside of the warranty period. You can see that Unplugged also revised their sway bar mount design to match the one I've now illustrated.

View attachment 706988

I actually had to have MCS redesign theirs, the original design (photo attached) snapped. The new design is similar to the others you mentioned with a reinforced square. Point being, it doesn't matter what the price point is, it's extremely important to get the details right.

PXL_20210909_005042841.jpg
 
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I actually had to have MCS redesign theirs, the original design (photo attached) snapped. The new design is similar to the others you mentioned with a reinforced square. Point being, it doesn't matter what the price point is, it's extremely important to get the details right.

View attachment 707041
MCS certainly made the endlink mount better on the latest M3P front damper.

In the photo an old version of the AST E8x/9x application mount vs the newer style from around 2009. The original design was breaking all the time, but not the new one. Look at how robust it is!
 

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