tC2 Raceland Coilover Review
 

BOOM!

They're finally here! The Raceland coilovers for the 2nd generation Scion tC.

I have been driving on these for about a week, so I feel I can now give an informed installation and initial review of the coilovers. I will also add my 3 month review to this thread when the time comes.


The Goods

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They came Very well packaged. Each one was wrapped in plastic in an individual box, and each of the 4 boxes were then placed in 1 large box which you see above.

My initial impression of the Raceland Coilovers:

I was EXTREMELY impressed with the physical quality of the coilovers. For such a low price (Almost a third of other coilovers for the tC2), I was expecting something that looked like it was constructed by a fourteen year old in his shop class.
To my surprise, they appear to be of very high quality. All of the welds are very nice, the powder coating is flawless, and everything fits together and moves as it should.

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The kit includes replacement struts with built in coil sleeves, and a coil sleeve matched with aggressive dampened shocks for the rear.

The Installation:

AHH MY CAR IS BROKEN!

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(Ignore my gross calipers. I'm working on a BBK)

The installation of the front coilovers was very straight forward. You simply remove your factory strut, and bolt the factory top hat to your new Raceland front coilovers. Then, simply reinstall the coils as if they were your factory struts.

I highly recommend lowering the sleeves all the way to the bottom. This will make it much easier to bolt the top hat to the Raceland coils.

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Wallah! Your front Raceland coils are now installed!

The fronts are a piece of cake. Anyone who has installed lowering springs on their vehicle can easily install these coilovers.

Here's some pictures of the front directly after the install. The Raceland coilovers are lowered all the way.

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I kind of fit 2 fingers in the gap? I squeezed them in really hard, and I have pretty skinny fingers.

Just like springs, the rears can be a pain in the buns. Anyone who has tried lowering their tC2 knows lining up the lower control arm to the factory spindle is a HUGE pain, and these are no different.

The Raceland shock is a very easy install. It is a direct replacement of the factory shock. Just unbolt the shock, and rebolt the Raceland shock where your stock one was!

After I pulled out my old springs, I put the adjustable sleeve (lowered all the way for ease of installation) on the control arm and wedged the new Raceland spring in there. Easy, right?

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All in all, the installation of my Raceland coilovers was very easy. There is not very many hidden surprises, which I was relieved to find!


Performance:

So far, the Raceland coilovers appear to be performing very well. Honestly, I was a little concerned with how they were going to perform because I had heard horror stories before, but I was very pleasantly surprised! I have ran stock suspension, Tein H-Techs, Tein S-Techs, and now Raceland Coilovers.. and the Racelands BY FAR take the cake on performance out of the 4. Turns feel a lot stiffer and more controllable. All around the car feels more predictable, which is a huge plus.

The ride quality is slightly better than expected. It doesn't ride like a Cadillac, but it is a little better than my other setups I've had. The coilovers are a little less harsh over bumps and on not great roads compared to both lowering springs. When you lower your car, you expect to have bad ride quality. Raceland's don't feel like you're riding on a cloud, but they're acceptable and I'll take that.

My Only 2 Complaints:

My first complaint is that the rear coil sleeves are a pain to adjust. They are positioned inside the control arm, which means you have to take the spring out to adjust the sleeve. On the plus side, I did find a shortcut to doing this. Instead of taking everything apart again, all you have to do is take off the sway bar end link from the bottom of the control arm and push down hard on the control arm. This will give you enough wiggle room to get the spring out so you can adjust the sleeve. With this method, it takes no more than 15 minutes to adjust!

Here's a picture of where the sleeve is in the control arm

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My second complaint is that the provided spacer for the shocks is not long enough. With just the provided spacer there is a very small amount of wiggle room for the shock, and this creates a very slight rattle when you go over bumps. This was easily fixed by buying a longer spacer at Ace hardware for $3 a spacer. They are 1/2" in inner diameter and 1" long.

Here's the provided spacer compared to the spacer I picked up at Ace Hardware.

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Now... here's the important thing for most of you!

Here's the stance of the Raceland coilovers dropped all the way after settling for 3 days. The wheel fitment is 18x9.5 +25 stretched onto 225's. The stretch of the tire helps the rear tuck in very slightly behind the fender which I loved,
and the front had just about a half inch of room all the way around the wheel so it can turn. Very convenient for just dropping them all the way and not adjusting anything!

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Here's my stance now after installing my new wheels, adjusting my coils, and waiting 4 days for them to settle. The fronts are dropped all the way and the rears are dropped a tiny bit more than three fourths.
The wheel fitment is 19x9.5 +20 on 245's. There is very very little stretch. There is about a quarter inch all the way around the front and the rear, and I couldn't be happier!

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Wow looks great ! Man im still undecided whether to go with these or bc coilovers..... :nails:..... Save money or buy them now ?:ponder:

Love the review love the color too man! ahh are those CF side panels painted? :come:

is this about the same drop you could achieve with other coil overs? let's say... KW

I just put in the rears tonight. Kinda bummed they haven't done instructions yet. My only issue was I put in my rear adjustable piece( piece below the spring opposite of yours. When putting it in your way, it didn't sit into the rubber stop correctly, so I flipped it and it worked fine. Just wished they had instructions off the bat

I think it's adjustable from 1"-3"

PLZ be careful with your front bumper bro! but looks good =)

Looking good my friend....Had my Racelands for over a year...and still running good.

Sweet ride man.. question: do your rear collars sit down over the stamp in the rear control arm or do they losely sit on top?

Thanks for all the compliments guys!

Rodriguez - They are actually custom vented fenders made out of steel. The Seibon Carbon Fiber Fender's vents were too far back, so my vertical door hinges hit the vents when I opened my doors.

Unsung - The Raceland TC2 Coilovers are designed for 1" - 3" drop from stock height. You can check the heights of the other coil overs, but most are pretty similar adjustability

Disaster - I considered doing that, but the way I did it has the raceland logo facing upward. I'm not sure if flipping the spring would affect the spring rate and quality (I don't know the science behind it). Mine sit as they should over the rubber on the bottom once the wheel is on and the control arm is in it's proper position

Killer - Once the wheel is on and the control arm is in it's normal position, they sit down in the stamp. They look to sit on top in the picture, but that's because the control arm is pushed all the way down at an angle so I could get a good picture of them!

I didn't put the spring upside down, just the black adjustable piece. It didn't seat the way you have it. I pulled out the rubber piece and was trying to fit it on the bottom like you have it and it wouldn't work.

Also, can you elaborate on your shortcut? I haven't done rear sways yet, so I'm not sure the part your talking about to get the spring out for adjustment quicker

ok thanks Project ill have to compress it and see what happens. Did you have to trim the rubber piece in the control arm?

Disaster - Ahhh I see what you're saying. That's a good idea, I'm not sure why I didn't think of that! I'll probably swap mine to the top today or tomorrow. To get the spring out without taking everything apart.. I unbolted the bottom of the shock (to move it out of the way), unbolted the bolt on the sway bar end link that is under the control arm, and then just pushed down on the caliper area to get enough wiggle room to pull the spring out. If you do that method, you don't have to unbolt the control arm and struggle to get the bolt back in!

Killer - Nope I didn't have to trim anything. You could maybe try putting it on the top like Disaster so it can be easily adjusted. I'm going to try his way, since there is no way set in stone

i contacted Raceland yesterday and they are correctly installed with the adjustment collars in the lower control arm so that racelands logo is displayed right side up on the spring the way you have it installed on your car Project.

not to mention the perches installed on the top do not fit snugly in place and have play in them side to side front to back if installed on the top like that. i tried that and didnt like it so i didn't install them until i talked to Raceland.

Looks nice man. What wheels are those man?

Ahhh gotcha, then I'll keep them now they are. They appear to fit snug in the lower control arm stamp, so I'm happy!

The wheels are Avant Gardes

yeah so ill just install them like that and be happy lol, to bad i can install them untill next weekend now cus ill be gone this weekend.

Looks very nice, i like the kicks!

So is it true that there is no camber adjustments in the front with these, causing trouble with front alignment as well as the rear now?

I do believe that is correct, If i read right he had to use the factory top hat for the front leaving only the camber bolts to adjust your camber up front now.......... hmmmm Oh well the price to pay to be low