Not sure if some of you saw the thread I had on big noises and clunk sounds coming from my newly installed Racing-Specs, but after seeing another thread where the pillow-ball mounts were removed, i'm thinking of going this way.

Either remove the pillow-ball mount and use the Buddy Club top hat or if that wouldn't work, remove the pillow-ball mount and reinstall stock top hats.

Has anyone here heard of removing the pillow-ball mount and re-using the
Buddy Club top hat? I know one person who re-installed stock Honda top hats and i've sent him an IM.

The reason I want to remove the pillow-ball mount is because thats where the clunk sounds and noises are coming from, plus its in the way of lowering. I need to lower alittle more and its already as low as it can go in the fronts (about a 2" drop, but I want about 2.3"). The pillow-ball mount is huge and takes up atleast 1-1.5" so by removing it, I can get the height I want and get rid of the very loud anoying noises.

This is a pic without the pillow-ball mount, but retaining the Buddy Club top hats


Here is a pic with the pillow-ball mount below the top hat and beside it is an OEM Honda top hat

 

You can definitely use the stock Honda hats. I contacted A&J racing first, they confirmed you can run them that way. Then I installed my BC's that way my ITR. Has worked wonderfully for two years.

 

excellent thanks, the Honda top hats with the racing-specs, quiet and a firm ride?

I may try the Buddy Club top hats this weekend and if that dosen't work, i'll order the Honda top hats Monday.

The Buddy Club pillow-mount has been nothing but loud obnoxious and annoying since I first installed these.

 

i have buddy club RS laying under my bed. i cant imagine the noise would be that bad on such a great suspension? ive had tein flex, and yea there is a very slight clunking or squishing sound but nothing bad that would make me switch out the top hats.

maybe the torque specs on the main nut is loose and causing it to clunk (the screw on the top of the coilover). and did you preload the springs?

and if you want to go another 1" lower on the front, just remove the brake line holder thingy that goes on the bottom of the shock base.(buddy clubs dont use them anyway) and just zip tie the brake lines out of the way.

 

Just so everyone is aware, the BC RSDs, at least the newer ones, have a big problem with the front shock length. Fully lowered (with quite a bit of preload), without the brake line thingy, teh car won't be all that low. LowER for sure, but not slammed or anything. This is a problem with the spring being too long and the shock body being a bit long. This also is NOT a 100% guaranteed-you-will-have-this-problem problem, as I do know a few people with newer RSDs that had no issues.

alwaysoverkill, I didn't even think to suggest the thing about the top shock nut not being tight. Mine was NOT tightened right out of the box, so it's worth checking.

 

ya the nut on top of the coilover was loose and I tightened the hell out of that too, still making noise. I added preload to the springs and took a hammer to get the collars as tight as possible. Only thing left to try that I know of, is to add more spring preload in hopes that will eliminate the noise, otherwise its all in the pillow-ball mount causing me these troubles. Seems like most of the noise is coming from the passenger side now.

Its not as bad as when I first installed them, but its still there and annoying. I want to remove the pillow-ball mounts unless I can get the noise under control.

The ride is surprisingly not all that bad at all with 10K/7K and all shocks set at 3. But if this noise dosen't stop, i'll trashing the pillow-ball mounts. I'm going to take them apart this Friday and see if I can remove the pillow-ball and just re-use the Buddy Club top hat. If not i'll probably be ordering OEM Honda top hats.

I got the ride height I want but the front coilovers are lowered all the way, they claim 3" and there is just no way these coilovers as they come from Buddy Club will lower anywhere near 3"

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by typer_801 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You can definitely use the stock Honda hats. I contacted A&J racing first, they confirmed you can run them that way. Then I installed my BC's that way my ITR. Has worked wonderfully for two years. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Same here..using stock top hats..no issues for 1yr

 

Ok thanks guys, I appreciate the help. It seems all the noise is coming from the passenger side now, so i'm going to try one last time preload on the spring and if that dosen't work, i'm going to go with OEM top hats and be done with the noise.

The drivers side is quiet now over all bumps, but the passenger side is loud over even small bumps. Hopefully more spring pre-load will fix it. Its only about $25cdn per corner for OEM top hats with all bushings, etc.

 

thanks guys, ordered all the parts needed to install Honda top hats to replace my Buddy Club pillow-ball mounts.

Finally got the clunk under control. I added about 1" spring preload and now the only sounds are the pillow-ball mounts as it should be, no clunks.

Still, its too much noise for my liking, so i'm installing Honda top hats instead of the Buddy Club pillow-ball mounts, since it is a daily driver.

Even still, I was able to finally enjoy the coilovers today on a drive to Honda and god damn these things allow the car to corner. I don't have the 23mm rear sway bar hooked up yet and i'm on my winter tires and it just plain handles, I love it.

With Azenis RT-615 and a 23mm rear sway bar auto-x is going to be hella fun.


Thanks to all those who left suggestions. I gave it about 1/2" spring preload to start but apparently that still wasn't enough, 1" seems to have solved the loud clunk sound for the most part and 1 1/4" would probably be ideal.

 

i had the same problem when i adjusted my ksports - i kept hearing clunking and a bumping sound whenever i went over a small bump or dip. I adjusted the preload a bit and it was gone...

 

Installed the OEM Honda top hats today to replace the pillow-ball mounts and its exactly as I expected.

No noise what so ever and there is no noticeable difference in responsiveness with Honda top hats vs the Buddy Club aluminum top hats. So in other words, expletive the pillow-ball mounts, i'll be rocking the Honda top hats with the Buddy Clubs from here on out. Probably sell the pillow-ball mounts on ebay or something which will help pay for the Honda parts.

Just a heads up if any of you guys have coilovers with pillow-ball mounts and it makes more noise then you like, scrap them.

Oh, and by using the Honda top hats, I can lower the car more too. Before it would be lowered the max at only 2" with 1" of spring pre-load. Now i'm lowered about 2.5" with only 1/2" spring preload and there is atleast another inch or inch and a half the car could go down, which would be tucking alot of tire.

I'll grab some pics soon, but its slammed now and because the coilovers are height adjusted seperately then spring preload...there is still maximum suspension travel, well...atleast maximum that these cam with which is about 1.5-2" max.

the 10K front is also alittle stiff, so I think during winter when I take these off i'll be sending the 10K front back to Buddy club to be re-valved for 7K. so my rates would be 7K/7K which is 400lb/400lb

 

Just as a heads-up, you can leave the shocks as-is for 7K springs. When they're valved, they're valved for a range of rates, not one specific one. 7K would be within that range, and you won't have any problems. I'll tell you though, those shocks are stiff, regardless of what springs you're going to use, so don't expect a ginormous difference in softness.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sscguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just as a heads-up, you can leave the shocks as-is for 7K springs. When they're valved, they're valved for a range of rates, not one specific one. 7K would be within that range, and you won't have any problems. I'll tell you though, those shocks are stiff, regardless of what springs you're going to use, so don't expect a ginormous difference in softness.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ya your right, I know most shocks are within +/-2K but Buddy Club has told me they will honour the warranty on a 3K change, i'm just wondering how the shock settings would work with a 7K spring but shocks dampened for 10K. It'd be like the 7K would be at 7-8 out of 15, so that'd be pretty stiff and like you said. Because the Buddy Club's are a wide range shock, they are already pretty stiff. So not sure what i'll do, but i'm glad the noise is gone, now I can actually enjoy the car and handling instead of being worried about "clunk, Bang" when I hit a pothole.


I'm actually very seriously thinking of ordering Eibach ERS in 350lb or 375lb rates, but i'm still wondering how the shock dampening would work when it was calved for 560lb springs. I'd be running 185lb or 210lb less then what it was valved for. Could always try it for the summer anyways since I was planning on getting it re-valved for the softer. If it works, bonus. If it is very stiff still or blows the shock (not likely) then who cares...i'd be getting it rebuilt anyways.

10K valving on a 6.25K (350) or 6.7K (375) spring is what i'm curious about. The 7K ones (using stock BC 7K spring and valved for 7K) would be in the front. The damper valved for 10K and running the 350 or 375lb spring would be in the rear.


So total rate would be 400F (7K) and 350R (6.25K but valved for 10K) but the 6.25K would be Eibach ERS springs of same length and I.D. as the BC ones.



Modified by alwaysoverkill at 8:23 PM 3/26/2006

 

You might as well be running different shocks if you want spring rates that low, honestly. The RSDs are really meant for track use, and if that's too stiff for where you live or your preference, you'd be better off selling them and buying something else more appropriate.

 

I know the RSD's are more of a track coilover and I bought them cause i'm going to be using them in auto-x along with a 23mm rear sway bar (with ASR brace), but our streets here in Toronto are unreal. When I get out on the highway its not bad at all and easily tolerable. but in the city its freakin rough.

My plan was to try the stock 10K/7K but if needed, switch them before auto-x so it'd be 7K/10K. But now its so rough in the city i'm thinking of just replacing the 10K front with 7K. The closely matched front and rear along with that big 23mm sway bar should still give good handling, but i'd definately loose some i'm sure. Tires i'll be using are RT-615's so i'm trying to get as much handling as I can, however I do need to get a compromise between street car and auto-x car.

When I bought them, I got them for only $300 more then Buddy Club N+ so I wanted to get the best I could afford, which was the BC RSD's. I didn't want Tein, Omni, KW, Apex so it was between the GC/Koni (380F/430R) and BC RSD. But no-way i'm selling them, i've got a fair bit of money into them, so i'm just going to do what I have to for them to work great in auto-x and daily driving on **** roads. Thats why i'm thinking 7K (400) front and 6.7K rear (375)

I plan on keeping these for awhile, thats why i'm interested in getting them perfect for what I need them for. In hind sight, I maybe should have went GC/Koni but I don't know how well the Koni's would handle a 2.5" drop and still retain suspension travel. The BC still have the max 2" of suspension travel whether at full ride height or slammed 3", which is nice.

 

Also wondered if its normal to feel some bouncyness over a sequence of bumps or even after a bump. Like front to back bounce as opposed to blown shock caddy bounce. It may be the stiff rates i'm not used to, but it feels kinda odd. I set the dampers at 5F and 4R and it actually helped smooth the ride out some, but its still alittle bouncy and stiff and has actually bottomed out on medium bumps too. Bumps i'd consider small even with 2" of suspension travel shouldn't bottom out on these. I'm wondering if something is wrong or if its normal?

I'm loving the handling though, its stupid good grip with the coilovers and 23mm rear sway bar.