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DIY: BC Racing Coilover Install on 8th Gen Accord

62K views 68 replies 27 participants last post by  breds2k 
#1 ·
BC Racing Coilover Install – 2008+ Accord by Throwdown Performance, LLC

Tools Needed:
• BC Racing BR Series Coilovers
• Car Lift (or Floor Jacks and Jack Stands)
• Metric Ratchet Set (Specifically 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm)
• Hex Wrenches
• Optional:
-A friend (second set of hands).
-WD-40, PB Blaster, etc. may help if bolts are difficult to get off.
-Anti-seize is helpful if you want to go the extra mile to ensure your bolts can easily be removed in the future.
-Bar to carefully leverage pieces is also useful.









Overview:
The goal of this install is to install coilovers on an 8th Generation Accord using common garage tools. We opted to take on the challenge of not using a lift or any air tools, but use an approach to demonstrate that this install can be done at home with some simple tools and time.

Also, our approach for the coilover install is to leave the top of each strut still bolted in until we removed the lower section enough that the lower arm could be pushed down to free the coilover. By removing the top first could shift the coilover into an awkward position. Coilovers can be done in any order, but we recommend working on both fronts or backs as the removal/install is the same.

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Front Strut Removal:

Removal of the front struts is easier than the rear.

1. Jack up your car using a floor jack and positioning the jack on a secure position near the small notches. Be sure to make sure your vehicle parking brake is on, the rear wheels are blocked with piece of wood or a wheel chock. After jacking the car, place the car onto jackstands. Ensure that the car is secure!

Note: You could also raise the car from one end or the other. Be careful when doing so and be sure your jacking point is a secure spot and that you are on a flat level surface!

2. Remove the wheel using a tire iron. If you do not have a tire iron, you can use the tire iron provided next to your spare tire (a socket wrench will also work).

3. Now you can begin to removing the components of the suspension. As outlined in the overview, the way we will be working through is removing the bottom bolts and linkage(s) before removing the top bolts of each coilover. The top bolts of the coilover are located under the hood of the car holding down the front strut tower brace.





4. As you can see below, the front is much less complex than the rear to install. The small line in the pictures is the front brake line that is running to the caliper. The front bottom of the strut is not bolted through the strut, but is held in by a single bolt that tightens using a pinch bolt. You will notice that your BC Racing Coilovers have an attached mount for the front sensor harness that is very useful for re-installation!



5. Begin unbolting the pinch bolt holding the bottom of the strut using a 14mm socket wrench, the front sensor harness bolt, and the flange bolt on the bottom of the fork. The bottom bolt is a 17mm. You will need another socket wrench to hold the bolt on the other side to stop the bolt from spinning.




6. If there is still tension you can loosen the bolt on the small connecting rod (with purple dots on the end) which is attached to the front sway bar (pictured below). With slack, push down on the front suspension and the bottom of the stock strut should begin to slide out.



7. When the strut is loose enough to push down and free the bottom of the strut you can unbolt the top of the strut under the hood with the 6 bolts.



8. After unbolting all 6 bolts ontop of the strut/shock, slide the strut/shock assembly carefully out.

9. Now take the stock strut/shock and make sure that the bolt pattern is the same on the front coilover that you will be replacing (the bolt pattern is reversed on the front right and front left coilovers). As you can see the stock strut is longer than the new BC Racing Coilover. This is partially due to the lower stance, but is primarily due to being performance spring with less sag.



10. Now with strut/spring out, reinstall the coilover in the same fashion. First align through the top and loosely bolt the top of the coilover under the hood with the supplied bolts (don’t lose your stock nuts either, best to screw them to the top of the old strut). Then align and screw in the bottom pinch bolt. As you can see below, the new strut and coilover is held in with a punch bolt. Ensure that the bolt is correctly holding the bottom of the coilover in place.



11. It is easiest to install all bolts loosely until it is all lined up and then tighten. After the coilover is in place, reinstall the bottom bolt and attach the brake sensor line to the new coilover.





12. After everything is back into place and tightened, reinstall your tire. You will notice when you re-install your tire that the wheel is now further off the ground than when you initially raised the car. This is an example of how the BC Racing coilover has less sag than the stock/strut shock.

13. Follow the same process on the other side.

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#2 ·
Rear Coilover Install

The rear coilover install is slightly more complicated than the front. The top of the strut (and place where the new coilover will be mounted and adjusted) is behind the rear seat under two small rectangle tabs. If you remove these tabs you will see the top of the stock strut and two bolts holding the strut in place. You will need to carefully remove the bolts through this hole and adjust through this hole. The other option for install is to remove your rear deck to make more space. If you choose to remove your rear deck, follow the directions in the manual which requires removing the two rear quarter panels (cover of your side rear airbags) and then the rear deck.

1. Jack up your car using a floor jack and positioning the jack on a secure position near the small notches. Be sure to make sure your vehicle parking brake is on, the rear wheels are blocked with piece of wood or a wheel chock. After jacking the car, place the car onto jackstands. Ensure that the car is secure!
Note: You could also raise the car from one end or the other. Be careful when doing so and be sure your jacking point is a secure spot and that you are on a flat level surface!

2. Remove the wheel using a tire iron. If you do not have a tire iron, you can use the tire iron provided next to your spare tire (a socket wrench will also work).

3. Now you can begin to removing the components of the suspension. As outlined in the overview, the way we will be working through is removing the bottom bolts and linkage(s) before removing the top bolts of each coilover. The (2) top bolts of the coilover/strut are located under the small rectangle plastic covers behind your rear seat. Similar to the front install, we will leave the top bolted until the bottom part of the coilover and suspension has been let free (or is able to drop down).







4. Removal is very straight forward, but does take some time. As you can see in the pictures above the bottom of the strut is bolted directly through the strut end with a long bolt. This can be removed with a 17mm socket wrench. Next in order to “drop” or lower the bottom to slide out the strut, 2 of the 3 suspension arms need to be unbolted. We opted to unbolt the two on the right that are towards the front of the Accord.





5. Similar to the front, the small connecting rod (with 4 purple dots) may also need to be removed. This linkage connects the rear sway bar to the rear suspension. There is a small hex fitting at the end of the bolt. Use a hex wrench and a socket wrench (or a normal wrench) at the same time in order to take off the bolt without the entire piece spinning. This should allow the suspension and brake section to be pushed down and separate the bottom of the strut.

6. You can now unbolt the top of the rear strut.





7. Carefully work the strut out of its position and remove. Now reposition the rear coilover in the same spot and bolt into place from the top at the top. Be sure that it is in the correct position. As you can see from the side by side picture (above), the front bottom of the stock strut has a nut that is welded into the strut. When attaching the bottom of your BC Racing Coilover, use the nut included from BC Racing to secure the bottom bolt.





8. After loosely bolting your BC Racing coilover into position from both the top and bottom, re-attach all the bolts from the suspension arms that were disconnected in the same fashion as they were removed. A second set of hands is especially useful to ensure that everything is in position. If you have anti-seize you may wish to put some on the bolts to make it easy to be removed in the future.

9. Tighten all bolts and re-install your rear tire. Repeat directions on other side.

10. Once all tires have been re-installed and bolts have been tightened you can lower the car back to the ground. Before driving, set your dampening settings by turning the knobs that are on the top of the front and rear coilovers.

11. Take for a drive and enjoy your new fully adjustable suspension! You can continue to tweak as you want to change the dampening of the suspension and the ride height.

Adjustment:
In order to adjust the ride height you must raise your car again and remove the front/rear tire. Adjust height of the vehicle by using included BC Racing wrenches to adjust the last lock ring on the coilover. This is all that is needed to adjust the height. There will be some settling in your new coilover set-up, so continue to adjust your ride height to your liking. We also recommend taking your Accord for an alignment within the next few weeks.

FINISHED PRODUCT PICTURES (at height out of box):
PMM Accord (left) Stock Suspension vs. BBP Blue Accord w/ BC Racing Coilovers





Visual Impressions:
• Fully adjustable is FULLY adjustable. These coilovers have a height range that will fit any drivers need. From the out of the box height, there is plenty of thread to set coilovers from stock height to all the way to the pavement.
• Threads are a perfect size for a fully adjustable coilover. Look to be larger than some other coilovers, which will help prevent smaller particles from becoming an issue.
• Very solid construction.
• Black and Gold finish is very attractive!

Driving Impressions:
You will immediately notice a big improvement and differences in your Accords stance and handling abilities. Height adjustment can be set to personal preference. Drop in the front out of the box is a little more extreme than rear drop, which fits that look. The front and rear can be adjusted down/up should you wish. The best part of a fully adjustable suspension is that adjustment is all at your finger tips. Ride is very comparable to stock at the softest settings. At the hardest setting the Accord performs like an entirely different car. You can completely feel every bump on the road and very little body roll through the corners. This setting can be used for very aggressive street driving, but is definitely recommended more commonly for track. I recommend middle settings and tweaking to your liking.






ENJOY YOUR NEW BC RACING SUSPENSION FROM BC RACING AND THROWDOWN PERFORMANCE!!!
 
#6 ·
There's lots... currently resizing because they were so massive.

I removed top nuts first. Made removal alot easier. Espically if doing it by yourself like I did. Need pics ASAP...
BTW. Nice write up. Its kinda hard to describe all thats involved. But you did a good job at it.
Thanks Alex... I actually pictured it being the opposite just because it might get in the way or jammed at an awkward angle. I liked this way for a 2 person install, but your right can be done either way.
 
#8 ·
Updated with pics - the rear is still a little high but since it is winter in jersey right now I'm not going to mess around with it too much until it gets a bit warmer (maybe a little). As you can see in some of the close-ups, the thread on these bad boys will literally get you so low that you can't drive...

As far as timing... the front was quick, probably an 1-2 hours, and that's just because I went through the process without any directions and literally figured my way through it, and was taking pictures along the way. The rear was a little longer, probably 3-4, but the same, no directions, it was more complex, and I removed the entire rear shelf.

All of BC's products are of great quality at very affordable rate. They have sponsored quite a bit of Redline Time Attack cars and drifters that heavily abuse their products and have yet to run into any issues. They have had several podium finishes with their G35 in the last 2 years of the RTA and ran into absolutely no suspension issues whatsoever -- all with an off the shelf BR Series with custom spring rates and valving (a service we offer any customer at no additional charge).

BC Racing coilovers are proven to be street and track worthy.

Hope everyone enjoys the instructions, please let us know if you have any questions.
 
#9 ·
In order to adjust the ride height you must raise your car again and remove the front/rear tire. Adjust height of the vehicle by using included BC Racing wrenches to adjust the last lock ring on the coilover. This is all that is needed to adjust the height. There will be some settling in your new coilover set-up, so continue to adjust your ride height to your liking. We also recommend taking your Accord for an alignment within the next few weeks.

If these are anything like the KSports Or Megans and I think they are since there all manufactured in the same building. Dont you have to remove the bottom bolts on the shock body to adjust height? Since the shock body is threaded you either thread them up towards preload to lower or thread them out towards floor to raise them??? That is what a fully adjustable coilover is right?????
 
#10 ·
Both ways are correct - you actually just lowered them the harder way. Hope this makes sense... I know this is true of the BC's (not sure of K-sports),

Loosing the lower lock ring and rotating the entire coilover (the threaded strut) into the lower mount is the easiest way to lower the car. Your way lowers as well, because you would be rotating the lower mount up onto the coilover (the threaded strut), which also lowers the car.

I'm not sure about the manufacturing - I do know that the BC Racing coilover has slightly larger threads.
 
#14 ·
LOL!

Gotta pick yourself up under 3" low profile jack lol thats what I did haha I think mine are actually less than 3" :dunno:
 
#15 ·
Returned your PM - On the highest setting it would be very comparable to stock. I haven't touched the rear and I'd say it's currently about an inch drop... but it could still definitely be raised to stock to way further down. Waiting a little bit as Jersey roads aren't good in the winter (you lucky guys from CA :biggrin:)

LOL!

Gotta pick yourself up under 3" low profile jack lol thats what I did haha I think mine are actually less than 3" :dunno:
haha yeah I need one of those... also have been considering picking up a set of these:

http://www.tomiokaracing.com/gallery.html
 
#18 ·
Are you kidding me? A forklift. Even a light weight forklift that has the lift capacity of 5k lbs weighs about 8k+ lbs with the counterweights which are a couple of thousand themselves. Of course they wouldn't support that. These ramps are rated at 2k each or 4k a set. More than enough for our Accords or a light weight truck.
 
#19 ·
haha yeah I agree. Having driven forklifts years back... those things are HEAVY. I definitely think they are heavier than a car.

I do have a set of rhino ramps, but idk if my front would clear them anymore.

My only worry with these drop/slam shots that everyone wants is that I'm going to turn the coilover too far and never be able to get that thing back up lol... I'll be driving on 2x4's and all that just to get a jack under it!
 
#20 ·
those things suck? I doubt it. LOL

Tomioka Racing is great stuff. Did you get them yet Mark?
 
#22 ·
Not yet, I might soon though.

Mark, does your stock jack fit under the car to jack it up enough to put a larger jack underneath? I know a friend of mine has to do that with his Lexus ES.

-GT
Oh I'm fine now.. Idk if I'd clear rhino ramps or not to change the oil, etc. but I can get my stock under there.

I just mean if I jack it up, lower these all the way, and bring it down and then I either can't get the jack out or can't get it back in, that could be a problem lol. I wouldn't be able to even drive it.
 
#21 ·
Mark, does your stock jack fit under the car to jack it up enough to put a larger jack underneath? I know a friend of mine has to do that with his Lexus ES.

-GT
 
#29 ·
I'm going to do this soon. From the walk-through I didn't get a good idea of how to get to the top of the rear struts behind the seats. I'll look into it a bit more, I'm sure there is plenty of information on this. I just have to replace my HFP because as I was swapping my strut bar one of the tops of the bolts slid right off as I loosened it. The shop I had work on them last may have overtightened!
 
#30 ·
Definitely... the rear top of the strut bolts can be found if you drop down your rear seat - you will see 2 tabs on each side. Open them and you'll be able to see in to where the strut bolts are. They can be done carefully using some universal joints through these holes or you can remove the rear deck (I removed the rear deck as I was also dynamatting the rear. :thmsup:
 
#32 ·
The listing on Throwdown performance site, it has it for 999, does it include a set of 2 or 4?
 
#34 ·
thanks!! lmk when you diy =D
i'm going to start looking into this. hehe
 
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