AVOID BC RACING At All Costs - motoring|underground

RedAndBlackMINI · #1 07-11-2013, 06:21 PM

Hey guys, thought I should fill you in on what happened to me.

First of all, do not do business with BC Racing. I had their coilover fail on me after 3 weeks of having them on the 2010 MINI Cooper S, or probably about 1000 miles. I was mid-turn when the piston rod snapped in half, leaving the coilover completely unattached from the rest of the suspension, which meant my wheel was basically floating and could have very easily resulted in a wreck if I had been going harder through the turn or at the track. They are refusing to give me a refund for this coilover. I will tell everyone I know to avoid this company and to look elsewhere. I recommend you do that same. I hope this posts helped someone make a decision about their coilover purchase, and to avoid this garbage brand.

I had Vmaxx coilovers (notoriously the cheapest coilover you can buy) on my car for over a year and 12,000 miles. I did not have one problem with them that resulted in my life being at risk like I did with these "nicer" :roll: coilovers. After this experience I would never purchase anything with the name "BC Racing" on them ever again.

Snip's · #2 07-11-2013, 07:40 PM

Just a quick question...
You do know that the top suspension mounts are made as RH and LH and if they aren't installed (oriented) correctly they can put a bind on the damper shaft... It's easy to install backwards.... Not saying they were put in wrong...

nathanrw · #3 07-12-2013, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snip's

Just a quick question...
You do know that the top suspension mounts are made as RH and LH and if they aren't installed (oriented) correctly they can put a bind on the damper shaft... It's easy to install backwards.... Not saying they were put in wrong...

Exactly what I was thinking... I havent heard of anyone having any problems with BC's at all....

Drew · #4 07-12-2013, 01:48 PM

There are a lot of GOOD reviews of BC, myself included. Frustrating when you're the one dealing with a problem, but as was stated above there are factors that come into play that can cause this that may not be the fault of the product. You're not the first person to snap a rear shock piston, and the side load issues are well documented for our cars. It has happened on other brands, sometimes without refund or replacement offered.

FWIW, I have 15k miles on my BC's that I installed last August. No problems, no complaints. Rev has had a great experience and posted about it. If I were to experience a problem early, I would've considered it potential installation error. If I had one now, I'd say it's because I've daily driven 15k miles at the lowest setting and these things can happen.

Chase · #5 07-13-2013, 01:01 AM

All signs point to incorrect installation.

professor · #6 07-13-2013, 02:53 AM

BC on the wifes STI with zero issues.

Rally · #7 07-13-2013, 03:30 AM

BC is a quality manufacturer. There is zero reason to avoid doing business with them.

royjovero · #8 07-17-2013, 08:19 PM

Is there a way to tell which rear strut goes on which side? I was looking at my BC's that I'll be installing Friday and there's no marking on them saying L/R like the fronts do.

Camaro · #9 07-24-2013, 04:58 AM

The rear is two of the same shock just the upper mounts dictate the side when put on the shock.

Captain Claw · #10 07-24-2013, 03:23 PM

I call it incorrect install especially after seeing the air ride mess up.....

redandblackminis · #11 07-28-2013, 12:25 AM

Sorry for the late response, I didn't realize I wasn't subscribed to the thread.

I've installed multiple coilovers on the car and haven't had one issue besides this, even on "low quality" coilovers. The BC's were installed correctly. After speaking with some people (3) about my problems they tell me they've had the exact same issues as me with their BCs, and 1 person had a similar issue with their KW coilovers. I believe it goes back to the company over torquing the bolt that is on the piston when they were putting the coilovers together, which eventually caused it to snap. That's the only thing I can think of. Regardless I will not do business with this company again after the customer service I got from them (or the lack there of, I guess I should say). I did eventually get a refund on the other 3 coilovers after talking with them some more, so I will give them that.

And captain claw... Not exactly sure what you're talking about on how that was an "incorrect install" on my air ride... There were no instructions given for me when installing that set up, I'd love to see you do that intensive of an install and not have one small thing go wrong in the process. Because of the very small amount of information I was given before installing, it was mostly experimenting with things that could go wrong and fixing them along the way.

nathanrw · #12 07-28-2013, 02:00 AM

Yeah i'll give you kudos you did a good job with the air install. Especially with coming up with the idea to weld the factory brackets on the strut to fit the endlinks and to use the bottom bracket to hold the strut up. Either way, I think this may have just been a bad set or something of the sort. That's all.

redandblackminis · #13 08-04-2013, 05:00 AM

Just found out another person had this exact thing happen to their BC's. This is the 4th person I have heard this happening to that was running BC Racing coilovers.

royjovero · #14 08-10-2013, 07:33 PM

Wouldn't the fact that she removed two collars from each coilover and is running a lot of spring droop have something to do with her rears breaking?

redandblackminis · #15 08-12-2013, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by royjovero

Wouldn't the fact that she removed two collars from each coilover and is running a lot of spring droop have something to do with her rears breaking?

Apparently not, since the other 3 people with whom I've spoken that have had this happen to them, including myself, did not do either of those things.