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Full-Race 06+ Traction balls!!!

12959 Views 319 Replies 69 Participants Last post by  Midknight
Need more traction? We got the solution.

2006+ Honda Civics that need increased traction, reduced wheelhop and better handling - the large rubber LCA bushing is your enemy. During acceleration, braking or turning, the Honda Lower control arm has a large rubber bushing that distorts under load. This distortion allows the lower arm to move back and forth as the forces from the tire and car compress and squish the bushing into different shapes.




**Highly worn bushings will develop a "thump/pop" sound coming from the suspension pivots during low speed bumps.

The soft bushing was designed to give a smooth cushioned ride, but the downside of this smooth ride is low precision and low accuracy of the suspension components. This movement known as "Deflection" of the Lower Control Arm (LCA) allows the wheel to shift forwards, backwards, up and down, completely out of the geometrically intended location. This is due to the fact that the stock Honda suspension was not designed to handle the forces introduced from a high power/high speed vehicle with wide wheels and sticky tires. Because of this deflection, the alignment settings of the car become useless, and the wheel actually moves forwards into the fender well (on high power cars, the tire can actually hit the bumper cover). As the suspension geometry and alignment move around, the car toes out and caster changes erratically. The available traction of the vehicle decreases as overall traction is reduced and wheelhop can result - repeatedly doing this on a high power car can mean damaging axles and gears in your transmission.





The concept of the Traction Ball is very simple. If the suspension does not have any inaccurate or sloppy movement (due to bushing flex) the suspension geometry will be correct. By eliminating the big rubber compliance bushing in the 2006+ Honda Civic front suspension, we are able to eliminate slop in the LCA and significantly improve handling. Traction balls stop deflection because bushings cannot flex/move/change with the solid-mounted heim joints.




With traction balls installed, the LCA does not flex at all - it is completely rigid. The steering and suspension is immediately and drastically improved; you can new feel every input and change in the road surface. Steering is now very sensitive and a lot lighter. The durability of these units is superior to the stock units and they are perfectly suited to both street and track use. This design is not uncomfortably harsh during driving and really an improvement in all regards. This product requires no maintenance, however it is a good idea to inspect them everytime you change your oil. Tap the LCA with a rubber mallet and listen for any noises. Bearings can easily be replaced if needed, however we have not had to replace one yet.

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For installation info please take a look a this thread.

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/suspension/242952-diy-full-race-traction-ball-install-7.html

Full-Race would like to thank everyone who participated in the introductory sale on the traction balls. We have officially ended our introductory pricing and is now set at the suggested retail price of 299 shipped anywhere in the continental U.S. Thanks to all the 8thgen members for all of your support, build threads and reviews! Like always, please feel free to PM me or email me at [email protected] if you have any tech questions, concerns, and inquiries.


If you like to place an order you can email me at [email protected], send payment via pay pal to [email protected] and entering screen name in notes field, or by giving us a call @ 602-437-2101 ext:20

Thanks for looking!

[email protected]
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posting double facepalms to people....


what a ******* joke of customer service....

why dont you cut your losses and fix the issue... oh wait that would cost more money cheap skates


I'm monitoring the rust issue with a bowl of popcorn and 3D glasses, no comment on that yet.

But in fairness to Full-Race, the double facepalm was not a response to anything about the rust, but instead to someone who asked for FR to divulge all of the specs resulting from their investment of time and money into the development of these balls, so that the person could simply copy it. Basically saying "hey now that you've spent a bunch of money and effort, just give me the results for free so I can copy it." That deserves a bit of facepalming. Don't confuse the issues though.
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I've had that low-speed buck since day 1 of this car. Just figured that was the way it was. Next time I have Steve update my tune, maybe I'll have him take a look at that...
The "neutral" zone between acceleration on the gear, and deceleration on the gear feels mechanical, and not MAP tune related.
I agree with that completely. I'm pretty sure that's just the way our cars are. Perhaps unless you replace the gears and/or other internals in the tranny with something non-stock?
Well let me know if you do ever get it resolved, I'm really curious. My car's only a year old (2010), and I remember feeling that bucking and thinking "WTF" when I drove the car home from the dealership. So it's been there since day one for me, with a brand-new from the factory car.

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I don't wanna derail the thread anymore, thanks for the offer though! I don't think there's any fix other than a new tranny, I've heard other people on here describe the same issue. I never thought anything of it until I heard others complaining about it.
It really is not a big issue, only happens at light throttle in the lowest gears. I rarely drive like that anyways. I only mentioned something because someone else brought it up, and I try to chime in whenever I catch someone else mention it, since I experience the same thing and am just curious about it, if there really is any resolution.

As far as this thread goes, the question was will these traction balls resolve the issue, and I think the answer is no. Good enough for me, I'm curious if anyone who DOES have the issue ever gets is resolved, but there's no need to discuss it further here unless Full Race doesn't mind their thread getting hijacked :)
LOL true that about the free bumping. I'll double-check the mount, but the issue existed long before I had the Hasports, and the installation of the Hasports made no difference as it still existed afterwards. It hasn't gotten worse over time, its just always been there.

BTW I love the Hasports. I didn't buy them to fix that issue, and I don't want this discuss to dissuade people from buying them! They're freaking awesome mounts!
This is a f_cking Retarded Business ethic.. Sure we will 'drop' the price for an unreasonable upgrade in Price. Oh but it doesnt matter still comes out to 300$ shipped we dropped the price of the traction balls, but now it cost more to ship... YEAH Awesome guys over @ FULL-RAPE not to mention ******* shitty customer service WHERE IS MY TRACKING NUMBER since you'd like not to respond to email.

+1 on losing another customer permanently
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