Suspension Brakes 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: Control Arms?/ Koni Yellows

You would definetly reduce tire wear to install adjustable rear lower control arms and get a good alignment.

Anytime you lower a MINI you need to install rear adjustable control arms, it's the only way to get the alignment straight.

 

With your 05 MCS you have some adjustability of the rear camber. Since you do not put many miles on the car you might want to have an alignment shop adjust the rear camber to as little negative camber as they can get with the stock adjustment. They can probably get it to about -1.7 to -1.8 range. That will help reduce the inside rear tire wear but it will still wear. The stock rear camber spec is -1.6 to -2.6 so even if you had an alignment the shop might have left the camber adjusted to the more negative side of the range (such as -2.6) which would cause a lot of wear especially if the toe is a little off.

I would also suggest having the rear toe adjusted pretty close to zero so the tire does not scrub across the inside edge making the tire wear even faster.

As Way pointed out, if you want to get even less rear negative camber, such as in the -1.0 range, you will need aftermarket adjustable rear lower control arms.

 

All of these are great ideas, but they will tend to decrease the grip of the rear end and with a large rear sway bar you may not want to do this. I am running -1.5 of rear camber and no toe and get just a bit of inside edge tire wear. This is not something to get to concerned about. It only get to be a problem if the wear is extreme enough to cause the inside edge to wear a lot faster.

 

I run around with -6 camber in the rear. My wear has been fine for the past 9k miles on falken 512's.

Camber doesn't eat tires as badly as an improper toe will.

 

I am running the Koni yellows on full soft which I got from Way with the JCW springs and am happy.

 

Can you compare this set-up to stock?

How does it do on big bumps?

How does it do on a bunch of smaller bumps close together?

Roads are pretty terrible here....

- Andrew

 

I wish they had Bilstein HD's for the R53. I've heard from a lot of people that the Koni Yellows are pretty aggressive, which has kept me away from those shocks. Not sure what the best "touring" shock is for a MINI.

 

^ me too. And the HDs for R56 are so darn cheap to compared to Sports for the R53.

I still might give the Yellows or the Bilstein Sports a try with JCW springs. Custom valved Bilstein sports would be my ideal option, so if anyone has a used set they want to get rid of.....

- Andrew

 

I have a used set of koni yellows if you wanna get those revalved :smilewinkgrin:

 

ha, i'll pm you now. and if anyone has any jcw springs they want to get rid of....:lol:

- andrew

 

I don't have answers to your exact questions, but when I was getting my suspension from Way last year, he recommended the JCW dampers for me rather than Konis because my car is a daily driver. Way told me that Koni yellows on the softest setting are still firmer than JCWs are. I have my JCW dampers paired with TSW springs (and Bridgestone RE760 Sports) and the ride actually is better than stock because everything is more controlled. That might be a good fit for you, too. Give Way a call and he'll figure out the best set-up for your situation.