Suspension 1st Gen R53 Most liked posts in thread: Greene Performance Coilovers / Ride Height Help

The first pics on this thread look mighty high to me. I just installed Colin's Coil-overs... the same BC units, custom valved, w/ Swift springs (the copper ones for me). I'm riding MUCH lower and I think I have room to go lower, though I haven't tried.

In motion


Parked


I just got back from the Dragon, where I first got to really push the car through some twisties. It was spectacular! I only scrubbed the tires into the wells once, and that was when I hit a giant bump on the highway at 70 MPH. It's a very firm ride, but exactly what I wanted. VERY predictable in the turns and solid.

 

Colin is in NC still and will get back to later when he gets home.

FYI his coilovers are “Performance” Coil-overs not Silly soft “STANCE” for looks coil-overs.

 

So we met last Saturday at my house to get this Mini lowered. I have none of the photos that were taken, but I can summarize what we found.

the car had been set up with exactly the same fender height front and rear. That made it look too high up front. We jacked it up, measured the coil threads and did our preliminary math - then realized that the installer had actually pre-loaded the springs to level the car. So before our final coil adjustment math, we loosened the spring seats, released the pre-load on all 4 corners and buttoned it back up, then back on wheels for another measurement. Now the front was higher than the rear, but the car overall went down a little bit, like 8mm in front and 16mm in back. Now it was way to high in front.

Our first stab at adjusting was something like 1.5" down in front, 0.5" in back, I think. So we broke loose the lock nuts up front and turned those coils down. Had to fix some threads that had been met with some heavy tool, but no major issues. Then we tackled the rears... and we hit a road block: after loosening the lock nuts, neither side would go any lower. We almost rocked the car off the jack stands. We took one of the coilovers off the car to further investigate. On the garage floor, with a heat gun, WD40 and a big hammer we got nowhere in terms of lowering, so we turned it the other way, just to check if the threads were busted or what was going on. After more heat and a few good hammer smacks against the spanner, the coil finally started spinning out of its mount. So we turned it and turned it to see how much was actually in the lower body. Well, to our amazement, that shock body kept getting longer and longer. It was completely bottomed out. So at the LOWEST setting possible, this car was riding at the exact same fender to tire ride height as my bone stock electric blue R53. You can only RAISE the car with the rear coilovers Colin shipped to Paul. Doh.

Re-assembly, test drive, car looks like straight out of the Dukes of Hazard with its massive rake, but there was no point to adjust the fronts away from where they are now. The rears have to be the wrong shock body. What we had to work with cannot be adjusted to a ride height anywhere resembling what the photo above shows. I don't know what came back from Colin after Myles sent him what we found, but I would expect a parts exchange is necessary.

This also means the mechanic who put these on wasn't totally incompetent. Those rears are absolutely at their lowest setting and the rest was just set to match that physical limit.

 

Have you contacted Colin. He will make it right.

 

Also, on Rufus (my red car pictured above), the big picture is a live action shot from the Dragon. I was in the middle of a curve and the outer springs (the ones visible) were under load, so you can see how little this setup moves. The lower, slightly dark photo, is in my garage at a stop (and right after I had the alignment done and had about 300 miles on the car to settle the springs).

Like most folks here, I went for a performance look... wasn't looking for slammed or stanced. I hate bottoming out as I'm 6'4" tall and that usually means I'm going to be slammed into the roof...

 

How about a shorter road trip to Madison, WI? 2 1/2 hours and you can do a direct A/B comparison

I can make room in the garage on a weekend and we'll get that thing dialed in. Only thing is, if it changes ride height a lot. it will likely feel weird without an alignment and I am not sure I'd drive very far without that.

No matter if that works out or not, my car with Colin's coilovers will be on jacks in a week to install the Milltek exhaust. I'll get you full details, measurements and photos then.

 

I'm gonna ask Myles over to help ;-) Actually, with a few extra hands this job won't take very long. The wheels on/off and jack up and down time is at least half of the total job time. Need a racing pit crew and you can to do the job in 30 minutes. A real lift would be great, too, but not in my garage. In Chicago, you can rent them - $40 an hour.

 

And this is why I love owning a MINI.

 

My car is on jacks. Here the threads of the rear coilovers. Car runs low, but nothing rubs

driver side



Passenger side

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I learned that the Mini must be a crooked car or these coilovers/springs just don't deliver predictable ride height based on teh amount of screw thread you measure. My coilovers (Greene BCs) are set up to unique heights when looking at thread count or measured on the shock unit itself, but only that way was I able to get consistent fender gaps front and back. I had to repeat the process a few thousand miles and a year after install a second time, because my front ride height went down significantly, likely due to the springs sagging. Not sure of this is normal with other coilover systems, but given the "custom touch" that allegedly makes them so much better than the stock BCs, I expected to see a product that doesn't have me jack up the car a dozen times before it looks about right. perhaps that's just a fact of life with suspension mods. It's done and looks right - I am ok with how it handles and other than being a lot stiffer than the stock suspension, it's been working fine for me. I just live in a state with cruddy roads.

Let me add that my car was never wrecked and it looks totally straight, so it is unlikely that the chassis is warped to require the different adjustment on the driver side. No mushrooming shock towers up front, either.

When I set mine up, measured my fender height from the garage floor, but that is the same in effect as what you are doing. We just can't compare those numbers directly. When matching both sides coil height settings to the the fender gap, I had to add half an inch on the driver side, and that with no driver in the car. My car was never hit in an accident, so who the heck knows why they are so far off, but it has been my experience that you cannot even get close to a proper ride height by simply turning these things to the height you want them at and then repeat to match on the other side. The whole thing is more complex and may have to do with corner weight and other stuff. Still rather odd that my gaps were so far off on the driver side, front and back. I double checked the install of the shock body to the spindle and it's the same on both sides, so no reason to think I put the coilovers into the car incorrectly.

There is another factor to consider, at least on my car: between install of the coilovers and the adjustment a year later, I dropped the front subframe and replaced all ball joints and the lower control arm bushings. Now, one would think that going all new would make sure both sides are more alike, or at least less likely to exhibit uneven wear between sides, but in my case the adjustments of the front coilovers were more alike before the replacement of all those parts. However, if you haven't replaced those lower control arm bushings, this may be a good time to do it, or you'll be in for another alignment and coilover height adjustment round.

And looking at your images I have to note again, that I was sold blue Swift springs with these coilovers (the then "Colin recommended" setup) and now everyone seems to be riding on red springs, so your mileage may vary, or they just got a better deal on the red powder coat.

If I remember tonight, I'll go measure the gaps I have my car set for (not a huge drop, plus I have spacers on the wheels now) The only image post recent adjustment I have is a cheesy phone image that won't tell you anything about my settings. Note there are 5mm spacers on those wheels as well. I feel I want to raise the back just a little over where I am at, and I am near the max height setting already. I certainly don't want to go lower. Nothing rubs, even on a good Wisconsin post winter pothole hit in a tight corner under load.



And regarding rake - I want some rake back. I think it's got too little now. One just gets used to the rake angle especially with two stock cars next to it at all times.

 

Hard to tell from your rear image, but could it be that you have stock non-adjustable lower control arms and the mechanic just didn't want your camber to go off the scale? Dropping the car will strongly increase camber well beyond the adjustment range, requiring adjustable lower control arms in the back. Just a guess, but my current ride height would not allow my camber settings with stock rear control arms.

 

OK... you asked for pics, you got 'em!

Here's a good middle shot of my rear driver's side coil over:



I then took out a tape measure and placed it on the floor, stretching up so that it pressed up against the bottom of the frame rail (where you bolt the top of the coil over to the car) and locking it there.
I took 3 higher res photos for you, top, middle and bottom of the coil-over so you can see where each part is along the tape. I lifted the boot a bit so you could see the silver ring showing the top of the body (under the lower edge of the boot).

FYI: to adjust the height, as I understand it, you should loosen the lower lock ring so that it spins freely. You should then turn the entire black threaded shock body so that it screws down into the lower housing. You can see a hole in this housing at about 11.75 inches down that shows the threads peeking through. The upper spring locks should be raised only to a height that just holds the springs and keeps them from rattling around and then locked together. They are not used to adjust height... just to keep the springs tight enough to not bounce around at full droop (wheel in the air).

Hope that helps!