The strut was made in Poland & the white sticker was made in the UK.... :wink: Glad you were able to defuse the bombs safely.
Thanks for the tip about the washers. I changed the springs last year, so I already have the spring compressors. It shouldn't be too bad - I used lots of antisieze when re-installing the struts. Jeff Ireland got back to me about the IE plates (now I know where the name comes from). I asked how you tell right from left and he didn't mention anything about the arrows, he said "The object is to move the top of the shock toward the engine. If you open the hood and hold the camber plates over the shock tower it should be obvious".
That's because there are no rights or lefts and the three mounting studs only allow the plate to be installed one way. Both of my plates moved the damper bearing towards the engine. Even reversing them did the same thing. Therefore on the R56 body they aren't handed....
Don't know yet... still working at my shop.... Here is the drivers side with the IE Camber Plate installed.... Clearly the bearing has moved towards the engine. Here is the passenger side and the bearing has also moved towards the engine. Nice paint job eh, did both strut tower tops with a color matched rattle can. Matched the Dark Silver perfect. I've painted both strut tops while I did the Swift springs and IE camber plates, so it's taken longer than normal. The MINI will stay in the shop over night. I'm pretty beat right now and I still need to add the Swift springs to both rears. Then wrap it up with an alignment (toe plates I also built yesterday). You can see I removed the entire plastic firewall cover, so all that needs to go back in.
Looks great! I'm going to be taking my IE plates off...I got them installed two years ago thinking I'd be autocrossing every weekend, but I'm too busy and have yet to go to one. Instead I'm burning through tires like crazy..handling improvement is great! But not sure I like wearing my front tires so much. Richard
Hmmm... on my R53, the IE fixed plates actually helped prevent tire wear up front, but perhaps that's the way I drive!
hahaha Probably so...I took it to an alignment shop shortly after the install and the numbers they got were what I would expect...course don't ask me what that was...at the time two years ago, it made sense...my neighbor a BMWCCA driving instructor warned me that I'll be eating up tires fast, lol. Oh well. Hard to know how many miles I got since I last got new tires since it's not a daily driver for me anymore. But it sure doesn't feel like many, lol. Richard
Maybe this should go in "What did you fit in your MINI Today"..... It's Spring and the weeds in the yard need attending to.... OR I've installed new springs in my MINI and I'm setting up my "Normal Loaded Position" as defined by the Bentley Shop Manual for a suspension alignment.... Take your choice...
Man Chuck if you put all of that on your lawn there is a whole lot of mower seat time in your future. :eek6: Let us know how the alignment goes. Does it feel more pointy???
Yeah, tell me about it.... I gotta figure out how I can reduce that part of my life and get more seat time in the MINI.....
Grodenglaive, good luck with your install of the IE fixed plates. Post up pics of your work and definitely get an alignment. Your toe setting will be way off.
It might be more practical than some of the stuff that mini sells as bling! Keep us Posted as to how the alignment changes the handling after the install of the IE plates.
Yep Chuck let us know how the MINI feels to you after the springs plates & alignment. Inquiring minds need to know. :wink: