Suspension Brakes Installing springs

What Keith said.

Way Motor Works sells the TSW R56 springs. I haven't driven those on the R56, but I can vouch for them on the R53.

 

take the strut assembly out of the car. its just that one more giant bolt clamping the bottom, and the sway bar link, which is cake to remove.

You wont regret it.

If you are not using an impact to force it all together you could easily have a second person just push on the top mount and compress everything that way.... the lowering springs only compress a very little bit. Didnt need compressors when i did the H&Rs

 

i dont think you need adjustable unless your autoXing or the like. I didnt read the rest of the thread, but you can get proper alignment w/o plates

and with the impact, youll be just fine... put a towel over the stock spring, step on it, and let er rip... doesnt shoot very far at all.

when you put the new ones in and have it all ready to reassemble it helps to have another set of hands to push down like i said earlier (just to get to the threads) and then impact the new top nut on.

AND, sorry if i missed it... any desire for new struts?...seems like you get a lot of bang for your buck as the stockers are trash.... youll be lucky to get more than 30K out of them

 

I would stay away from the IE adjustable camber plates. From what I have heard they are junk. The fixed plates are the way to go if you are trying to save some money. Otherwise save you pennies and get the Vorshlag adjustable ones.

 

The IE adjustable plates use a bushing that is prone to wear out early and they raise the ride height (although later revisions may have fixed that). If the intent is to save money, get IE fixed plates, but if you're going to step it up, hold out for the Vorschlag plates. I have them on my R53 and they're awesome. No compromises, an excellent product, and worth the extra expense.

Ask minimark, he ran the fixed plates for a while before switching to the Vorschlag plates (developed by TSW, btw). He said there was definitely a difference between the two - the Vorschlag plates are stiffer and harsher, but steering is point and shoot. The fixed plates are a great way to get the car to neutral while keeping a street feel. And if you have the shocks and springs apart already, given they're half the price of the Vorschlag plates, they're a smart option.

 

Definately no comparison on the track between the fixed IEs and Vorshlag. That said the IEs are heads above the OEM and will get you around the track much faster. Paid 180.00 for the IEs and drove them for 20,000 miles then sold them for half the price when I upgraded, pretty hard to beat the value per mile when your on a budget and doing other things to the car too.

 

I have mine set at -2.0 degrees of camber. That's the most I can get with stock springs. I'm not sure what the limit is for the R56, but it's probably close to that. Fixed plates would definitely put you in the right ballpark, somewhere between -1.5 and -2.0. Adjustable camber plates really means "fine-tuneable." You have to set the camber first, then set the toe. Adjusting one will alter the other, and not in the good direction.

As far as specific alignment settings go, there's a few different opinions out there. A good place to start with a 19mm rear sway bar and springs is -2.0 front camber, -1.5 rear camber, zero front toe, and a little bit of rear toe in. I have a serviceable knowledge of suspension settings, but there's a bunch of information elsewhere on the boards and on the web about how certain changes will affect the car.

This is my favorite alignment post (on the sewing site):
North American Motoring - View Single Post - what are your alignment settings?

 

You will need camber plates if you want more negative camber. Springs alone will not change the camber, as the strut will still be located in the same position.

 

true.. technically it will be a very slight bit more camber, since when you lower the car, the bottom just 'swings' outward but the top stays put.

the rears tend to get a bit more, but they still have some adjustability if im not mistaken.

If you have specific settings in mind your going to want the adjustability

 

The way the geometry works when you lower the car, the front gains a little bit of camber, less than 0.5*, and the rear picks up another degree or so, -1.0*. However, adding rear camber makes the car understeer even more and defeats the purpose of making the car drive better.

In a perfect world the front would gain more camber when you dropped it and toe out would increase with more negative camber. But unfortunately the suspension relationships are not conducive to cheap upgrades.

 

Someone is selling a set of the Vorshlag camber plates on the sewing site right now. You might check those out.

 

When I purchased the fixed IE plates from Way he very specifically recommended NOT to use lowering springs with them. You might want to give Way a call just to see what he recommends for you.

 

LOL... sorry NAM.

 

Lol OK I stand corrected you would get a very small amount of negative camber in the front but depending on the drop and the type of plates (IE) it would be so small that it would be almost insignificant. The rear geometry on a Mini seems affected more when lowering than the front as I think Ben was eluding too. He also made a good point about the effect of camber on one end of the car to the other. If you increase negative camber on the rear say by -1 degree it will negate some of benefits of the same -1 degree increase on the front. To decrease under steer you want to increase negative camber on the front while decreasing it on the rear. How much depends on the the car, the driver and the track that he is running on. 2cents

 

The importand change

isn't the change in camber when at rest, but when compressed in a turn. lowering springs on the front will change the rest camber a little bit, but it doesn't alter the fundimental geometery of the car, and when compressed in a turn the numbers won't be any different. To change this you need to do something to the geometry.

Another thing that is being missed here is that no matter what springs are run, the front wheels are too verticle for good contact patch management for the front wheels. This means that cornering limits are lower and tire wear in turns will be worse.

Springs are an easy mod, the OP can slap a set on and see if all is good. Adding the camber plates later is pretty easy ( 6 bolts a side plus the lug nuts).

But if it were me, I'd do the plates first before springs.....

Have fun with it whatever way you go!

Matt