Suspension Brakes Most liked posts in thread: MINI Sport Suspension Vs Aftermarket

You will definitely notice a huge different with either a bigger rear sway bar or set of lowering springs or the combo.
The rear sway bar has proven over and over to be the best bang for the buck suspension mod even with stock suspension. I'd say find a local person at a club event and go for some test rides and see what you think. But at the minimum get a rear sway bar you'll love it.

 

Not at all-as long as I am not driving on 200 treadwear tires.
0ver my favorite twisty roads. I live near the Santa Monica mountains and all the famed roads of Malbu and spend some time up there early on weekdays when there is no leos to worry about, testing stuff and generally hacking around. admittedly, my car gets attention LAST in the hubub of running the shop, participating in as many SCMM events as possible, steering my 12 yo, lately playing with my 427 Fairlane, etc etc-and had not seen an alignment rack in 4 years. When I switched back this week I had it aligned, but of course it was off due to the stock plates. They are definitely not working out, gotta switch them back, car is terrible after driving 80k on the IEs. Perhaps my thinking should be towards some harder tires for the 2000 mile trip coming up. Of course it hard to give up the ride and grip of soft, round tires too. Maybe I just need to send a set of tires to spokane for the halfish way point-I dunno. At any rate, there are few mods as great as the IE fixed plates, and switching back to stock surely put an exclamation point on that!

 

Personal opinion only here. If you're thinking of modding your MINI, I wouldn't opt for the sport suspension. Aftermarket springs, shocks, rear bar, poly flex bushings, etc would, in my opinion, surpass the factory "sport" suspension. If you only plan on using the MINI as a daily driver or just seldom spirited motoring the sport suspension might be okay as an option. I'd love to do a head to head comparison of a non sport and a sport equipped MINI.

 

I will be at the shop after 9 (todays my birthday so I get an hour off ) call me if you have time, I would like to discuss this a little more in depth with you-the switch to the FSD product may be when this started, but I don't think it is the shock-something is amiss. We truly have never had any issue with them EXCEPT when the youngest/greenest member of our team left out one of those washers, which created a clunk-I knew immediately where to look on disassembly, as I have had a few brought to me done elsewhere with this same issue. The only 2 things I have seen with strut mounts is the torn rubber around the bearing and I have seen 2 where the bearing pushed upwards off of its "staked" position in the mount. the bearings that moved created a grinding noise when turned left to right and back.

 

For my build, I will be doing brakes, suspension, and tires first, then power for sure.

I'll post another thread to get more specific advice on my wants, but I appreciate the responsiveness of this forum vs. some others and I'm loving the collective suspension knowledge I've spent all day cramming into my brain and taking notes.

 

Dave, I appreciate the advice and Jason, yes, it is tragic that a company as old as Koni has degraded and not kept pace.

When I noticed that Bilstein had a Sport Suspension and a Standard Suspension category for my 2011s I knew they had figured it out

Now to figure out which Bilstein, the B6 or the B8 to go with those Spec-R springs. Suggestions?

 

:cornut: My personal opinion and what I actually did with Margi(08 R56 BRG MCS/JCWm) was to tighten/tune her 'Sport Suspension' by dropping unsprung weight. It's a lot cheaper also. I trashed the heavy run flat tires and 24lbs light weight factory wheels for for light non run flat tires and 14lbs 'OZ' wheels. Just doing this made an major difference in acceleration, stopping, and cornering. She had dropped 70-80lbs of unsprung weight. The down side is: No bright yellow shocks or blue antisway bars. In the end though, it's to each his own. Get what you want and what your wallet can aford.

Jason

 

somethings wrong

"I opted for the Koni FSD's and wow what positive difference in ride quality BUT, and it is a big BUT, I can't seem to keep top strut bearing in it now. I don't have a clue as to what's going on.

I really liked the feel of the Koni's but trashing the top strut bearings is no bueno. Several other people have had great success with the FSD's but they are not late model "Sport Suspension" vehicles.

Any ideas as to what's going on? "

Read more: http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/suspension-brake-modifications/16761-mini-sport-suspension-vs-aftermarket.html#ixzz2UqEyaMDO





we have installed over a hundred sets of MINI FSDs, most of them on R56s, and never had a strut bearing failure any time afterwards. Did you do the install? or if a shop did it, are you sure the thin dust shield washer and thicker support washer (#5&6 below)are in the correct place, or there at all? they are easily left out and will cause an issue, possibly the one you describe--also-at reassembly, did the installer use an allen wrench/key to hold the internal shock rod and carefully tighten the top nut, or was it run down with an impact (a favorite installation hack of tire stores)? this will cause damage to the strut bearing as well-can you post a picture of the damaged strut bearing?

 

Today I talked with Scott @ Home and he suggested re-tightening the top strut nuts to the top strut plate. It had worked itself loose, just a little!

So I re-torqued and added 8lb and it worked! A thousand thank yous to Scott and his company's collective knowledge. He also said that if it works loose again to remove the nut and put a dab of blue locktite on the threads and re-torque.

Kudo's to Motoring Magic

If someone remembers to ask in a few months, or the clunk comes back to remind me, I will update the result.

 

First, Happy it turned out to be something that simple-the FSD is a great product and you shouldnt have any further problems with that.
As for the IE plates-MAN I have to tellyou all, I took mine OFF this week due to a long driving vacation scheduled with my son in July and the hope to not wear out a set of tires while not having access to my shop-BUT what a difference! I am not sure I can drive my car very long without them-unbelieveable how much better the car rides/drives with them on! been on there 6 years and it is weird having "stock" driving and alignment specs. The IE plates are another of my favorite bolt on products.

 

So you would go IE fixed and not adjustable or something like Vorshlag?

The big problem here is having to drive 1+hour to get to a place that can align a car properly. Les Schwab is not cuttin' it!! Driving all the way around the Puget Sound to find a good aftermarket automotive sports car shop is a hassle. This County does not have a BMW, Mercedes, Lexis, Land Rover, Ferrari, Porsche, Lambro, or anything else that gets more exotic, dealership. Exotic here means a pimped out John Deere...

 

complete simple bolt on

As my post above indicates, the IE fixed plates are fantastic imho. No carving, or anything else needed on 2nd gen cars, they are a simple bolt on. FIrst gen cars can require a minor flattening of the vertical support bump in the shock tower on 05/06 cars. You will need an alignment but a tire store alignment is fine, the only big adjustment thing that will change is toe, easily reset by anyone whoe can set the carup on an alignment machine. they will add .5 to.8 of negative camber to your car on each side and the ride and turn in is really improved-BUT-you must be aggressive about tire rotations! every 3000 miles if you want your tires to live.:wink:

 

Just so you know...
When moving from stock camber plates to IE fixed plates,,, you must get an alignment... And going back to stock...another alignment will be required... It will really change the toe tremendously if you don't...

 

update-IE plates reinstalled, happy motoring again!

 

There are slotted holes in the body that give additional fine tuning of the IE fixed plates.... Chad at Detroit Tuned was able to balance mine.... I also went with Swift lowering springs which more than accounted for the slight increase in top plate thickness..

These two mods along with the adjustable rear camber struts were the best mods made to my MINI....

 

From my reading Dave.O has gone through a few suspensions and if he likes it then I would bet it is good!

His recommendation of Suspension, Brakes and Power is a good one.

If I were to really go for top performance I would follow the recommendation. In my case I am an old guy that is fairly happy with OEM power but thought the OEM "Sport Suspension" was crap. Since putting Koni FSD's on it I can now push the suspension harder without the chattering on washboards or sid slip hitting bumps in corners. Much smoother in a straight line as well.

Stephen

 

The Swift springs rock! I had the sport suspension when new, then the JCW suspension added later on, which is very good with adj camber plates, and correct alignment but when I just added the swift springs in place of the JCW springs, what a difference! Amazing change.

 

Well, after much grief with the Koni FSD's, the second set is clunking again! I sent the first set back to Koni and they said that they were defective and replaced them free of charge.

What a PITA... I noticed that Bilstien is selling struts that are engineered for the "Sport Suspension Option", so apparently someone at Bilstien recognizes there is a difference in spring length or something to make it necessary to have a specific strut for that option.

I am going to take DaveO's suggestion of Swift Springs combined with Bilstien HD struts and I hope that puts an end to this Odyssey!

I did not mind the firm ride of the "Sport Suspension" but I hated the jarring on the small bumps and small potholes. The FSD's cured that but the FSD's did not hold up! I suppose there would have been another way to go, by putting the FSD's in combination with the OEM regular springs and NOT the Sport Springs. Just another hassle...

Thanks Dave for the Swift spring suggestion!

 

My car came with the Factory sport suspension. I do think you would see a pretty noticible benifit from springs and a sway bar. Plus you would get the added benifit of being a little over an inch lower.