1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Strut mount choices

The oem Genuine MINI ones are in fact Lemfoerder, just with slightly different markings.
Essentially the same part and quality. Other brands have not fared well.

 

I would get Lemfoerder from a forum supporting vendor rather than eBay.
If you want to add a little negative camber and added strength you could go with the IE Fixed Camber Plate without adding any additional NVH however they will raise the front slightly due to the added thickness.

 

As Cristo said, the Lemforder part is the OE supplier. I've installed tons of them with no issues, and the only thing you'll notice between them and an OE unit is they have been neutralized (BMW/MINI logos removed).

Lemforder Strut Mounts

 

Lemförder, Boge & Sachs are all brands under the ZF group. Tried all 3, they're the same.

 

I'm working on replacing the four control arm ball joints on my R53. Found a set of four Lemförder brand ball joints on eBay (seller was importpartsdepot) for about $130 shipped. I bought that set with no issues. Discounted MINI brand was $360. As others have said, the only difference I see is the BMW casting marks are ground off on the Lemförder set. They even came with all new nuts and bolts although the outer ball joint bolts were torx type. I replaced those with new MINI hex bolts.

 

I went the same route. Under stress, the front end always seemed unstable. Replacing my control arm bushings was the focus of this winter project. The ball joints I'm replacing as well since I've dropped the sub-frame and I'm in there already. Found the control arm bushing were cracked but still intact. I've also replaced them with Power Flex; I had Way Motors do the work and they returned my original brackets.

Going a bit off topic, now that I have easy access to the rear of the engine, I'm replacing all the gaskets associated with the oil filter housing including the oil cooler. There was oil leaking from the housing at the block side. The old gasket was brittle so it is understandable why it was leaking.

Now to get all this back together for the upcoming driving season.

Cheers

 

It is almost a necessity for people to drive cars with blown out control arm bushings for them to really see the improvement the Powerflex bushings are over stock.

It is amazing how taught the front end becomes when you replace the FCABs, ball joints, and tie rod assemblies, it brings back a lot of missing response and handling.

 

Yep. I replaced mine before they got bad, and hadn't driven a car with really bad bushings maybe ever. I swapped cars with a buddy at MOTD and could barely keep his car on the road at speed, it was so awful. Likewise, he had no idea how bad his had become until he drove mine, and commented on how easy it was to drive...

And my new car drives like it has laser steering, with all new everything and the Powerflex black bushings, plus added caster.

 

Hey guys, I recently replaced my front right strut and mount with oem parts. Had a loud-ish clunking from up there before and now it's still there but quieter. Have any of you noticed that the mount has a little wiggle to it when the strut/spring/mount assembly is out of the car? The old one had a little wiggle to it before disassembly and the new parts once re assembled have the same, though slightly less wiggle going on. I've n'er dealt with these type of mounts with the bearing and rubber in them.

 

On the clunking, I'm assuming(pending what you guys say) that the left strut needs to be replaced as well. I'm hoping that's what will fix this clunking.

 

Have you replaced the endlinks?

 

No but MINI of Kennesaw has been thru the whole front end chasing this noise and re torquing everything, they said replace strut and mount.

 

End links are cheap and easy to replace - do them anyway if they've never been done.

I had a clunk in the rear of the wife's R56, and when I took it to the dealer, they said it was the sway bar bushings. They then quoted me several hours of labor because they said the subframe needed to be dropped to replace two bushings.

I called BS, bought the bushings, did it myself without dropping the subframe, and the noise didn't go away.

I replaced the endlinks next - noise gone.

 

I'll switch them out too. I need to get adjustable ones anyways for the springs I'm getting. 2 birds Thanks man! :beer