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Over the years Megan Racing has expanded their coilover offerings for all the MINIs. It is very common for us to get questions about the quality, ride, how low can they go, and reliability of these Megan Racing Coilovers. So I'd like to have MINI owners that have actually used or installed them on their MINI post here their feedback to help MINI owners that are shopping them.
Purchased my Megan Racing Coil-overs from WMW in April of 2012 and installed them that month. I've driven about 18,000 miles on them and generally only use the car as a weekend driver. The coil-overs are the R50/R53 Coil-overs with camber plates.
The coil-overs, along with other suspension mods on the car, make it a fun car to drive with excellent handling but too hard of a ride for a daily driver, IMO.
Do I like them? Yes. They are fully adjustable. The ride height is easily adjustable as well as the damper adjustment. With just a little modification to the car (like drilling a small hole in the wheel well), even the rear coil-overs can be adjusted from inside the car. The front coil-overs are adjustable through the top of the strut. Adjusting the camber takes a little work (because of where the locking screws are in relation to the hole in the top of the strut tower) but that's not something I do on a regular or frequent basis. Besides, it's not tracked much so adjusting the camber isn't needed that often.
If I bought another MINI that I intended to mod it to make it a high performance ride would I put on Megan Racing Coil-overs? The answer is yes. If I intended the car to be a daily driver with a softer ride, I probably wouldn't go with any coil-over setup.
Bought from Way, way back in '08. roughly 85,000 miles on them. R52 w/camber plates.
Car is used as a Daily Driver, atleast a few Auto X events a year, BMW Center Events, Phil Wicks once, club runs and both Dragon events the 1st 4-5 years.
Car is sitting pretty low for a DD, not sure of exact measurement but you can look in my gallery for pics.
Happy I bought, and still happy with them. The only thing I'd change about them is less adjustment notches. 32 is just way too many. Cut that in half...
I've had my Megan's "Euro Street Series" Model Number : MR-CDK-MC08 for 23,000 miles. With zero issues what so ever.... Yes this is driven daily throughout southern California in all kinds of road conditions.... I will tell you the ride is fairly stiff, and I'm ok with that.. But mind you I have mine dumped pretty low. Ride would probably be much more civil with a less severe drop. All in all I'm very pleased with them and would buy these again. But that is Just my very unprofessional opinion...
Gotta ask, what's the difference between the Euro comfort(teal) and street coils(red).
From what I've seen, it's the same exact spring rate, yet the euro is priced a bit higher?
Also, can camber plates be added later to the EZ street series?
Nothing different in the red and teal, red is just the old color as all the Euro Streets are Teal now. The EZ streets are blue.
You could add camber plates to the EZ streets but it would cost more than the $200 price difference in the two.
The EZ street version has only 15 way Adjustment and no camber plates, otherwise the springs and design are the same.
I was just wondering if people could go for the EZ street since it might ride softer/smoother because of the lower springs rate, then add camber plates later if they wished to.
Bought them in the summer when my JCW struts died.
Mainly a track car with approximately 20hrs of actual track time.
Agree that 32 settings is too much for track--good for street/track. Generally keep it in the range of 10 stiffest settings.
6kg rear is too soft for track use.
Planning on revalving the shocks-- understand they use Bilstein valve stacks??? Dyno plots appear to indicate digressive valve shims??? Are they gas charged (don't appear to be)--simple rebuild?
How long you've had them on your MINI? 5 months
How many miles you've had them? 2,000mi
How you use your MINI? Daily driver
How low you have your MINI?6 months
Do you like them? Great so far, no complaints
Which Megan Coilover setup you have:
R55/56/57/58/59 EZ Street Coilovers
*bump* for comments from WMW or other users. Thanks!
Are current owners saying that even at full soft these are too harsh for the street with a moderate drop?
I would like confirmation of this as well. I have heard some say that the adjustability can be softer than stock, so I am confused as to why people are saying it is too stiff. Thanks Way for putting up this thread.
I would like confirmation of this as well. I have heard some say that the adjustability can be softer than stock, so I am confused as to why people are saying it is too stiff. Thanks Way for putting up this thread.
+3 for daily driver streetable confirmation. I would like to know about full soft and what spring rate for a stock result. Also, how is the NVH? Does it increase over stock?
Ok I went a head and purchased the EZ Street Megan Coilovers from Way for my R53, just had them installed today. After an hour and a half drive after the installation, here are my initial impressions. However, my experience may not be the most helpful here because, at the same time that I installed these coilovers, I changed from 17" Webspoke wheels (22lbs) with 205/45 Micheline Pilot A/S to 16" BBS RCs (16 lbs) with 215/45 Kumho Ecsta XS tires. Wheels and tires combined, I think I shed about 8 lbs. per corner, so that definitely affected my impressions.
Regarding the ride quality, my initial impression was that it rode significantly better than stock. Again, that probably has a lot to do with the new wheel/tire combo, but it definitely handled the small bumps and imperfections of the rode a lot better than my OEM struts with 90K miles on them and my old 22 lb wheels. I am not exactly sure how soft the settings are, I told the mechanic as far as ride hight to have a moderate drop and not too firm, so I'm guessing he put it somewhere on the soft side. I will fiddle with it later, but as it is set-up now with my new wheels, it definitely rides better than stock. In fact, it handled the bumps so much better that I dared to try a particularly nasty bump that I had gone over in the past -- and found that it was still very nasty. Possibly worse, because it's lowered now and I think I scraped a bit. It's still a MINI, I guess!
Interestingly, when I told my mechanic that I was getting the Megans he tried to warn me not to get them, that he had stayed away from them for the longest time because when his customers tried them they rode like crap. He admitted though that he hadn't tried them recently, and I knew that they had changed the design some years ago, so I decided to take the risk. When my mechanic installed these coilovers, he said he was very surprised at the ride quality and how smooth and nice it felt. He said you would never know it had coilovers on, and I agree. Again, this may be largely due to the lighter wheel/tire combo, so I'm not sure how these would compare to the stock set-up on the same wheels. My guess is it wouldn't be very far off.
As for handling, I haven't really gotten a chance to push it in the twisties, so can't give a lot of feedback there. The couple of corners I took more aggressively felt quite planted and nice, but I haven't done more than that. Also, again, I'm pretty sure these things are set at a soft setting right now.
One thing my mechanic told me is that these have no perch (I'm sure he used a different word, I'm showing my ignorance here) for the springs to turn on, so I hear a very slight "thunk" occasionally on full lock -- he said it was the spring turning a little later than the rest of it. It's hardly noticeable, though.
Overall, very happy wit the quality. Can't speak on reliability/longevity, but if you are worried about harshness, my guess is that it won't be too far off from the stock feeling. And if you combine that with a lighter wheel/tire combo, it will drive better than stock.
I'll try to post pictures of it soon
Last edited by christianmc; 03-01-2014 at 06:35 PM.
I've had my EZ street coils for 6 months 6K miles and already have two blown rear struts. Trying to get Megan to respond to my complaints and no go. I even know one of them as he was a past sales rep. SMH. I had them set to the softest setting at lowest ride height. I'm an aggressive driver but never raced it. So I'm very disappointed in this set of coils from them.
^^^ I was under the impression that the lower you go the stiffer you want to set the dampening. If you are that low the strut has hardly any travel left and if you are set to full soft and you're an aggressive driver it sounds to me like you are the reason the struts are blown as you're probably bottoming them out all over the place.
Megan got back to me finally and said the following:
"There are potentially 3 causes of a clunk. For less than 1 year of use, it is unlikely the strut is blown and being the cause of the noise. The number one potential for noise is the top 17mm center nut being loose. If you tighten that with a 5mm allen head key and a 17mm wrench (using the closed end portion) it should tighten that up and alleviate that from being a potential issue.
If that doesn't resolve it, the next potential culprit is the top mount itself. On most of our coilovers where a top mount is included, there is a pillow ball mount integrated into the top mount that may develop "wear and tear" over time-- however, under a year of use is unlikely to wear it out, unless the top 17mm nut has been loose and neglected. We've had vehicles in our employee lot using the same top mounts for over 4 years without issue.
If neither of the aforementioned are the culprit, the strut or shock is the last potential culprit. Fortunately, if you need to test the top mount, which requires the removal of the to 17mm nut, then you can test the strut/shock assembly at the same time by compressing the piston-- if it is indeed the cause of the clunk/noise, then you will be able to reproduce it."
I've already checked the 17mm nut so next step is the top mount. I've owned multiple coil overs by Megan for various cars before with no issues with the same user settings, however it was their higher end systems.
2012 Countryman S FWD (R60), got the Megan Coilovers used 2000 miles.
Installed myself and here's how low I went from stock
Front: 1.5"
Rear: 1.3"
Damper setting:
Front: 20 clicks from hardest
Rear: 25 clicks from hardest
So far I like it a lot, it rides smoother than stock non-sport suspension. But when you meet a big hole or bump, you can definitely feel that these megans have stiffer springs. Other than that, it rides nearly the same as stock, but smoother. It is just tiny bit bouncy when you go over big dips, but then that's because I haven't found the ideal damper setting, I'm still trying different settings at the moment. On the freeway, it's actually more controllable and less jittery compared with stock. The wheel hop/spin is completely gone now as I kept the front lower than the back.
Even with the 1.5" & 1.3" mild drop, my CMS handles like it's on rails now, barely any noticeable body roll when doing hard turns, much more responsive when lane-changing. But then again I have the 23mm rear sway bar
I'll post some pictures and installation tips this week. So far so good, anyone in doubt, hope this helps.
^^^ I was under the impression that the lower you go the stiffer you want to set the dampening. If you are that low the strut has hardly any travel left and if you are set to full soft and you're an aggressive driver it sounds to me like you are the reason the struts are blown as you're probably bottoming them out all over the place.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
The suspension travel stays the same regardless of the height. These coilovers adjust height by extending or retracting the whole upper suspension into/out of the bottom strut casing. So the length of the upper spring section/strut stays the same. I installed my this weekend and was playing around with it, hope this clarifies it for ya
just installed megan Euro 2, green colored perches. 2010 clubman S with 48k miles
Installation was simple, bolt off bolt on!
Adjustments on the fronts are super easy.
Adjustments On the back...not so easy. The trailing arm, exhaust and other bits are in the way! Makes it more difficult. It's actually easier to take the 3 mounting bolts out, pull the coilover, adjust and replace. A lot less frustrating!
First impression, quality: seems to be very good. Fit: no issues, bolted right on.
Ride compared to stock cooper s suspension:
Smoother
More controlled
More responsive
Better Corning
The ride is better than stock...seriously, better! Maybe it was time for new suspension and the NEW factor kicked in, but I can honestly say, it's better!
I will post a better review of install tips and tricks next week after I do the Blue Ridge Parkway. First stop, alignment!
I thought I could add to this post to help anyone looking to get these coilovers.
I have a 2013 MCS that I bought last year. I installed these coilovers in March of 2017. I have the EZ street version. I've driven on them around 5000 miles now. I use my mini as a daily driver. I haven't measured it, but I have a finger gap between the wheels and fender. They do go much lower, but I like it where I'm at right now. I'm running 17's btw. I haven't had any issues so far. I have mine set at 16 clicks on both the front and rear. I like the way they ride, much better than stock. They ride pretty smooth too, they're not too harsh for a daily driver either. Installation was easy, the fronts bolted right in. Here's a pic of the ride height right now.
09-22-2013, 08:21 PM
