It really all depends on what you want to do with the car. If you want a low rider that just looks cool, get a junk set of coilovers and lower it. If you want a really good handling road car get a set of IE fixed camber plates, a set of set of Bilstien B8 sport shocks, a 19 mm RSB and a set of light weight wheels. If you want a killer road car that can compete on the track, get ready to spend on a set of Bilstien B10 corilovers, front and rear sway bars (yes, front swaybar) and some really good camber plates. It all depends on what you want to do.

 

Thanks Eddie07S for the feed back.. Basically I want something that does lower some. Not into slamming thou cuz It'll be daily driven. The same time I want to enjoy tackling the corners.. And comfort in driving in long miles when necessary. So all three.

Tracking em is another day another at this point.

So would these set work as I mentioned?

http://www.nm-eng.com/231/0/0/3074/4...kit.html#popUp[products]/0/

Based on the suggestion by using these coil over that 22mm was recommended to get to work with these.

As for IE Fixed Camber Plates. Are there any good brands that is reasonable priced?

 

I am a big fan of anything Bilstein since I installed the Bilstein sport shocks. The GP is the Gold standard for the GenII MINIs for street/track handling. While I have no direct experience that Nm setup, I would expect that it will do you well.

The MINI GP also came from the factory with -1.5 deg front camber. That is what the IE fixed camber plates will do for you:
http://www.waymotorworks.com/ireland...5-r56-r57.html

I would stay away from the 22mm rear sway bar. A 19mm is plenty big for the street. The large bar is good for a championship autocross car that rotates easily. But this "rotation" is oversteer. This can be a problem in the middle of an on ramp and the car wants to swap ends. There are a lot of threads that discuss setting up a MINI. Here is one that might be helpful and has a lot of discussion about pros and cons of various suspension mods:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...g-monster.html

 

Thanks again Eddie! ... I'll look into the 19mm then.. I def don't want something over kill for just street driving with the 22mm..

will keep yall posted of once I get my suspension hooked up.

 

 

Another vote for Swift Spec R Springs and Koni Yellows.

Had H&R with Koni but didn't like the rake H&R are typically known for
So far the Swift are so much more planted, just feels so solid when driving.

 

Finally placed an order on the Blistein Shocks.. It's on the way! Also got the removal tool for my old OEM Stock Coil overs. My left front strut is blown so it's perfect timing to get it replace soon enough..

I will need to order the rear mount to replace the old ones.. It'll be good idea to have that with me incase the old ones are worn out. Or Might as well put in new ones with the new coil overs. Then I'll get the 19mm sway..

 

You can use an impact wrench to loosen the nut on the top of the front strut. Do this before jacking the car up. But don't take it off; that will need to wait until the shock assembly is off the car. Loosening this nut is tough to do with an Allen wrench and a socket (you can try it first if you want). Don't not use an impact wrench to try to tighten that nut; that can cause the shock stem to snap off. An easy way to disengage the front shock from the steering knuckle is to use about 18" long piece of 2x2 under the lower spring mount and compress the spring a little bit with a floor jack. I tape it in place with some Gorilla tape around the shock housing. Once the knuckle is off, slowly lower the jack. You can also loosen the 3 nuts on the top before you do this so you can hold the shock with one hand and take off the nuts with the other. Assemble the new one in reverse order, but all of the same steps including the 2x2. Put some rust buster on everything in the wheel well area; even to reassemble.

I found that I need two sets of spring compressor to disassemble the shocks/springs. But I only 3 of the 4 individual compressors. It was the only way I could get the springs to compress evenly (bought them at Harbor Freight).

Hope this helps...Have fun with the B8s

 

I know I am very slow in getting my Mini Set up. Haven't been able to get all the stuffs quickly as I"d like due to "financial" issues. Even so it's all Good though. Just gotta take it one day at a time!

Will these Silver Project Camber Plates work with the B14/B16 Bilstein? I looked at Ireland Adjustable Cambers from "WAYMOTORWORKS" that sells em for 290.00 as opposed to Silver Project Cambers from Europe selling them around 135.00 dollars.


I am all about buying the best of the best and I don't want to buy cheap stuffs that will break down the road. Bottomline I don't want to put a dent in my wallet since I'm on a tight budget so every dollar counts. So will Silver Project work.

 

I purchased the NM ALPHA Springs. My wife Did not want the car superlow. I have a new swaybar for the back as well. I will post some before and after pictures when I get them on

 

To anyone running H&R 1.4 inch drop springs...what did you do for the bumpstops? The set of H&R's that I bought used here (15k miles use claimed) came with a set of black bumpstops that look VERY much like to ones WAY offers, and have never been used. So, do I get rid of my stock bumpstops, and use these instead, or are these used in addition to the stock bumpstops, or do I need to cut the stock bumpstops in half, then use the WAY ones? Planning on doing this spring swap this Friday, along with a set of 4 stock struts with 15k on them as well. I am at 75k, looking to lower my MINI a bit, as well as get some "newer" struts on my ride. I do have new adjustable rear lower arms in order to keep mostly stock camber settings in the rear. New top mounts in hand for all 4 corners. How much adjustment is available in the front of my 2011 MCS once the locating pins are removed? I do have an alignment shop that can set things once I have installed. I know I am mostly nuts, but also on a limited budget, so coilovers are not in the cards for me anytime soon. Any info/help/advice will be greatly appreciated!

 

Does anyone know what tire sizes fit the H&R sport springs (1.4")? I'm looking at a set of 215/45/R17 Nankang NS2R's and want to be sure they don't rub.

I have Koni adjustable struts/shocks and both the front and back cambered -2deg.

Thanks!

 

Has Anyone tried swift spec r with the jcw upgraded dampers?

 

I just installed Nm Rs lowering springs on my 09 MCS and I love them. They honestly make a huge difference. I got them on Black Friday for $180 and just now got around to installing them today. I'm also on 16lbs 17x8 Konig Hypergrams wrapped in 215/35/17 Michelin Pilot sport A/S 3+'s. I'll post some pics tomorrow. I wasnt able to get any since I finished about an hour ago.

 

Looking for lowering springs for my 2012 mcs, already had Koni special active shocks w/ FSD active technology, can these shocks handle lowering springs better than stock springs?, I'm trying to keep cost under control and I was wondering if anyone has heard of Tein lowering springs, and is H&R a good choice.

 

The older Koni FSD shocks could not be used with lowering springs, not even the JCW red springs that dropped the car 10mm. That was per the Koni web site. Don’t know if that has changed with the newer version, the special active shocks. Check the Koni web page for that.

Or maybe Way Motors will jump in on this question as he used to respond to that question when asked about lowering springs with the FSDs.

That said, there are people who have posted on NAM about putting lowering springs on with the FSDs and claim to have had no problems. Maybe the problems just hadn’t shown up yet at the time they made those posts.

As for springs - it depends on what you want (How much drop? Spring rate?) and you usually get what you pay for. I would suggest looking at Way Motors carries and go from there.

Just my 2 cents...

 

I was dropped on H&R for a while, but I found the OEM R56 suspension did not pair well with them - on the terrible roads we have, I bottomed out sometimes, and ride quality was not very good. I went through a BC coil overs stint, and although the stance was excellent, it was like riding on a solid suspension... then I got lucky and someone had a full JCW set for sale, so I went with that. It’s lower than MCS, higher than BC and although it’s a _little_ higher than I’d like, it’s very good for what it is. So I’d recommend you to find a stock JCW suspension somewhere - they aren’t expensive and they should sort you right out.

 

Thanks for the input but I just bought my Koni shocks less than 5k miles ago and that would be a lot of money out of pocket I would lose if I pulled them. But I did find this over on a website called "eEuroparts.com", "Koni suggests not to drop lower than 1.25 and a maximum around 1.5in otherwise you lose the benefits of FDS".
But the part that confuses me onis this "not to drop lower than 1.25 and a maximum around 1.5in", so what is the maximum I can drop, is it 1.25 or 1.5?

 

That sounds to me that they don't recommend a drop of more than 1.25", but if you choose to exceed that, then absolutely no more than 1.5" (it sounds like it's "sort of" permissible between 1.25 and 1.5, but you'll probably bottom out on some rough potholes).

 

Oh ok now I understand what they mean, thanks for clearing that up for me, also from I've gleamed from reading through articles is that the Koni FSD don't have any internal bump stops so bottoming out is something I would want to avoid.

 

You can use mild lowering springs with
FSDs on most cars, but Koni’s
official position is that you should
ONLY use stock height springs on
any version of the FSDs for MINIs.

 

Do you have a link to that information

 

Decided to go to the source, I sent out an email to Koni USA. to see what they have to say, will post there reply when I get it.

 

Koni no longer lists the “FSD” shocks, at least not that I could find. Their web site used to have that info on it. Way Motors still has the FSDs in stock and this is what his web page says:
https://www.waymotorworks.com/koni-f...5-r56-r57.html

It appears that per the Koni web site now, that you can lower the car with the “Special active” shocks, as they sell their own lowering kit with them (scroll down a bit to see it). This is different from what they said for the FSD shocks:
https://www.koni-na.com/en-US/NorthA...Products/Cars/

But it also appears that Koni doesn’t sell a kit using the Special Active shocks for MINIs.