Hi All,

In spite of being as careful as I can (coming to complete stop at driveways and when going over speed bumps), I always seem to be scraping the underside of the spoiler. My car is not lowered and I am running 195/55/16 runflat tires (which I will soon be replacing with non-runflats). I was considering going with a taller tire (205/55/16) which hopefully would give me a little extra room and not destroy the "Mini feel." I don't want to go to 17 inch wheels at this time and wondered what other options there are for a little more ground clearance besides the taller tires. Thanks.

Beezel

 

About all you can do is hit them at an angle not straight on... if your doing that and still scraping - you might just have to get used to it.... how much clearance do you have in the front ??

 

+1

 

Hmm, not lowered and scrapping on 16s??? Try some 205/60-16s. Or Dremmel that little 3 inch lip in front that scrapes under the car. Do you have oem Sport suspension? If so try the Non-Sport Springs, they're supposed to be like 10mm taller.. 195/55-16 is 24.4 in diameter 205/55-16 will only bring you to about 24.8 diameter, that's less than half inch

 

Unless you are getting some serious graunching sounds, it's likely that what you are scraping is the little 'audible warning' flaps/spoilers that hang down below the bumper. Scraping those isn't a big deal and just tells you that the next thing to scrape will hurt.

 

Another option if you need to raise the front end about an 1/8" are the Madness MINI Cooper S Strut Tower Reinforcement Plates. They are installed between the strut mounting tower and the struts mounting plates. This part also will correct and prevent the dreaded strut tower mushrooming that that is common problem on the Cooper. They are cheap mod that will also fix that scrap you are experiencing.

Here is the URL: http://www.madnessmotorworks.com/mad...nt-plates.aspx

 

+1 on that. I thought i was scraping my bumpers too for a while, until i just looked under the car. there is a big 3" piece of plastic that hangs down, vertically, right under the bumper.

dont worry, scrape away!

 

Take a quick look at your front struts/springs...maybe you have a blown one/broken spring resulting in a bit of lowering...stock height with stock tires usually only result in scrapes on pretty big bumps.....

 

Thank you all for your observations and suggestions. I am going to have the car checked out tomorrow to see if there is anything wrong. If not, I will have somewhere to start (via your suggestions) in hope of resolving this. If not, as someone said, I may just have to live with it. Happy Motoring!