Thanks for the sale! I look fwd to installing all your parts, and more this weekend! Thank you for the assistance with the coil overs Jarid. I'll be sure to send pics your way ASAP.

 

Your welcome! You get the box o' goodies safe and sound?

 

Parts from the sale yes, not the coil-overs yet. I doubt I'll even have time to install everything this weekend.

 

Alta:
Have you discontinued selling the PIAA Euro Vintage 17 x 7 wheel? It's not in your website anymore.

 

I have read various posts about the sway bar bushings squeaking after a year or so even when grease was initially applied. I do not look forward to disassembling the bushing/bar to re-grease every year. I have heard that applying teflon tape to the bar with grease on the bushing, helps eliminate the squeaks for a long time. Do you think adding teflon tape on the bar is a good idea? Is the squeak issue mainly an issue for cars driven in bad weather regoins of the country? If I just apply grease during install approximately how long before they will start to squeak (I live in a low rain area, drive about 15000 miles a year and drive the car very hard).

I have a new Alta bar ready to install but I want to do whatever I can to eliminate future squeaks. I am even considering purchasing greasable bushings (like Hotchkis has) instead of the Alta supplied bushings.

 

Just a comment on the Sportone V2 exhaust I installed.

First, let me say I am VERY happy with the sound improvement and slight power boost I got from installing this exhaust. However, I was disappointed with the set screws you provided that are used to friction-fit the vertical hanger which helps center the exhaust on the rear bumper. The screws are a soft metal, at least mine were. For a friction-fit to work, you have to tighten the screws down hard...but doing this strips the screws easily, and I could not get the exhaust tight enough where it would not move. With this being such an inexpensive piece, I feel like your future customers would benefit from the correction. I realize this is a small piece of the puzzle, but I also believe it is the only weak link in your perfect (in my opinion) exhaust.

 

Act 04, I completely agree with you. Here is how I worked around that issue.

Go to the hardware store and buy new set screws. These are usually a black color. Get them longer than the original ones. Just using those probably wont work as the material may not be correct (expands at a different rate than the rest of the system.) Buy some nuts to fit over them. Install the new set screws tightly and then put the nuts over them tightening them so as to lock the new set screws in place. I've had mine like this for a while and they are not loosening up (so the exhaust is staying on place.)

Hope this helps.

 

To continue my bad exprience with Alta, I am wondering if they have 1 way of doing buiness: my way or the highway. When I ordered a header at 220$usd because their website had a "glitch" (there isn't a glitch, it was webmaster's fault who actived the coupon code too early and didn't test if the coupon code stacked with an item at 50%, not a system glitch. I know that because I am a web programmer and a DBMS programmer). Next day after this order, Alta refunded me back without warned me before. Few days later, I ordered an exhaust at 440$ (10-10-2009). On 10-15-2009, I received an email from Alta stated the exhaust was discontinued. But they chargered me 440$usd on my credit card. And today, 10-25-2009, Alta didn't refund me back. Why did refund me back my exhaust order as fast as they did for my header order?

Time for header order refund: few hours.
Time for exhaust order refund: more than 10days and I am still waiting.

 

Thanks rwkeating, I'll try that. I had not considered the heating/expansion difference with different materials. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Thanks again Jarid for the help on the coil overs. Here's some quick shots of the finished product with my phone. I'll get some better one's with the cam this week.

 

Looks great!!

 

Mine creaks really badly, and the car is not driven over the winter, and only sees dry roads. I hate the clunking, and would suggest that you go with a different setup unless your radio/exhaust can drown out the noise. I just replaced the endlinks with the "new and improved" ALTA ones, and that didn't make any difference. Hotchkiss or TSW are supposed to be much quieter. I'm done with ALTA.

 

Hi!
This has came up once or twice before. As long as you LIBERALLY grease both bushings with the supplied greas and ONLY use this grease you should be fine. One problem we see is when the busings are lightly greased....then they start to make a bit of noise...then a moly grease/bearing grease is used. Any other grease than the approved grease will ooze out and not work!

 

Jarid,
Thanks for the reply on the sway bar bushing grease, however the reply was a little too late (about 25 days after I posted). I separately purchased greaseable bushings and installed them with the Alta bar. If the Alta bushings need to be greased liberally, I suggest that Alta supply a little more grease with the sway bar.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Did you call us about your question? I missed your original post. Please always feel free to CALL or EMAIL us directly! We aren't on this forum every day and would hate missing out helping a client. PS what grease are you using to grease your bushings?

 

Sorry, Jarid, but my mechanic followed your install instructions to the letter and both of my ALTA modified MINI's clunk....badly. The alignment specialist did not have good things to say about the control arms, either. His quote was "Bad design, bad design".

 

I used "Green Grease" which is a multi-purpose synthetic polymer grease. Seemed like that would be compatible with the bushings.

 

Just a bit of feedback re my recent experience.

I've sent an e-mail to Jarid, got a response and am happy with the price. Then he said I'll need to pay via wire transfer as I am on overseas customer. Sent him another reply stating it's inconvenient, costly and cumbersome then haven't heard anything since.

Maybe I should spend my money elsewhere. Umm.

 

Sorry noob but we only take wire transfers from out of the country. I couldn't respond with anything else productive other than what I told you in my few emails I sent your way about the situation. Sorry!

 

Jarid,
I recently saw a video on youtube showing off one of your CAI on a Mini. I loved the sound that this gave the car. My question is that I have seen mixed reviews about ALTA. Would you mind explaining to me what the diffrence between your CAI system and others on the market? Also if there is anyone out there that wants to put in there $.02 in I would love the help. I am thinking about making this my first mod and I do not want to make a mistake is my choice. FYI I have a 2009 Clubman S. Thank you all for your help.

 

No prob! I have this intake on my 08 Clubman S and love it. The system is very simple to install and has a clean look to it. It was also just redesigned to add more clearance from the intake the firewall AND clears strut braces! I also copied the info from our part below WITH a dyno graph!

*****************************
ALTA Performance, again set the bar high for the competition! The new ALTA R56 cold air intake not only adds proven 10WHP and 10ft-lbs of torque to your 2007+ Mini Cooper S (AKA R56), but it also unlocks the sound from your turbo! With our intake not only will you hear the turbo sucking in and compressing the air, but you will here the OEM blow off valve blowing off.

When dealing with MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensors, small changes to turbulence in the intake system, can make huge changes to how the car runs. Because we are familiar with this problem on other cars, great care was taken to eliminate any turbulence issues that might throw a CEL, or make the car run too lean or rich. We can say fora fact that our intake replicates the stock MAF curve almost perfectly!
Below is a test on a Stock 2007 R56. The gains are easy to see and feel! The only change made between runs is our ALTA Cold Air Intake.

 

I have an 08 MCS R56 JCW.I put on/had put on:ALTA CAI/Turbo intake tube/Boost tubes/and Turbo intercooler air diverter.We took it out and over a flying 2mi course did >150mph.My speedometer only goes to 150mph so I don't know exactly how fast I went. Yeah,Alta stuff works very well on my machine. Jason

 

Hi John, I was wondering whats the diff betteween CAI: AMP-INT-300 VVV and
AMP-INT-201V2 VVV, just the Pipe? Can first one connect with OEM pipe? How long will the 40% coupon last, btw?

Thanks!

 

Where is the chip............ ?

 

The 300 is just the airbox and filter...using the OEM inlet hose. The 201 is the entire intake. I would reccomend the 201 as some of the HP gains of an intake is seen thru the turbo inlet hose. I have extended the 40% on intakes until tomorrow!