I recently had lowering springs put on my car, and I've almost instantly gone from being eager to drive it, to absolutely dreading getting in it.

I don't know if the guy who fit the springs and re-assembled the suspension system did so incorrectly, but it's extremely noisy. I hear a high pitched "ping" when I go over certain bumps, and the rear end (I think) seems to rattle a lot.

To make matters worse, the interior of my car now has a rattle seemingly everywhere. I'm hearing a rattle in the back somewhere, from the sunroof/headliner area, I think I even heard something in the driver's side door today.

It is amazing how I can go from loving my new (to me) car, to not wanting to go near it within a weeks time. I don't know if my issues are rare, but putting those springs on that car was the worst decision I've made in some time. The total investment was a little north of $400, and all I got for it was a car that looks nicer when it's parked, and annoys the hell out of me whenever I have to actually drive it.

I hope I can find some way to reverse all of this without spending a fortune. Sounds to me like the car is falling apart. In any case, I just wanted to share my feelings on the matter. I was much happier with the wheel gap, and lack of noise. Too late now. Something to think about for anyone else considering doing this.

 

Really sorry to hear that Thomas :(
I just hope that you can get it reversed!

Greg

 

Different springs have different rides. Coilovers are adjustable. There are many threads here and they discuss what the ride quality will be like. It takes research am I am sure that you did yours. I would go back to the shop and take them for a ride pointing out what now exists that didn't before the "expert" work. Be firm and confident that the issues were not there prior to their work on you car. Good luck and let us know the results.

 

What lowering springs did you use? Did you reuse shocks and strut mounts? If so how many miles on them? Have them double check everything.

 

Make sure the rear seat belt buckles aren't hitting the plastic when you hit bumps. Just adjust the height that they are hanging at so they don't bump anything.

If you hear rattles that might be coming from the sunroof area when your sunroof cover thing is slid open, try pulling it out just an inch or two. I noticed on mine that I heard rattles when it was completely open and just slid it out an inch or so and it is tighter and won't vibrate up and down when hitting bumps, and therefore won't rattle.

 

I had a persistent squeak that was driving me INSANE after I had my coilovers installed. I thought it was coming from the dash and I actually ripped out the dash panels in a rage while stopped at a red light, trying to figure out the source of this noise.

It was, in fact, the rear seat rubbing against the hard plastic "wall" of the car.

Another mysterious rattle/squeak that took me 2 years to track down was the plastic accordion bit at the bottom of the seatbelt buckle, rubbing against the plastic of the seat. I tied a bandana around it and it's silent in there now.

Stiffening up the car seems to bring out all the little noise gremlins, but in my experience anyway, the fixes can be simple.

 

Sounds like your end links might be loose.

 

Sounds like it's just an install issue. Take it back to that shop if you feel comfortable doing so and see if they can fix it. Or just take it somewhere else. I have coil overs and aside from a little stiffer ride and improved handling, it's identical (noise wise) to OEM.

 

what brand of spring and how much lowered?

 

Throw some Koni's on.

 

When I first had everything installed (not by a shop, but by a person at his home), I had to take the car back an hour later because one of the sway bar links was loose. It was making a god awful sound. He tighened something up, and that sound went away. It was only then that my ears could pick up everything else.

The springs are NM Alpha.

Shocks and mounts were reused.

The car has 47K on it.

I'm almost definitely going to have to buy the Konis now, but I was hoping somebody on here could refer me to someone in my area who works on Mini's, and could make sure everything is the way it should be when that time comes. At this point, I don't know if it was poor workmanship, or if something needs to be replaced.

The interior rattles seem to come and go whenever they feel like it. I have tried relocating rear seat buckles and tucking them into the seats...folding the seats down, etc etc. I think the noise is coming from inside the rear hatch, and that is probably not something easily remedied. All that being said, at this point, I'd be happy if the suspension itself was just quieter... I can deal with the other things another time.

I would have taken it to Tire Discounters, but the guy quoted me $700 on the phone. To me, that is absurd. It took the guy I had do it 2 hours, and the guy at T.D. told me it would "take most of the day." I'm pretty sure they are in the business of screwing people, but in any event, I wasn't going to spend nearly $1,000 total just to put new springs on my car. Might as well buy coilovers and try to put them on myself for that much money.

 

I have NMs on Koni yellows that I did at about 80k miles. I previously had the Sport Susupension. I was afraid that once I took the stock springs off the old shocks I find the the shocks would be wore out, so I bit the bullet and did it all the first time, along withe a sway bar and lower control arms. I did this at a DIY day and learned the lessons, then did the same thing on my son's car except we used the shock that was there and NMs, lower control arms. No issues on either except better handling cars, no noises except on mine, the left will give a springy compressions sound when I roll off or on to driveways. All I can say is that if someone has done this job once, straight spring replacement is a simple job given proper tools, etc. I trust you did lower control arms. I think it may be marginal that you need them, but watch your tires, rotate them, and get an alignment.

 

Go to Turn-in-Concepts. I think they're in Cincy. Awesome shop that specializes in suspension and they have (or had) a 2nd gen MINI. Really good guys.

- Andrew