Hey Folks,

So I recently lowered my 2004 Mini Cooper with adjustable coilovers. The front turned out perfectly, but I am having some problems with the back.

I had the coilovers perfectly adjusted when I first put them on. I counted threads and also measured them. When they first went on the car they were perfect, but when I drove the car, the driver side sunk about 5-10mm. I readjusted the driver side to see if that fixed the problem and the driver side still sunk the same distance after moving the car.

After each adjustment I bounced the car for about 30 seconds straight, and the adjustment would still be where I left it, but as soon as I drive the car as little as a couple feet the left side drops again. Ive double checked the mounts, and also made sure the shock isn't leaking. Everything appears to be in perfect order.

Any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

 

Sometimes the suspension mounts on the chassis are not exactly the same especially in a 2004 MINI that has been driven for 10 years. Even with the adjustments looking equal based on your thread counts you may need to adjust height asymmetrically to get the desired ride height that is more or less equal on all four corners.

I recently dropped my coilovers and found that in the back one side was higher than the other and needed to adjust it much more. In the end there was slight variation in ride heights but it's not that big a deal if it looks close enough.

When racing you would want to corner balance the car and get weight distribution as even as possible but since the MINI is FWD the weight is never going to be that good. You would match the diagonal weights to get them close.

When you load the car with you in the driver seat, the weight is different than when you are not in the car. You can simulate your weight by putting your body weight worth of ballast in the driver's seat as you adjust ride height.

Even with bouncing the car, it will take some driving to make it settle to see what the true ride height will be.

Also realize that by changing one corner's ride height you are changing the weight on each of the four corners and as a result you change ride height on all four corners. It's a moving target, just be patient and do a little each time. A drastic change can affect more things than you want sometimes.

 

Measure the position of the perches on the collars. Try to measure the position of the collars relative to some fixed point on the strut. Check to see which one, if either, changes when things sag.

 

Put a hundred miles on it or so and readjust later. Measure something independent of the coilover body like from the hub center up to the center of the wheel arch. Make sure they are the same from side to side. Front to back can be different. All new suspensions settle.

 

Make sure you are on a perfectly flat and level surface when you measure. Any slight slope on the ground will make the true height inaccurate.