I bought a 2003 MCS last December and I'm just curious what most people are getting out of their stock shocks. Feels like I am hitting bumps and road imperfections pretty hard but I'm not sure if this is just the typical MINI cooper feeling (read I only have 4 months of seat time).

Any info, advice, or recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Brian

 

Hard to say. I swapped my stock struts out for some newER ones at around 90k on my '02. THe ride was pretty harsh, but they weren't leaking or bouncy. This may have been due to the fact that the entire suspension setup was original and aging. My car now doesn't really feel much better, but I hopefully will be going to some aftermarket coilovers which almost always improve the ride. The OEM setup is regarded as being pretty poor to begin with, so you might be experiencing some "MINI" feel.

 

I was just thinking about this on my drive home today. I have an 02 R50 (Justa) with 80k on the clock. The ride felt somewhat harsh. I have the original shocks and springs, but added lower rear control arms a couple of years ago. My 02 R53 has Koni FSD's, and has a vastly better ride quality. I'm thinking it's time for the Justa to get Koni's as well.

 

In my experance, age, is as big of a determiner of strut performance as miles. IMO the oem delphi struts are pretty crappy...and after only 35,000 miles and 4 years, I could feel a real differance in the span of the final 12 months before I took them out. I remember putting regular tires on my car, and saying wow...this is great...but a couple of years later, my car felt like it was on runflats again...let me tell you, after putting on koni FSD's, my car felt like it new...better actually since I had gotten rid of the runflats. IMO new struts are money well spent...a rough ride is hard on you and the car, and will cause more rattles too!!
Edit....The struts I removed were not leaking, or bouncy...the ride had just degraded....that beaind said, another club member may still install them since I am sure they were still performing better than many folks with more miles....

 

I agree, Zippy. The Koni's can transform the car. Did you change out the springs too or leave them OEM?

 

Just did the FSDs on MCSC. Worth the money. Even better now that they are 25% off from Koni....

 

I kept the stock springs...the frost heaves/pot holes/speed bumps prevented me from lowering the car...I might have been able to get away with a half inch...but I was worried since I can say I felt snow hitting the underside of my car a few times...and snow tires won't do Jack if I get the car highcentered on a rut in the road!!

The imporant thing to remember is that the stock struts are ok... But they tend to fail in a very insidious way...they just gradually worsen....most people barely notice it....but at some point, you say, this sucks....then spend about $600 on a good set of struts, and about 2 hours of labor... Then you get to fall love with your car all over again the first drive!!

 

Just ordered the FSD's. I need to fall in love again...with my Justa.

 

On our relatively smooth CA roads, my 06 MCS shocks felt great at 55k miles. I thought I was having a problem with the shock but it wound up being the lower control arm bushing that was shot.

I replaced with Koni Sport Adjustables but seriously considered the FSDs. Sometimes I wish I had gone with the FSD.

 

my stock shocks on my r50 lasted 150,000 miles with lowered H-sport springs. I kept waiting for them to fail so I could get some Bilsteins on the car but they just never did. I sold them with the car and they were still functioning well.
the worst thing on my car after all those miles was my strut tower mushrooming. they were super bad, if you look on the Mini Madness site at the strut tower plates the pictures they use as an example are my car. george says its the worst he had ever seen. kinda makes me proud
and yet even with all that punishment the shocks and struts themselves were still good.

 

I'm about to make a move to some new progressive rate springs. My MCS has 50K miles on it and I am looking for input from someone as to whether or not I ought to invest in new struts too! I am looking at the Madness springs. Anybody have any experience with them???

Thanks.