Hi All,

Sorta new to the Mini world.

Purchased a set of TSW Springs and Ireland Engineering Fixed Camber Plates and had some observations that I hope might help the community, as the help I've received on NAM has proven invaluable.

First, I decided on TSW Springs over others as they are linear and the consensus is that they perform very very well. I would have preferred a bit more and equal drop (front to rear) but chose what I believe to be performance over looks. Time will tell.

I knew that I wanted some sort of protection against mushrooming shock towers. I had decided that the under tower supports would be the best option and was set to buy a set then noticed a set of used IE Fixed Camber Plates. Kill two birds (camber issue and mushrooming protection). Perfect.

Onto the install. I won't bore you with directions as there are some well written ones elsewhere on NAM as well as on various vendor websites. I noticed that some of the instructions on NAM had dead links to pictures which is really unfortunate. However, I found that Hotchkis has great instructions on their website with nice pictures in pdf. The following are observations from my install as well as tidbits of information that were relatively difficult to find on NAM. Hopefuly they'll be helpful for other suspension noobs...

Springs

1. When removing the front strut, spray lubricant where the bottom of the strut enters the steering knuckle. K-huevo's instructions state to do this but I kinda glossed over it and didn't use any. Just stressing the importance. I spent a lot of time being frustrated until I remembered the lube. Needless to say, removal of the second strut was much easier.

2. There is a Bmw strut tool that makes disassembly/assembly of the strut easy. Supposedly. I could only find them available online from a couple vendors at a cost of $80 or so. Ouch. I ended up using a spark plug socket and an allen wrench but later came across a tidbit of info on NAM - you can actually loosen the nut a bit while the strut is still attached to the car. Don't loosen too much as the strut is a PITA to remove even when fully compressed. I plan on using this technique to torque the nut to spec. I don't know if this is safe for the strut but seems like it would be ok in my non-professional opinion.

3. Fasten the pinch bolt (to the strut) before the drop link on reassembly. I did it the other way initially and the drop link kept rotating the strut so I couldn't align it properly.

4. I found that the front of the car needed to be raised evenly on both sides. It was difficult otherwise, to reconnect the drop link.

5. Don't forget that there is a tab on the strut that slides into a slot on the steering knuckle! Kinda like a piece of ham in between bread. The pinch bolt needs to go through the first slice, the ham then the 2nd slice. I totally spaced out and couldn't figure out why the strut wouldn't seat properly, thought it was just friction, lowered the car to put weight on the strut and bent the tab. Lame.

6. When trying to determine IE Fixed Plate orientation, remember that you are trying to move the top of the stut toward the center of engine bay. When looking down at the top of the oem strut, it will be centered in the peephole. The IE plates will place the strut tops off center toward each other.

7. Because of the above, I had trouble aligning the tab on the strut so that the pinch bolt would go through. The bottom of the notch on the tab was obstructing the hole that the bolt travels through. I had to enlarge the notch on the tab slightly to make it work.

That's kind of it for now. I wish I had the forethought to snap some pictures but I was a little too engrossed in getting the install right.

On another note, my shock boots were in pretty bad shape. There were filled with some pepples and dirt. I emptied them and put them back on but are they even necessary? Seems like they may have been doing more harm than good by trapping particles.

 

Thansk for the tips. Hoping to put some IE plates in soon, probably on stock springs but possibly with TSWs.

I think the IE fixed plates are a no-brainer for everyone that doesn't need more than 2 degrees of camber.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback. Did you cut the bumpstops? I definitely would and I probably will even if i stick with stock springs.

- drew

 

Yes, I did cut the bumpstops per TSW's recommendations. About 3/4" or so.

 

Aaargh! I just had TSW springs installed on the front yesterday and I totally forgot about the bumpstops! Thanks for reminding me.
I did the rear ones myself on the weekend (and cut them), but I wasn't able to get the old front ones off so I had to take it to a garage.
Anyway, I'm liking them so far and no problems hitting the bumpstops that I noticed. It is not a harsher ride than stock, I was expecting much more vibration.
So, did you need to "clearance" the springs when you installed the IE plates? That has shied me away from buying them.

 

With the current version TSW springs, you do not need to clearance the shock towers. The springs are slim enough that they do not rub when using them with IE fixed plates.

 

good news, except I just noticed I'm in an R53 thread oops

 

For R53 owners...no, I didn't have to clearance. I have about a 1/4 inch of clearance between the body and the springs (v3), which are cylindrical in shape, not egg-shaped like the previous or oem versions. As Trippy stated, they're fairly "slim". However, I've read that earlier years (I have an 05) have less space so I'd be prepared to clearance. It doesn't seem too difficult...it's just the idea of hammering on any part of the car that made me think twice as I was preparing for installation.