Or maybe I should say try it at home first .A few weeks ago I installed my PSS9 coilovers. After playing with my final ride height I found a nice look and safe height. Well I then decided to play with the dampning settings. The settings go from 1softest to 9 hardest. I set the front and rear to 9 sway bar on the middle setting no preload on the bar from the end links. I made the addjustments at 8pm and called it a day.

I travel into NYC 3x a week via the GWB and Westside Highway. What a surprise of a ride I had :impatient :impatient I feel lucky to be alive after that ride! The car was so hard that I felt like I was coming off the ground when I hit the expansion joints in the road. It seems as though setting 9 is equal to running with a ridgid set up. NYC roads are not fun in the MINI. Its much easier to park on the streets with the MINI than my Tahoe hence my need to drive it into the city. Now I know why guys who ride ridgid frame choppers dont do so for long periods. I was in pain from the ride in .

I realize that this is all my own fault due to the fact that I should have test drove the car the night before . Well now I have front and rear set on 2 and I feal the smooth stock ride is back along with an 1 1/4 drop. Now I am happy again . I have a pic of the car in my gallery pre aero kit but I havent figured out how to post it using my mac.

 

Your car looks sick with 18s and the drop!!
Nice job!!

 

bilstein needs to make something like the EDFC from TEIN for those.

when i drove my x-98 prelude from LA to IL, i had to drive through Oklahoma...
holly crapola was the ride SUPER ROUGH! i was running full coilovers on that
car too with high spring/damp rates. hahaha.

 

I would have never thought that the car could ride so rough! I wanted to ditch the car into the river at the moment. Now that I found the groove at setting 2 I will keep it there until I track the car.

 

I had a similar experience driving my car home after PSS9 install (along with a number of other suspension mods). My installer set it to 9/9 F/R (full soft) and the ride was incredibly choppy. I set it to 1/1 (full stiff) and it felt tons better. Over time (1-2 months), 1/1 became more and more harsh and I went first to 2/3, and then back to 9/9 which by that time felt a lot better. It seems that there is a break-in period for the springs. I felt the same thing when I had H&R coilovers installed on my Audi - it was like being on a pogo stick for a few weeks. With the Mini, the short wheelbase exaggerates the pogo feeling. I've been planning to experiment some more with settings because 9/9 is definitely not optimal for cornering but it's been cold, I don't have a lift, I'm busy, etc. I suspect 5/6 or 6/7 would be a good compromise.

 

Your ride looks great. Good taste!

 

welcome to my world...

 

Interesting. Maybe you installed the ***** differently than I did, but 9 is the softest and 1 is the hardest on my PSS9s. I had them set at 8/9 (F/R) originally, and as the system has broken in I've adjusted the settings slowly. I'm at 6/7 right now, and the car feels great over small bumps and choppiness. The only problem is the short wheelbase and lack of rear suspension travel (especially with a large rear sway bar). Over large expansion joints, the rear doesn't have enough travel and can be really harsh.

On a 2/3 setting or so, the car is just way too harsh. It gets unsettled if I hit even small bumps in corners.

 

Its not a break-in on the springs, its a break-in on the dampers.

 

I went all the way to one side when setting them up, then got under the car and turned them the other way without looking at the #s so you may be right! I felt each click into each setting. Its in the 20s here today so I wont be outside too much but I will take a look at my dial again.