Idk either hah. My wheels are 35 et I think. 7.5 width. So we shall see. Kinda excited that I finally made up my mind. :D

 

I would highly recommend you consider control arms from this fellow. The only people so far who have had anything not positive to say about them are people who have not used them. I think they're the bees' knees.

Also, keep in mind that the stock rear control arms are NOT adjustable. (I've heard this changed in some 2006, and in second-gen cars. But it's certainly not the case in my 2005.) Front camber is also not adjustable.

 

What extra stuff you need depends on your goals (looks or handling or both).
If just lowering for the looks you might be able to get away with just springs and an alignment by using the stock rear adjustment to reduce the rear camber as much as possible. The amount of negative camber will depend on the amount of drop. The front camber will not change with lowering so no issue at the front. If you drop around 5/8"-3/4" the stock adjustment should get you back to the -1.5 to -2.0 range which is fine and within the stock spec for the rear. If you drop an inch the stock adjustment will probably get you back to the -2.0 to -2.5 range which might be OK with the amount of driving you do. It is a trade off between wearing tires a little faster and spending money on rear control arms. On my 2003 Mini I just did H&R springs with no alignment and no rear camber adjustment (adjustable rear did not start until 2005) with no problems other than faster tire wear. After a couple of years I then installed adj rear control arms. Thus you can lower the car, adjust the best possible, and see how the rear tire wear goes. If the wear is unacceptable then purchase rear control arms before your next set of tires.

 

I put M7 springs from craigslist on my car and some rear control arms from ebay... did all the work myself except for having a local shop do the alignment.
If you aren't racing or anything I would say the springs will be fine; no problems with anything on my car so far.

 

Interesting, those control arms look well made and feedback is good. I do tend to avoid no name stuff though, just to be cautious. Is there a thread on them here?

 

Yep. Check the suspension forum, search by "Duane" or by my previous posts. I posted some pictures, too, and several other users have posted their thoughts. I also have his sway-bar end links. All very high-quality stuff.

 

I normally don't advocate buying something you can't afford, but think about this: It's better to get the coilovers (and rear LCAs and camber plates) now on a credit card, and pay the interest for a year, than to buy springs, then coilovers, and do the job twice. That interest will likely be less than the cost of the springs if you pay it down aggressively.

OR.... Save up. You might not even want this car a year from now. I know you'll say I'm dead wrong on that, but go to any car dealer (for any make) and see how many one year old cars are on the lot. People change their minds, or their needs change. It happens.

I don't know

 

That's CRAZY to think a dealer did any update service, or repair before selling the car. I've worked at dealers and used car salesman/managers will NOT put a dime in a car if they don't need to. This is why I always recommend having a car inspected before buying it. I just had a car in from a MINI dealer bought used and found it had been wrecked, bad bushings, leaky thermostat. And it still had the paper plate on it, but had the sheet in the car where the dealer had "checked" everything. Remember they are trying to make money on selling the car.

As for what "other people" have done. Here's lesson one about Car Forums there is always going to be someone that has done it bigger, better, and cheaper. And always a difference in opinions, that's what creates discussion, if everyone agreed there would be no reason to discuss.

I'm just talking from experience of working on these cars everyday that you should put rear control arms on and get it properly aligned. There are people that will disagree with me because they didn't do it, but in the real world look at their tires, and the specs on their alignment. You'll find it's not right.

As for what arms I recommend the Hsports, I have customers that have been using them since 2003 without any issues.

 

Cool, thank you. Hsport it is.

 

Good thread. Wanna put in my two cents of experience and, I don't know if it really applies but...I have lowered my GTI and the first set of coilovers I installed were VMaxx. They did go low but rode like Crap!!! I adjusted them throughout the entire range and they rode terrible - get what you pay for. Went with Bilstein and they made all the difference. They don't go as low as the Vmaxx but the ride is WAY better. Maybe the Vmaxx for the Mini rides better?? I'm trying to decide what to do with my R53....Bilstein coilovers or springs??

Here is a pic of the stock height and with the Bilsteins

Stock

Bilsteins

 

How would you trim the strut mounts to make it lower?

 

Everything you recommend is the products you sell. Geez

 

If he just wanted to make a sale, he would have said "Sure, buy lowering springs from me!" rather than give you detailed advice on how to properly lower your car.

I can see you're pretty new to this board. WMW has a good reputation around here for being an honest vendor of quality parts. Of course he is running a business, but it's worth noting that he carries the major, well-respected brands, so why not recommend them? I've seen Way give plenty of advice that wasn't likely to earn him a buck. I don't blame you for being skeptical of vendors on general principle, but you're a little off base with your tone, I think.

For what it's worth, I don't have a bias, since I'm of course not affiliated and I haven't even bought anything from WMW yet (although I'll probably order control arms shortly.)

 

Im also new here. Could someone recommend the best way to get rid of my wheel gap while having to replace as few parts as possible? I was considering the Vmaxx coilovers, but I will reconsider if it means that i have to shell out hundreds more for control arms, etc. Thanks in advance!

 

Lowering and the requirement for adjustable rear lower control arms depends on the year/model of your car and how much you lower the car.
In 2005 Mini starting installing rear lower control arms with a limited amount of adjustability. If you lower in the 1/2" to 5/8" range the stock rear camber adjustment should get you to an acceptable amount of negative camber so that you do not wear out tires too fast. 3/4" starts to get questionable on the amount of negative camber you can adjust out with the stock adjustment. 1" lowering will require aftermarket adjustable rear lower control arms.

For the least amount of parts, you can do a slight lowering with just springs.

 

Here is a link to a good post on trimming the front strut mount:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...front-end.html

 

Sounds good... but I have heard from a decent amount of people that if you lower with just springs then you wear out your shocks extra fast. Is that true? If so, how do you overcome this without swapping out everything else?

 

Depends on how much you lower. If just lowering in the 1/2"-3/4" range your stock shocks should not wear much faster than normal. I lowered my 2003 MCS when new with H&R springs about 1" with stock shocks and the shocks were still good after 45,000 miles when I totalled the car.
I think many people lower after the stock shocks have many miles already on them so the stocks fail sooner than they expect but I suspect the shocks were already pretty worn before lowering.

 

So there is pretty much no safe way to lower your car for ~600 bucks.

 

Springs and Lower Control Arms for < $500.

Springs about $230 depending on brand:
http://www.waymotorworks.com/tsw-min...e-springs.html
Adjustable Rear Lower Control Arms are about $240
http://www.waymotorworks.com/tsw-rear-control-arms.html

Then $100 for a 4-wheel alignment.

 

Well of course this is how I make my living, its not a side job and I don't work out of my house like many other vendors. But just ask anyone that has interacted with me and they'll tell you I'm a no BS guy and if I thought something was better I'd tell you. There are plenty of products I sell that I don't recommend too.
Also if you notice I carry almost every brand you can imagine. And there is a ton of stuff not listed on my site, just because I don't have time to list it all because working on MINI's is our #1 priority. I can get anything for a MINI.

 

One point about aftermarket springs wearing out your shocks faster: great, the sooner you can justify replacing them with something better than the OEM shocks!

I didn't realize lowering was going to be so pricey when I first got the notion. At the end of the day I'll have purchased coilovers, spacers, and rear control arms which brings the total to about $1350 plus installation. I'm sure it'll be worth it, though. Best to do it right once.

 

Ouch, I was just going to put the VMaxx's on and dump it..................sounds like thats only the half of it :(

 

Well, I'm not sure about spacers with the VMAXX, although I haven't heard about anyone saying they needed them, so it might just be the coils and the lower control arms, so that comes in at under $900 (plus shipping, etc.)

I also bought new wheels to put on at the same time... I hope my girlfriend doesn't find out how much I spent

 

Its odd, I used to have a nice lowered 2010 R56 JCW and now find myself just sharing the Mrs R50. However she has given me a little 'free reign' so I had planned on just the coilovers so it looked real stock just dumped - but I have a set of black R105's that were going to go on my JCW so im trying to decide if I think the colour would suit the body and roof colour of our Quicksilver ...........to be continued, ha esp now that it looks like I need these rear control arms