I've been toying around with the idea of adding some lowering springs to my car....something mild, maybe just a 1" drop or so. I've seen some posts where some people have had issues with CV shafts making noise after they lowered their cars.....i'm guessing it's because the CV shafts are running a a different angle now.

How common of a problem is that? Should be be able to install some 1" lower springs and adjustable links in the rear and not have any issues after it's all been properly aligned?

 

You should have no problems with lowering springs. Nonetheless, its still slightly changing the angle of the CV shafts so something to keep in mind.

Couple years ago my R53 was slammed to the ground with Megan Coilovers and had to replace 3 CV Shafts total within a single year. At that point I wanted my performance and reliability back, so now the car is lowered just under an inch, no problems since!

 

That was only an issue if using cheap axles
I'm slammed on air riding fully tucked daily and have no issues with OEM ones
You have to pay for the good stuff...to get good results

 

Lol where did I say that I was using non oem cv shafts? Every replacement was with an oem replacement. Just sharing my experience, not everyone will have the same results

 

It just sounded exactly like what I heard when everyone who was buying cheap axels kept saying theirs only lasted 100 or less miles. You are literally the first person who I've read stating OEM axels failed in such a short amount of time
It seems out of the ordinary that OEM axels would do that which is why I made that assumption.
My apologies I guess in some very rare instances OEM won't last either. But 1" is nothing....the JCW sport kit lowers it 3/4" and maintains OEM tolerances

 

To shed some more light on my experience, 2 of the 3 oem axles that failed after "slamming" my car were the original axles which had 70-80k on them. Both replaced with brand new oem axles. The third one I broke within that same year was one of those oem replacments. Therefore only 1 failed prematurely.
Should have been more clear in my last post

 

Now that makes sense! Haha. Any slamming is a pay to play situation tho.....it's a matter if time when you start going past 2" on the Mini.I've noticed on Air that my upfront costs are more but I'm not blowing through as many parts as I did using coils. I think the heavy spring rates coupled with aggressive valving on most top of the line coils will make components wear faster. Air struts get softer when you lower them so the jarring forces aren't as great....but the angle is most definitely askew.

 

http://www.driveshaftshop.com/import...not-for-racing

100k+ miles on mine.

When I was lowered the OEM axles would vibrate.
Replaced them with these and the vibration went away.

Was only lowered about 20k miles though before I went back to stock height.
Colorado roads were just too much for a lowered Mini.

I also have over 2 dozen track days on the driveshaftshop axles.

Their big dogs.
http://www.driveshaftshop.com/import...-level-2-axles


Just a suggestion .......

 

^ this


Soooooo right

 

Yeah, we've installed a few from the Driveshaft Shop to good results. To echo what has been said above, mild lowering (around 1") does not seem to increase the failures of axles. Really low, and they can break.

 

I agree, anything past 2" mark is where the vibration and eventually failure seem to occur.
The Megan coilovers I had were extremely stiff, so that wouldn't surprise me!

DanSeals- Thank you for sharing! I will be hitting the track soon. Ill give these a shot if i ever have problems in the future