It's time for new shocks on my 125K mile R53. I plan on keeping the original springs and I mostly drive it on the street but do take it to the track 3-4 times a year. I have poly bushings most everywhere, R56 rear trailing arms and a WMW rear sway bar. I know that B4 are OEM replacements but I wonder if B6 will be overkill? Will I get much benefit with OEM 125K mile springs.

Is there something in between the B4s and B6S?

What do you think?

 

The B4s are IMO a cheap OEM replacement and not a performance shock. Only good use would be a bone stock daily driver.
Since you do some track stuff I would recommend going up to the Koni yellows as they will perform far better and are adjustable. The B6 are ok, but I find don't ride as well as the Yellows.

 

I'm with Way. I put B4's on my E82 because I DESPERATELY needed new shocks and nobody had any good performance shocks in stock.
I find them on par with stock, which were always too soft for my driving style.

 

It probably depends on what suspension your MINI came with but I'll give you my take on them. I have a 2003 R50 (Justa). I bought it with 4 completely hammered OEM shocks/struts. I've driven a grand total of 4 MINI's so this is purely my opinion with not a lot of direct comparison. With the stock springs I would say they are better than the OEM parts on an R50. That said the only S I've driven was an R56. With Tein springs and a 19 mm RSB they are pretty stiff. I have Koni's on another car and have had a whole mess of other brands on different vehicles over the years. If your looking to upgrade, the Koni's are probably better. If your looking for a cost effective replacement to what you already have, I am VERY happy with the Bilsteins. I don't track my car. But I do hit up the Dragon from time to time and I'm a back roads junkie. I regularly embarrass cars with two to three times the HP of my car on ramps/curves/turns. I have over 40,000 miles on mine so far and they are doing great. They have lost no dampening ability as far as I can tell and none of them are leaking.

 

I wish Koni still made the FSDs! They totally transformed the ride on my track MINI. FWIW, I just replaced the shocks on my 2014 Paceman with 63k with the B6s. Nothing was wrong with them, I just wanted a refresh. There was a significant improvement in ride quality for sure, but nowhere near the change the FSDs made to the R53.

 

Have you ever used the B4's? I'd be curious to see how they compare to the B6. When I was into Mustangs, you got the Koni's if your couldn't afford the Bilsteins. Funny how it seems to be backwards for Minis. I've been thinking about replacing the B4 with a B6 or the Koni orange (STRT I think) when my B4's wear out. I run 40k+ miles per year and I'm hoping to get at least 100k out of them. Time will tell.

 

Nope, I never considered the B4s, as I wanted to feel improvement from stock. I think you'll get more of an impact going with the Koni oranges.

 

Something else I will suggest to the OP is Ireland Engineering fixed camber plates. It gives you a little camber, has heavier duty strut bearings (they use BMW Z4 bearings iirc), they protect your strut towers from mushrooming (big problem with these cars), and you'll have to pull the stockers off to replace your struts anyway so that would be the time to do it. At 125k there probably due for replacement. Mine were both torn at 82k.



I got mine from Way. The price was right and they shipped fast.




I originally ran the B4's with stock springs



This is the current setup. Bilstein B4, Tein S-Tech, and IR fixed camber plates.

 

Excellent advice on the camber plates. IE products are solid!

 

I’ll throw one more Koni into the ring! Lol.

I personally love my Koni Yellows on both my RaceR50 and now RaceR56S, but they both have lowering and stiffer springs!

A lot of people have loved the Koni FSD(gold), now revised to the Koni Special Active(red, red must be better! Lol)

I would like for other MINIacs take on these?

https://www.summitracing.com/search/...=Koni%20active

 

The Koni Special Active reds are FSD, they just changed the name. At least that is the impression I was under. Anyhow, I LOVE the feel of my Koni reds...

 

We’re running a similar set up on a daily driver with B4 and H-sport springs. The ride is not all that different from stock so the B4 is a good OEM replacement. I did trim the bump stops front and rear to help from bottoming out.

Combined with the Conti DWS 06 stock sized 17” tires, the ride is actually pretty good…until you hit that large expansion joint which nearly launches the car skyward!

 

This is exactly why I don't like the B4s. Not enough rebound damping to control chassis movement.
I have H-sport springs and Koni adjustables on my R53 (would have gone B6 but wanted the adjustability). Couldn't be happier with this set-up.

 

Great to know. When the B4s finally barf, we'll plan to upgrade the struts to something better like the Koni adjustables!

PS. To be fair, the compression dip/expansion joint is a challenging road obstacle for a lot of cars, but with so little suspension travel, the MINI is really tested.

 

I am the OP and do I have this straight?

B4 is Oem Equivalent.
Koni FAD (red) is more aggressive but less than B6
B6 track shocks

i am not looking for coil over adjustable shock. Most of the driving is spirited road driving and a few track days. I actually have 16s and 17 inch tires. 16s for comfort driving. 17s for track days.

 

Yes the Bilstein B4 is a "cheap" factory replacement.
The B6 is supposed to be a step up but for the price, from what I read from other peoples experience, the Koni's are a superior product.

On to Koni. The red shocks/struts are now listed as "with FSD technology" so it seems like the reds are new and improved FSD's (I think they previously had a gold powder coat). The Koni red are NOT for lowering springs so if you plan to keep your OEM springs, I've never read any one give them anything other than top reviews.

Koni yellows are probably one of the most recommended shocks outside of coilovers in the Mini community. They are adjustable and work with lowering springs.

Koni orange is what I will most likely replace the B4's with. I'm very happy with the Bilsteins but I went cheap because the car had a ton of maintenance to catch up on when I bought it and I was on a tight budget. IMO the orange are comparable to the yellows but are not adjustable.

I was waiting to respond because I was hoping someone with more experience would chime in and I'm not exactly an expert on such things lol.

To wrap it up, if your keeping the stock springs and you don't need adjustable shocks I'd go with Koni Special Active (red).

I'll post a link to the Koni's below but I have no ties to any specific vendor and no idea who has the best price and shipping or customer service, it's literally just the first website that came up on a Google search.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.ecstuning.com/News/MINI_Koni_Active_Suspension_27225/&ved=2ahUKEwiF4YyG3ZTxAhUYv54KHcRtBZoQFjAAegQIBBAC &usg=AOvVaw3qKWqSUZqnBeFZhFVi2m5h

 

Well I give up. I've tried at least a half dozen times to copy a link to www.ecstuning.com page with the Koni suspension products and this **** phone won't cooperate. I'm sure you can figure it out though...

 

Thanks. This is the kind of info I was looking for. Something between B4 and B6.

 

https://www.ecstuning.com/News/MINI_...pension_27225/ their you go.