I've been looking up different aftermarket suspension options for my 06 Cooper Cabrio, but a lot of the suspension packages I see say 'Not for Cabrio' though not all. I'm worried that if I order one of the kits that doesn't say 'Not for Cabrio' that it still won't work.

I'm wondering if there's something specific I should be looking for, or if anyone has some suggestions on what aftermarket suspension would work properly with the Cabrio.

I'd prefer not to simply use lowering springs. I did that on my last car and the ride quality suffered. I'm looking for a full shock/strut combo, possibly in a coilover.

 

Really? I had no idea.

 

We have installed on our own MCS Cabrio, and on all customers Cabrios,

the Koni sport suspension kit, koni part number 1130-1900.

We have added a spacer to the rear suspension to compensate for the extra weight of the cabrio on the back.

The car handles and looks great.

Please let me know if you would like some pics

 

Pics would be great. Even on your own site it says "(hardtop only)". So i'm quite curious.

 

Yes, that is why we installed the spacers on the back,
without the spacers, the car sits too low on the back
and too much negative camber.

here are some pics of our cabrio with the spacers installed

feel free to call or PM with any questions

victor

 

btallack,
There are a number of threads addressing this issue. Here are a few links.

The firts one in particular is directly related to the cabrio and it has very good info there. The others are related to coilovers. Keep in mind that even if a manufacture claims the product to be made for "cabrios", you have to ask for the specifics, i.e. why... higher rate spring? shorter shocks? amount of drop? etc.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=78577

I'm currently running on Megan Racing coilovers and I am finally very happy with the ride. It wasn't an easy journey, though. Here is the thread on them...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=77257

After many changes...kurvhugr installed new springs on them and this made a hell of a difference in ride quality. I've since then, changed the springs myself. Here is that thread.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=88535

M7 and TSW are both comming out with new coilovers and they have gotten good reviews from what I've been reading.

M7 thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=90926

TSW thread:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=89549

The biggest issue has been the heavier weight of the cabrio on any aftermarket spring/coilover set up will compress the springs more than its counter part, MCS. Thus, reducing damper travel. This in turn has the effect of more bumpstopping/bottoming out and harsher ride. This was the main reason I decided to go with a fully adjustable coilover (i.e. Megan Racing). I've been running with the new springs on the MRs and I have not bottom out once yet. No, I'm not endorsing MR coils. It is simply that this set up is finally working for me. I'm concerned that some of the manufacturers of coilovers are not doing a complete and thorough testing of their products on cabrios and it will take some tweaking to get them properly tuned. This will leave us "the cabrio owner" in the same situation I was in with the MR coilovers and don't want to see this happen.

Oooooops...Sorry, didn't mean to jump on my soap box there. I'm not knocking anybody. I'm just saying we need proper testing.

Hope this helps.

 

I appreciate the very comprehensive response BrownFlyer. I will check out those links and look into the Megan Racing coilovers.

 

Hello Btallack,

I forgot to mention that the koni coilovers with the rear spacer will also work,

they are very similar to the kony yellows, only with a dded threaded sleeve to adjust the height.

Victor

 

My own lowering plans were to mount H&R springs (obviously the correct ones for an S Cabrio) along with Bilstein shocks. My understanding was that this would give me about and inch of drop. Any reason why that would not be a good choice for a car that will only see street duty? I run 17" wheels.

 

endlessearth, check out the first thread I posted above. A number of guys in this forum tried different spring/shock combinations and there's good discussion there.

Unfortunately, our Minis have been endowed with very little damper travel and any reduction of that w/o compensating with a shorter shock will have a negative impact on ride quality.

However, some people have found a happy medium. Sounds like Victor with Mini Works is happy with his set-up.

I was just measuring my set-up yesterday and come to find out that the Eibach springs I'm using have settled a bit more. But now that's not an issue because I'm able to adjust ride heigth via ride heigth adjustment or spring perch pre-tension (and that's where I'm going to make the correction.

Good Luck...

 

I've been running Bilstein PSS9 suspension for about 10,000 miles now and I love them!
The settings are so easy and qucik to change that I can change them to suit what type of driving I will be doing. I normally have them set at half way and lowered to about 10mm from max lowering (or should that be min lowering!!?). This way it still handles great but it's not so hard you loose fillings and I can make it over (most!) speed humps.