hi is there a reason you would want coil over suspension over springs? other than being able to adjust the height at any time

 

With coilovers, you're able to preload each individual corner for increased handling characteristics.
With coilovers as well, you're able to switch out spring rates if you find the car isn't acting how you would like.
For many, it's a personal choice to wanting to 'dial-in' the vehicle beyond the basic spring kit.

- Erik

P.S. why aren't you posting this in the Suspension Modification sub-forum?

 

Not only what bluefox said but unless you track the car on a regular basis, I wouldn’t spend the money. Try a set of NM engr’ing springs, they’ll lower the car the perfect amount, ride great and still work for the occasional track day.

I ran NM’s for a couple of years before I switched to coilovers. I had to change over my 18’s back to 17’s for the street, the coilovers made it too harsh... much better with 17’s.


Mark

 

yeah sorry i def should have posted it there. mark did you run those springs with the 18s? thats actually what i want to do.

 

Yes sir... sure did. NO PROBLEMS!


Mark

 

Are these what you are talking about???
http://www.namotorsports.net/detail....t_cd/NM558856/

 

Yup, sure is... if you decide you want a set, I've got a set of NM springs I took off for my coilovers.

175 plus shipping.

 

If the reason or part of the reason you want to do this is to lower the car, if you do springs only then your shocks will be sitting out of their neutral position. So you "should" get different shocks also. With coilovers the shocks will be sitting in their neutral position. Does this really matter, I don't know if it does a little, a lot, or not at all? I would think it does at least a little. There have been a lot of discussions about this on MINI forums.

 

With coil-overs, the shocks will not be affected. You simply move the lower spring perch--that means that the shocks compress if the car sits lower.

There are several reasons to get coil-overs (or more properly, adjustable spring perches, because any setup where a coil spring goes around the strut is a coil-over-strut suspension design). They are:
- To be able to corner-weight the car to make sure the handling is even left to right, or to be able to "stagger" the car for left-turn-only racing.
- To be able to change the ride height of the car when you feel like it, without having to replace parts.
- To set the ride height exactly how you want it, without having to get custom-length springs.
- To be able to say "I've got coil-overs, yo!"

...There may be more reasons, but those are the valid ones that I can think of. Most street cars will set them once and leave them. There isn't a hugely compelling reason to get them on a street car, but the main reason not to is the expense. That, and the fact that the cheapie evil-bay ones are crap quality.