Some have experienced, including myself, a creaking groaning sound when turning to full lock one way or the other. I was pulling my subframe yesterday (again lol) and noticed a scraping sound when I was twisting the strut mount to gain room for some of the bolts. It looks as though the spring has been scraping the body of the car as it moves towards the lock. It's hard to see but there is definitely some bare metal and some surface rust indicating this has been happening for some time. So my question is what do I need to do to prevent this? Is the spring compressing more due to shock failure? The spring has not twisted and looks to be in the proper position on its perch.

 

Is anything loose on the strut/shock? What condition are the mounts in? How many miles on your MINI and what have you replaced for your suspension?

 

Nothing loose that I can see. The mounts seem to be fine. If there is any mushrooming it is imperceptible. I have 179,000 on the clock and have IE fixed camber plates and the M7 strut brace. The FSDs have about 85,000 miles on them.


I am starting to think this has been happening ever since I put the plates on which pushed them inward toward the panel. The springs seem to have a plastic coating which was smooth when rubbing on the painted surface. Now that the plastic coating is gone and the paint on the panel is gone you now have metal on metal contact which creates the creaking groaning noise and the slight stiffness in steering where it starts to rub. The section of one spring that is rubbing is not in the same position on the other side so I only get one side that rubs. That's my theory for now.


I will need to remove the IE plates until I can find a different profile spring/strut setup or go back to stock plates. I will have to do some axle boot replacements soon so that will be my opportunity "while I'm in there". By the way Pelican, I used your guide in conjunction with my Bentley to help with the subframe removal. Thanks again!


Any thoughts on this?

 

The camber plates could definitely have a play in this. I'd recommend maybe doing less camber and see if the contact/noise goes away as an experiment. This will help us determine if they are or aren't the problem. Very happy our guide was helpful to you. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Unfortunately the plates are fixed. That's why I am thinking of springs with a smaller diameter or replacing the camber plates. At least I solved the mystery. Now I can concentrate on the other mystery noises.

 

Ah, yes. Most of the time camber plates are installed with the idea that some sort of upgraded spring has been added. Coil overs and springs, most of the time, have a smaller diameter over stock. I do not believe the FSD's are made for anything other than OE springs. Might want to try and throw a set of Lemforder mounts on and see if it fixes it. What other noises are you hearing?

 

Yes I learned the hard way. I'll be removing the plates until I figure out what I want to do.

The other noises include a rattle prone tensioner stop and some mild bumping in the rear suspension. Maybe top hat bushings? I'll be digging into to all that later.

Thank you for the replies. Much appreciated.