My MC40 has the "Sport Plus" suspension which, as I understand it, is 20% stiffer than the Sport-only suspension. Regardless, it's WAY too stiff for a daily driver, especially after I installed poly bushings. I'm afraid the rattles are going to become more than I can bear. I don't track the car and would like a more compliant ride but do not want to lower the car (or spend the money) so adjustable coilovers are not an option. I am willing to swap the coils for something a little softer. Is anyone running just the Sport-only coils with poly bushings? If so, please provide feedback on your ride comfort. Any other comments or suggestions? Thanks.

 

Find someone with a Cooper suspension or just the normal Sport suspension and swap it out. Maybe an even trade? Other then that going to KONI Reds and changing to stock Cooper S springs will help.

 

I was under the impression that the Cooper came standard with the Sport suspension and Sport+ was an option, while the Cooper S came standard with the Sport+ suspension. Or at least I think that's the way it was when I ordered my car in 2006.

 

Cooper comes with a suspension thats not sport standard(it was an option), but i have swapped Cooper NON sport Suspensions in to Cooper S, for a softer suspension. People back in the day when the cars were new did it,.

 

My window sticker lists the sport suspension as standard on my 2006 base, and I know for sure that I didn't check an option box for it.



Not sure why it rotated my photo. Sorry about that.

 

It think MINI called them back in the day was sport and sport + for the cooper, (or they called them all that for terms or marketing) but it was optioned in the parts w/o and w/ sport suspension S228A:

https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2004-...ension/Shocks/

See the oem parts w/ and w/o sport suspension for the Cooper models..

 

Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure the non-sport suspension was the Mini One. I think I remember the old Mini Challenge cars running the Mini One front sway bar because it was the smallest stock bar available - smaller than the sport or sport+. S228A is the code for the "sport suspension settings plus."

I could be wrong, but that's what I've always seen.

 

the springs aren't the issue, it's the shocks causing the harsh ride. I've had more customers than I can count with the same issue and this has been the best fix.
Change them out to the FSDs and it will ride 100 times better even with the stock springs.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/koni-s...0-r52-r53.html

 

I had actually wondered if that might be the issue. I seem to be fairly tolerant of cars that don’t ride great though, so I wasn’t sure if my opinion is particularly relevant. I’m currently on Koni yellows with Swift springs, but the thing I noticed most when my old struts were going was the car wallowing really bad under heavy braking.

I looked back, and I actually did run poly bushings with the sport suspension for about a year, and the ride was fine. But, like I said, I seem to be pretty tolerant, and I’m also on 15 inch wheels.

 

I'm running Bilstein B4s that I thought were not particularly stiff. Am I wrong?

 

Honestly I've never been a fan of the B4s, they are more of just a cheap option for replacement I feel. They don't always fit right, and like you I haven't found any improvement on the ride as I don't feel the dampening on them is idea. That is why I always use the FSDs.