so i have a mcs with sports suspension. i wanted to lower my car but im not sure wat to get. i was planning on either the H&R springs or H&R coilovers. im not the type that ever adjust the coilovers so i dont know if i really need it. does the springs and stock sport suspension work well together or should i just get the coilovers? i was planning to get the alta control arm too. is it necessary to get the endlinks with either set up?
thanks

 

If you're not going to be the type to set up, adjust, maintain, and fine tune with coilovers then do not get them. Your not using all the features would just mean that you spent too much money.

If you're interested in lowering, keeping a decent ride, and easiest way to go then you want springs. Take a look at the Mach V springs we just got in stock for the R56.

For the control arm - if you're going to do it get the full kit of 4 arms, not just 2. The expense is worth it just from setting a decent alignment in the rear, and given what I've seen lately on snapping stock arms, stronger aftermarket ones would give some peace of mind.

As for endlinks - they are not necessary for just lowering the car. As for upgrade worthy some will say yes, some will say no. We've got our mini setup with some new suspension parts including a Whiteline rear bar set on the stiffest setting. So far we have not seen the need to upgrade the rear links, but we'll see what happens as we beat it up some more. Once we have a more solid opinion on that we'll give you a straight answer with no BS.

 

have to say its nice to see you guys at TIC posting so much!

 

has anyone given you guys feedback on the mach V yet.i havent heard about them before and ive sure heard of H&R.

 

to my knowledge, please correct me if im wrong people, mach v is a vendor and they were waiting for HR springs to come back instock, got sick of waiting, so they made their own, they sit .5-.75 higher than than the HR to my knowledge and are 200 for a set

 

oh does anyone know how well they perform? .5-.75 higher than the h&r seems a bit high dont you guys think? lowering the car, i mainly care about performance and not looks as much. do you think that stock sports suspension plus springs(H&R) will be fine vs. coilovers(H&R) cuz if i get coilovers ill probably set it to my likeing and never change it agian. do you guys think there will be a big difference between the 2 if i put the same hieght setting?

 

guppy: Thanks for your posts. I REALLY do not think you need coilovers. The springs should more than fit the bill for you. The H&R springs are an excellent compliment to the factory strut upgrades that come as part of the sports suspension. Ride quality is awesome and H&R has a long standing reputation with this community as well as many others. They also include a limited LIFETIME warranty, so you have extremely little risk.

coilovers are great for many clients looking for something far more aggressive, and or a very particular ride height. The H&R sport Coilovers are great for this user, and don't have the pitfalls associated with damping adjustments that cause havoc with most users.

If you have ANY suspension questions PLEASE don't hesitate to let me know. Always happy to help!

 

Information I've gathered so far

JCW Springs lower .4"
TSW Springs lower .75"
Mach V Springs lower 1.25"
H&R Springs lower 1.5"

 

Where have you heard of ONE case of control arms snapping in an '07!?!

For that matter, the only 1st Gen cars where I've ever seen a bent or snapped arm were '02 or early '03 build cars. They've been redesigned since then. The redesigned (non-drilled) part is way more solid in the 1st gen cars and the once-again-redesigned R56 arms are beefier, still and haven't had any issues that I'm aware of... unless you can show otherwise I'm calling BS.

I lowered my car w/ H&R's on MINI's Sport Suspension and I was able to get the aligment spot-on within factory specs using stock bars. The arms have concentric bolts and a good degree of adjustment. Skip them unless you want to reduce tire wear by decreasing negative camber.

No offense, but it sounds like someone's using scare tactics to sell a product.

 

yeah thanks guys, after this ill probably just go H&R springs. msh wat do you think about endlinks? how long did it take you to install the springs and how hard is it? thanks

 

They're around 0.25" higher than H&R. Maybe a little less. And they're $199.

Mach V Technic Springs - click me!

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

H&R's are rated at 1.4" drop.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

With the stock sway bars, skip the end links, too. If you ever get a different rear bar, or an ajustable bar in particular... start thinking about end-links then. With the stock stuff, lowering with springs doesn't change the relasionship between the components back there enough to make them necessary IMO.

As far as how hard? It's do-able with some fairly basic tools, know-how and a decent set of spring compessors. I've done a few cars on my own: two GTI's, two Volvos. On my own without any help I take about 45 minutes to an hor for the fronts and maybe 30 minutes each for the rear (air tools help al lot). With help from a couple friends 2 compressors, I did my S70R in 45 minutes. I had someone else do the MINI, though. Not necessarily because it was any more difficult (same McPhearson setup on all of them)... I just figured $200 for a spring swap AND alignment (which you will need afterwards, anyway) was a good price and I was impatient. The weather was horrible for all of March and I didn't feel like spending a morning laying in my rain-soaked driveway or waiting for better weather.

 

oh alright thanks dude ill go for the self install since i did it on my gsr and it wasnt so bad