My Hubby has an 04 MCS that he lowered on M7 coilovers about 6 months ago. He has had the vibrations that so many feel after lowering the car.

This last weekend, he raised the front coilovers about 1/2 an inch and the vibration has reduced significantly. Now he is pretty sure that he needs to replace the CV joints after reading here and raising the car. He had raised it previously also, so it now sits quite a bit higher from where he likes it.

Where can you get replacement CV joints, and is it really better to get the racing CV joints? I have been unable to find the racing ones for his car.

 

They make racing ones to the tune of $1400 or so. I would post the links but somehow my Mini links are gone from the computer. Lowering and raising the car changes the geometry of the tires. Maybe the tires are cupped? Mine are like that and I have vibrations since lowering (but everything in my car vibrates or rattles..lol ). My axles are just fine and Im slammed down on PSS9's.

 

He put new wheels and tires on when he lowered it. Since he raised it though, the vibration is minimal. From what I have read here, this is caused by the CV joint being out of it tolerance range, and racing CV's should help. He would really like to drop it back down a bit. Are the CV's what he needs to do?

 

CV's develop a wear pattern and raising or lowering the suspension after it has significant miles may cause vibration in the CV joint. Often times it will go away in time as the CV is worn into the new angle.

Unless the Mini has a very high HP/Torque aoutput from significant mods swapping out CV joints to a race type set is a waste of money. The OEM ones stand up to some pretty hard use.

 

He only had about 23,000 miles when he swapped them. He had the vibration right away and it didn't change with different tires or with an alignment. The alignment is within specs. He doesn't have a ton of mods. His MCS is a JCW and he changed the intercooler to a DFIC, put in a CAI, an engine dampener(no vibration from this), and a strut tower bar.

 

I picked this up somewhere on NAM.
Give them a call I think they can at least guide you in the proper direction.
http://www.driveshaftshop.com/

 

I contacted that link, and they are not making them right now.

More information: He says the vibration is from 47-50MPH now. He feels it very slightly at other speeds, but it is quite noticeable at between 47 and 50. He said it did lessen when he raised it, but now that it has settled again, it is worse again.

What else could it be? It doesn't seem like the axle is at an extreme angle.

 

Plus, if it was the axle..i would think it would do it ALL the time....

 

it was doing it almost all the time until he raised the front coilovers up a little over 1/2 an inch.

The old threads that I read about this, seemed to point to the CV joints. Is this not actually the case? What else would cause it?

 

Contact Tony Nuzzo from Nuzzo Motorsports... he's got a complete set of custom, race-ready axles sitting there, ready for shipping.

 

LOL...Your gonna recommend Tony's race axles to her?... Shoot...I see those going into my car before hers...

 

Im just throwing out guesses here so take it with a grain of salt. You say that when lowered it vibrated alot. Could be a tire balancing/wearing issue. Then when raised it only does it near 40-50mph. Now, theoretically speaking...if there was a groove worn into the axle at any geometery point...don't you think it would still do it all the time? It's not like the axle says. "We are about to hit 50mph let's start vibrating.".....lol. I would suspect tires or rims before I go out and throw huge coin down on axles and then it not fix the problem...

 

Why not?

 

I don't know why it wouldn't do it all the time. I have been reading past posts on here for a while on the subject. There were others who either raised their car back up, or changed out the axle and the vibration resolved itself.

I don't believe that it is a matter of a groove being worn, I believe it is possibly a matter of the CV operating outside of its parameters.

We had the wheels and tires checked 3 times. They were brand new right after(days) we installed the coilovers and lowered it. One tire was bad, and replaced.

 

+1 I had a set of axles made by them for my 300whp Mazda MX3 and they are doing juuuust fine!