I know my rears did....and I know of atleast one other persons rears tearing. Megan is glad to replace them for you. Just call them up and tell them that they're ripping.

 

Cool thanks!!

Richard

 

Ok, I've been pretty happy with my Megans except for one thing, and I want to hear from others with Megan's or Cross's---when you hit a sharp bump or transition--even on the softest setting--does your suspension sound like you just bottomed out or slammed into the bump with no give at all??

Last night I went over a road transition in my town.. an area that's under construction. In the wifes Murano, it just glides over it. In my MINI with the Megans--it went WHAMMMM!! and sounded like I bent the rim. I'm running 17" with low profile Nitto Neo Gen tires--215/40's with 35psi but when I was on Koni FSD's and H&R springs, these bumps didn't "slam" the car.

I notice this on other uneven sections of road--anything that has a bump in it--like a railroad track is very harsh. However if it's a drop off bump--I barely feel it.

If the Crosses don't do this, I'm going to upgrade to them, because at this rate of bending wheels and repairing them, the cost difference is worth it, and I'll never got back to non coilovers--so FSD's isn't an option.

Thanks

Richard

 

Running Megans for alittle over a year or about 16k. My car is a daily driver and I've got the same problem. Doesn't matter the setting or the ride hight they sound like i just riped the front end off my car. But at AutoX or on the track I love them.

 

Hello Richard, what version of the Megan's do you have?

 

I wish I knew how to figure that out. I bought it and had it installed by MiniCorsa. It was his first set of Megans and this was what maybe 2 or 3 months ago? I'm just wondering if all coilovers are like this or not?

 

Richard, Do not go for a ride in my car , That ride will be a very expensive one ! LOL !

Since trading up to the Cross Coilovers I am now at peace with my car ! These coilovers make the car feel sorted. The Megan's to me felt unsettled and lacked much travel ether way ! I had the latest version offered but after a couple of weeks switch to there shorter spring and shock combo. They both felt the same to me ! My car has "at least" a 2 inch drop but I still have full range of travel. My Wife even made commented about how nice the ride was after the switch. I just could not be more pleased !


I only wish I had saved my money and bought the Cross Coilovers in the first place.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah mine is a daily driver too, but I'm doing about 40,000 miles a year, and I have to travel on some of Los Angeles/Orange Counties worst freeways--if I don't get more compliant struts, then I"ll be switching to 15" high sidewall wheels----ooops, no, that's not an option since I've got the 4piston Wilwood BBKs.... I agree in hard aggressive driving the Megans are wonderful..I just wish that on full soft they wouldn't sound like I had no struts over those sharp bumps....

Haha Paulie--
I was hoping/expecting that you might reply. Ok, well if you say that you don't get those harsh teeth rattling slams over small sharp bumps on the Crosses, then I'm going to put my Megans for sale next week...I need to solve this ASAP because my custom wheels can't take this abuse--I'm going to go spend money to get them trued again, but I don't want to have to do it more than once.

 

I wish we lived closer to each other so that you could take Boo for a spin. You should try to hook up with someone up there and go for a little drive that run a set of Cross. I found that as soon as I put the Cross system on the car I no longer had that loud "bang" over any ruff patches of road I came across. I guess the best way to describe it is that the Cross coilovers feel like they're OEM. Zero noise, nice smooth transition over bumps and on the free way the car is smooth as butter ! My 18's feel like I'm on 17's with BIG side walls ! LOL ! My 16's feel like How I would imagine 15's would feel like with 205/55/15's. Mind you, I still take it easy over the ruff stuff and the bumps certainly don't go away but I now love the ride of my car ! I'm sure someone can make the Cross system as jarring as any coil over if you crank up the dampening enough. I'm set at 3/2 and it's incredibly smooth and works very well in the twisty bit's.

 

Paulie--your word is good enough, lol. Thanks for that bit of info--I wish this kind of info could be discussed more often in these threads--that's reason is enough to choose the Cross over the Megans.

Richard

 

One the reason that I have installed Megans on not only my own MINI but others was to help reduce the pot hole noise caused from bad roads. The designs of the BC coil overs is almost the same as Megans. I am not sure why the claims that changing to bc lowered the road noise? If you surf around you can find the dampenng data of both and can see that it would not physically make sense. You may want to talk to someone in your are that is more familar with setting up Megans in your area. Or give Megan a call.
Also just a thought but how are your control arm bushings in the front?

 

I've got powerflex bushings. The Megans don't have much adjustment, not sure how it can improve anything. I experience the same problem on the softest to medium settings. The Megans run fine for most surfaces. There are bumps that are drop offs that barely even phase the Megans--so control is maintained on the worst surfaces. But a jutting road imperfection for some reason doesn't get absorbed and sounds like an explosion upon impact. I'm sure my 17" rims and low profile tires don't help either.

I'm done with the Megans--they will be in the marketplace in the next week.

Just to clarify--the Megan's have provided the best combination of price to performance improvement in my suspension and I love them, except for use as a daily driver. With gas prices as high as they are, the huge number of miles I drive every year, I don't need to add in wheel repair to the expenses or cost of new wheels, lol.

 

I installed the megans about 2 weeks ago and i agree the ride is on the bumpy side. Are the other coilover just as bumpy?

 

Paulie had Megans before going to Cross and he's convinced the Cross which cost twice as much solve that problem. Another friend of mine picked up a set of Megans and put them on his MINI--and he also commented about the jarring ride on bumps.

Ugh, time to max out the credit card......

 

My experience so far is different from those of Paul and Richard...but it takes some explaining.

First of all, before the Megans, I was running on H-sport/stock shocks, which was my natural "baseline" for comparison.

Small bumps: With the Megans I could feel every single little imperfection on the road, and I mean EVERY one. This is, I think, the benefit (or cost, depends how you look at it) of linear springs over progessive ones. Its much more commuicative, but also makes the ride very busy. I personally find the Megans very good on decent roads.

Large bumps: On bumps where I used to bottom out with H-sports, the Megans can absorb them in a controlled manner. But with 8kg/mm front springs, the impact can definitely be felt and heard, and if the roads are very bad, it can really get to you. But I definitely wasn't bottoming out anymore.

After a few weeks with the Megans, I replaced the original 8kg/mm front springs with 6.7kg/mm H&R coilover springs in an attempt to get ride height to settle at where I wanted as well as to adjust the balance of the setup. To my surprise, ride comfort has very much improved also! I was amazed by the difference the 1.3kg/mm made in terms of ride quality (the car handling balance improved even more!). The small bumps can still be felt, but the larger stuff wont knock your fillings out anymore. I keep the damper settings at 13 from full stiff all around.

Richard: Have you tried stiffening up the dampers? It might sound counter-intuitive, but because of the limited travel in the front, a stiffer damper setting may be able to prevent you from bottoming out. Full soft might be the best setting for the not-too-bad roads, but I think large bumps may be a different story.

 

Interesting data points. I'm not sure how I'm bottoming out when I hit a bump that's less than an inch tall? I've had the same unsettling experience on full soft and 17clicks from full soft, and everything in between.

Are those with Crosses on similar rates to the Megans?

 

If you consider a spring's rate and then calculate its block height and account for the corner weight you end up with actual usable spring travel. This is very importatn with the mini since in its stock form it is a bumpstop active car - bumpstops are always in contact with the damper adding spring rate progressively.

Now, if we lower the car, remove the active bumpstop, spring rate becomes very very important. A lot of the kits sold for this car include active bumpstops or utilize the stock bumpstop.

Lighter spring rates of a given length have more available travel and heavier spring rates of the same rate have shorter travel - due simply to thicker coils. You have to find a rate that gives somewhere around 2" of actual travel. And, if you use a progressive rate bumpstop with linear rate springs, the system works progressively, despite the linear spring configuration.

Semi barrel shaped springs affer a little more travel

 

Very interesting. Thanks for the additional info!

Hmm, well I've set up an appointment with Danny at MINICorsa, so if anyone wants a good deal on my few month old Megans, PM me before I put them in the marketplace.

Richard

 

I have had the Megans on my car for a couple weeks now and love them. I got the latest version from AutoXcooper and think the ride is great. When I 1st installed them I only preloaded the springs by hand and to where I couldn't turn them any more. The ride was way smoother than stock I thought with the setting at 22 from soft on all corners. It did not handle nearly as good tho due to it being softer and wanting to roll in the corners badly. I then preloaded them and 1/2" in the rear and 1/4" up front and it completely changed everything. It rides rides just a little more bumpy than stock but feels alot more solid and one with the road.

IMO if you complain about the ride being bumpy in a lowered car don't lower it. That is what happens when you lower a vehicle.

 

Hmmm, you must not have done any reading of my past posts....I've been lowered for over 70,000 miles between my two MINI's. I'm comparing between:

Stock with HSports
FSDs with HSports
FSDs with H&R Greens
Megan Coilovers

I'm complaining about sharp bumps that are denting my wheels as result of the impacts--that didn't impact as hard with FSD's and H&R Greens and comparing that same bump in the wifes SUV that glides over it without any impact whatsoever--meaning it's not a very sizable bump.

 

OG: I really think something is wrong with your set of Megans. Bottoming out when you hit a bump less than an inch tall is makes no sense. But since you're pretty set on the Crosses, good luck with the sale! Although I have no experience with the Crosses for the Mini, I have driven other cars with JIC/Cross coilovers and they are spectcular. As for the spring rates, I've read that they come with F: 8kg/mm and R: 7kg/mm springs, very similar to the Megans. I'm pretty sure you can specify custom springs rates though.

 

I'm not so sure changing spring preload would translate into any difference in roll rate, and therefore have any effect on the handling differences you spoke of. A linear spring is a linear spring, spring rate is contant regardless of compression. I don't see how adding preload would stiffen them up.

Also, I think we all understand that lowering a car calls for higher spring rates and therefore will lead to a more bumpy ride. But OG is simply saying that he's not happy with his Megans, which I think are probably a bad set. Do you not agree that Megans are not the best coilovers out there? Plenty of other brands (that are often more pricey) can offer a better ride/handling balance.

 

Rustyboy had the cross as dose jan... ask them.
Wait you cant ask Rustyboy mark went and banned him.

 

You really should get your facts straight before posting. Rustyboy was given a weeks vacation, his ban ended today, and Rustyboy was online.

And as to your post, I'd rather ask a user who had the Megans before going to the Cross so he knows both sides.

As for me having a bad set---I'm going to go measure the bump, probably tomorrow. I have to do this when there are no cars around cause I'll be in the middle of a street..but I'd really like to get a measure of the height of this bump.

Other's have commented about the harsh impact on certain types of bumps, so I don't think this is unique to myself.

As I said before, the ride is excellent on most surfaces except for single impact bumps. Drop off bumps are absorbed just fine.

Richard

 

I, too, expience harsh impacts on certain types of bumps. But since you are talking about single impact bumps that are less than 1 inch in height, it just makes me wonder. I think two things you should check out are spring rate and spring length, which are both determined by the version of Megans you have. When you have time, perhaps you can pull the wheels off to look for the numbers marked on the springs. They will tell you what rate and length they are.

Are you running any preload on the springs? Spring preload determines where within the travel the car will rest its ride height at. And this is important because it determines how much bound and rebound travel the dampers have. For example, with a soft/short spring and no preload, the car may be settling near the bottom of the suspension stroke at ride height, leaving no room for compression and therefore bottoming out even when it just hits a small pebble.