Koni FSD raised my ride height. What's stock?
 

Just had my 03 Cooper S returned to stock springs with Koni FSD shocks after running for 2 years on lowerings springs. I may have gotten used to the lowered look so much now it looks really high (I have found some posts on BMW forums about these shocks and raised ride height).

Could someone please measure the fender height of their 1st generation Cooper S with 17" wheels. I'm at 25 1/2 in front and 25 3/4 in back.

Thanks in advance.

Ulrich

My was 25 3/4 all around stock

I don't know how shocks alone could raise ride height - they only control the speed at which the spring moves up and down, but do nothing control the final resting place of the car on the springs. Spring tension, and height, would be the only way the car would have a final ride height that's higher or lower than what you previously had (assuming we're only talking springs and shocks).

According to my service manual-
Ride height in the rear is 26.1" on a MINI with 17" wheels unloaded and even higher in the front. This would be from the ground in the center of the tire to the highest point on the arch of the fender lower outer edge as seen from outside.

In reality when I have checked various MINIs at the dealership I have found quite a variation.

Thanks for that response. I appreciate it.

It is possible for shocks to slightly raise the ride height if you go from a stock shock to a gas charged strut. Happened to me on my audi TT when I went from stock to Bilsteins. Had to put on Eibachs to get it looking normal. When I put FSDs on my '06 Cooper, I simultaneously installed JCW springs ordered to my VIN specs. . . the mechanic who installed them initially said that the JCWs would result in a visible drop, but it was almost entirely negated by the FSDs - ride height change almost imperceptible visibly.

Interesting......I wonder how that is possible (I'm not arguing with you, just curious how it works). In theory at least, all a shock is supposed to do is control speed of movement as it should travel further and shorter than your springs can (if it doesn't then your bottoming out). Even with my own body weight I can eventually make any shock (at least for our purposes) extend all the way or compress all the way.

It's odd, I agree. I have been on several message boards and there seems to be a connection between this shock and higher ride height for certain, but not all, applications.

I have sen this happen before. Usually one brand of shock has a tiny bit more travel built in and is a stiffer shock. That doesn't mean they ride harsher since the valving varies from brand to brand also. Due to this the shicks can actually raise the vehicle a little bit.

I have an '96 dodge dakota that I replaced the shocks on right after I bought it which was new. I went to bilsteins since they offer a lifetime warranty and had good luck with them in the past on other trucks. The ride height raised around a 1/2" in the front and 3/4" in the rear. After nearly ten years that has not changed.

I agree that the FSD do raise the car by about 3/4". And I dicussed the fact with Koni and they agreed that they will do so. But did not explain why.

hmmmmmm

I don't understand how that is possible either. The shock has absolutely no weight bearing capacity. If it did you would be able to extend the shaft and place a weight on it and it wouldn't slide back into the body. The only thing I can think that would cause this, is the use of new or different spring perch rubber.

My FSD's did not raise the car at all.

I have a 04 Cooper w/43,000 and just replaced the stock shocks with the Koni FSD. It did raise the height about 1/2-3/4 inch.

I'm baffled as well. If you can push down on the shock with your hands and make the strut go into the shock housing, how is it that you imagine a 2500 lb car is going to be "Raised" when the only thing you're changing is the way the car is dampened.

The shock would have to hold the car up higher, and there is no weight bearing capacity. It's just a dampener, nothing more. If you removed the shock from the equation completely the car would be at the same height. Springs change ride height, shocks change bump and rebound.

Reading other posts on this issue I think it has to do with the spring perch location of the Konis vs. stock.

Sounds like a defect in the design then. If the spring perch is located physically higher on the shock than the OEM dampers you'd be throwing off all kinds of things.

Gas struts do exert some upward pressure on the shaft, although it's usually
more pronounced with high pressure monotubes like Bilsteins, which often
raise ride height up to a half an inch, and less by low pressure twin-tube
shocks, like most Koni, etc.

No doubt there's pressure, but if I can compress the tube with my bare hands, how is it holding up a 2600 lb car?

If it takes 50# of pressure to compress the tube with your bare hands,
and the spring rate is 200#/inch, then it will raise it 1/4 inch.

I'm guessing the FSDs don't exert that much pressure and something else
accounts for it, but don't know as I've never handled an FSD shock or strut.

There is no gas pressure inside Koni shocks.

I vote for the spring not having settled in to the perch yet, and if so, the height will go away.

I have FSDs - they did not raise my car.

But the strut does not exert any pressure at all. It simply slows down the movement of the springs. If you compress or extend the shaft of the strut it will stay wherever you put it.

The difference has got to be on the lower spring perch.

I didn't know that.
Have only had Bilstein HDs, which exterted a lot of upward pressure, and
Tokico Illuminas, which had about 1/3 as much as Bilsteins.
Of course, I had many dead Illuminas that lost this ability, and only one
Bilstein that went dead, but that one had been in an accident that bent
a suspension part.

I have had Bilsteins and Tokicos on my other cars and none of them had any built in pressure. Now just to make things clear.......most struts do have some resistance to bottoming out, but this is beyond the working cycle of the strut.

Well I've heard good things about the FSD's, but I don't want anything that raises my ride height - I imagine that this also affects camber and caster as well, which isn't a good thing.

I had an alignment as part of the install, so I'm good there.

FYI... I have a Mazda3 with Koni FSDs, which raised the ride height between 1/4" to 1/2". Doesn't matter to me b/c they are awesome, especially in autoX.

Now I have R56S coming in about 6 weeks! :)