Took less than 2 hours to perform the work w/ a compressor. 200 mile drive reivew...Looks great now just rides like crap. Hitting bump stops now over the same roads traveled...yeah corners better but pray there isn't a bump/dip in the turn....but it does look damn good

 

Just remember what Fernando says:


"It's better to LOOK good than to FEEL good....."

 

Thats no good about the ride comfort. I just purchased the H&R springs and will have them on by next week. It makes me sad now though

 

dwebber: Did you cut your bump stops???

 

I have yet to do anything. The springs probably wont be here till tomorrow and I wont have them on till this weekend hopefully. What do you mean about cutting the bump stops?

 

we put the H&R's on my wife's R56 over the weekend. It rides great. Just remember to cut the bump stops as said previously =)

 

Stupid me I was posing my question at ImolaS54...sorry.

 

My question still applies though. How do I cut the bump stops? Cause if thats what needs to be done I want to make sure to do it, so it rides good

 

we cut ours with a utility knife

 

I mean do I cut them out, cuts little slits in them, trim them down, what?

 

you hafta cut them almost in half..I will see if I have the piece I removed and take a pic of it

 

ok, so just cut half the bump stop off to make it smaller. I can definitely do that

 

I have a buddy at my work who had modded several types of cars over the years...and he is a bit of a gear head...so I trust his judgement totally. He's going to help me out when I go install my new springs.

But yes...as said above you have to cut the bumpstop about in half from what I've read. I'd check a DIY for springs...Maybe Alta has one?

 

Here is a link to the write up Adam from Alta did about his install
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t=%22Howard%22

 

I had the problem of hitting the bump stops and a overzealous rebound feeling with the Mach V springs I put on. I ended up taking them off. I bounced a few msgs back and forth with Dan at Mach V describing what I felt and that I thought it was out of balance and he never once suggested touching the bump stops.

Is that really a good idea? Can any experts endorse this?

 

OEM shocks can not handle the increased spring rate. So they speed of the travel is uncontrolled. Cutting the bump stops will stop the sound from happening all the time. But will cause the shocks to move out of it's design range (hence that is why they are that length) and will still not be able to control the wheel properly.

Solution....
Koni make great dampers for the r56 that can take up to 500lbs.in springs. And probably others with time.

 

hi,

i remove my H&R for send my car to warranty.

Next time I will put the springs i try to put some new aftermarket shocks.

 

I wouldn't cut down the bump stops...

I've been looking for the Koni sport dampers to become available for the R56 these but they are not listed on the Koni site. You have to go back to R50/R53 years for anything to come up. From what I understand the rear shocks are different. fastmini.net sells them with adapters. I wonder if this is ideal or if the Koni's that come out for the R56 will be tuned any differently along with fitting properly. Consequently I'm waiting for the official release before I spend any more money on suspension experiments. I had Koni's on a previous car and the handling improvement was nothing short of stunning.

 

They make replacements for the R56 now. You have to sacrifice your stock front damper housing to press in the insterst and the rear as only adjustable if you take off the damper to get at the settings. NO the best situation but for 800 $ the best performance upgrade you can make.

 

Except that if you hadn't bought springs, you could take that $350, plus the cost of the dampers, and do it right and get coilovers from KW, Megan/BC, M7, etc...

 

The MINI is a bumpstop-active system. Even at stock ride height the smallest bump will begin compressing the highly compressible and soft bumpers [aka foam bumpstops], which have about a 1.5" compression ability. When you use lowering springs, you move the suspension ride height into the compressed region of the bumpstop, so this means large bumps will be much more progressive [aka jarring].

Also, I might as well address those that for some reason thing their dampers are going to "blow out". The dampers were designed to rebound against the factory bumpstop. Cutting the bumpstop will dramatically change that rebound interaction, creating a "dead" ride that actually doesn't allow the car to properly articulate its suspension over large undulations. For what it's worth, the spring rate of the bumpstops is additive to the coil spring, and the damper IS designed for that net spring rate. As long as the lowering spring has a reasonably similar spring rate, the lowered setup isn't going to hurt anything except perhaps your fillings.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

some suspension mods are CRAZY expensive once you consider cumulative filling and chiropractor costs

 

It was a $1000 experiment for me since I didn't have the confidence to do the install and removal myself (plus two alignments).

That said, one of my personal criteria is minimal to no lowering so the Koni shocks sound good to me. The car is low enough for the road quality in my area. Do any of the coilover options out there allow close to stock height? Everything I've looked into lowers a minimum of 3/4" and I am told not to count on that number being entirely correct.

Still, I will try to arrange a test drive in M7's R56 to experience their coilovers when I'm in Sou Cal at the beginning of July.

 

Somebody has to go to the chiropractor so he can get a MINI!

 

As I was reading down the thread with all the mention of bumpstop cutting I was going to mention your research into the dampening system on the MINI and how integral the bumpstops are.

Go coilovers guys!