Installed my springs on my 2008 MCS on Monday, and am getting a lot of noises that I didn’t have before. Reassembly was exactly like disassembly: boots, bump stops, washers, strut bearings, etc. All is tight on the top end (struts pushed in) and no movement since install. Pinch bolt through the knuckle tight and end link for sway bar tight. Car sits good and I like the ride/handling, but when I go over bumps I get some loud thunking like something is not right. For example, entering my parking garage at work, there is a step up of about an inch. When I go across it, it sounds like the whole strut is being driven toward the back of the car. On uneven approaches, where one wheel will lift before the other, I get groaning from the struts. Never a sound from the stock springs.
On the rear, same with everything tight on the upper bolts and lower bolt, plus end link. Yet sometimes when I go over a bump and the rear comes up and then comes back down (big expansion strip), it sounds like the strut is loose, or the spring is loose on the strut and makes a lot of noise. Both sides of the car make noise.

I didn’t get any instructions with the springs, so looked at other NAM posts on installs of the H&Rs, etc. None said anything about cutting the dust boots or bump stops, so I put it back together the way it came apart. I have done lots of other cars, but not had the sounds issues I have right now. I have about 100 miles on them so far, so I know they will still be settling. I really like the ride/handling, but when I go over a bump or driveway, the car now sounds like a POS. Needless to say, my wife was not too thrilled that I spent money to change the suspension and it now sounds like this.
Anyone else have these issues? I’ve written TSW, but haven’t rec’d an answer yet.
Suggestions appreciated.

 

- Check the sway bar end links for tightness and alignment.
- Check the clearance of the sway bar end itself. Maybe that is contacting the other suspension components.

Not sure if this is really your problem. but from your description that is where I would start to look. It is hard to "correct" these issues over the web..

Lastly where are you located. Perhaps another MINI friend can swing by and be a second pair of eyes to check out your MINI???


Good luck,
BBCooper

 

From the installation notes

[FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]

HINT 2 – On any lowering spring (including TSW) you may have to trim the bump stops.
On the TSW sport springs we suggest you trim the very last bulge (0.5 – 0.75 inch) off the
bump stops. This is much easier to do when the spring/shock is off the car and

unassembled.
[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

I had a customer with this issue a few weeks ago and here was the reply from TSW;
We have had very few cases where the springs were noisy.
In one case the springs were not properly seated in the upper and lower perch up to the ends of the rubber gaskets. In this case the guy jacked up the wheel to let it drop and rotated the spring to its seating point (up against the stop on the perch and gasket).

In two additional instances we found that the upper spring perch itself was not like normal OEM perches. A normal spring perch should be straight up and down on the part that goes into the spring and curved under smoothly at the bottom. Two people had one normal perch and the other perch had a bulge all the way around the bottom. To check this out we went to our local MINI dealer and looked at several front spring perches. To our surprise we found one with the bulge at the bottom which is causes by over-stamping the part (these are stamped out in production). One guy filed his spring perch off at the point of contact, repainted it and put it back on. The other guy left his alone and the noise went away. In both cases the contact point with the perch was 180 degrees away from the upper cut end of the spring, which is the point the upper coil begins to exit the spring perch.

Hope that helps, Dustin

 

thanks all. As noted, there were NO instructions in the box. Just 4 springs. If I have to pull this all back apart, I'm gonna be pissed.
Fig

 

Yeah, they should probably print that page and send it with the springs.