Not sure, but I've been told these are great ones:

http://www.waymotorworks.com/h-sport...ber-links.html

And they will fit our R60 as well.

 

Yes we've had them on the R60, and they are by far the best as they are quiet and I've got one customer that has had them on his car for 9yrs and not wore them out.

 

Well, they're a few bucks cheaper which is OK by me. Maybe someone will start a new thread on this subject.

 

Thread on rear adjustable controls arms?

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...trol-arms.html

 

As I mentioned in the other thread, I just ordered the H-Sport from WMW. Once I get them installed and adjusted I'll update.

 

So Im getting quite tired of the bounciness of the NM springs, especially in the rear. Ive gone as far as ditching the runflat tires and getting an alignment to NM's specs, still no help, the car is rough as hell.

I took a look at the springs with the car on the ground, and not sure if I like what I see. I know the top portion of the spring is at a different rate than the rest, but with the mini sitting on the ground, with noone in the car, is the top part of the spring SUPPOSED to be completely compressed? This is a bit disheartening!

There is no way this is normal, shouldnt the top part be providning more dampening???

Can anyone else that has the NM springs post pics? Are these installed wrong? What gives?

 

I posted previously that they missed the boat on their progressive rate spring in the rear, and that photo obviously proves it. They need to go back to the drawing board and make a linear rate rear spring.

 

sucks because i just spent a bunch of money on new rear control arms, installation and an alignment and the car rides like absolute garbage....

 

Can someone else post a pic of their rear springs? Someone with a NM suspension?

 

I'll take a pic of mine and post tomorrow. I just put them on this weekend and I don't have that issue at all. One other thing is that my nm springs are blue and say made in Germany. They also don't sit squashed like I see in that pic

 

I've put NM springs on two different Countrymans (Countrymen, LOL) and both cars were 2WD and both had the grey, overly progressive rate springs just like in Shoe's photo. Do you have the 4WD version of their springs?

 

after work, I'll get on my back under the car to get a better shot. The progressive part does seem more compressed than I thought it would be. Also, I ordered the 2WD version from Way, but what came from NM was a box that apparently shows there is one model spring for both?

 

how long ago did you get them installed? Have you had 4 people in your car? Its unacceptably bouncy with 4 people in the car.

Couple days ago my brother was asleep in the back seat while I was on the fwy, he's about 200 lbs. Every time I hit a dip on the fwy, I looked in the rear view mirror and I could see him bouncing out of his seat!

I contacted NM about this, in short they said our shocks are too soft and because of this we get the bounciness. He said they are working with Bilstien on a kit.

While Im happy they responded, it does nothing to address this issue for me, after buying springs, control arms, new tires and paying all that labor, the car rides like crap. I really wish I'd known this before I pulled the trigger.

 

it took me most of the weekend to get them installed (along with lower rear control arms). Now that I've done it, I could do it in one day without the learning curve. I put them in this past weekend, so only a few days ago. I've got two kids that ride in the back seat, but they don't add up to your brother. Also of note, I had the sport suspension package beforehand, and that package does have different shocks in it, so maybe that is the difference? I honestly don't notice a difference in ride characteristics, but I do notice it in the handling. Putting my sport springs side by side with the NMs before install, the height difference was barely noticeable. For me, the springs are just a cheap stopgap until I get full coilovers. (or sport shocks when available)

 

that would make sense on the difference. The sport shocks are stiffer so I bet that helps alot.


I had mine professionally installed, but Im thinking about undoing it and going back to stock (though it's SO UGLY, I need the comfort)..

I watched the installer put it in, seems easy enough. Question though, what did you use to undo the struts from the front steering knuckle? Seems like you need alot of torque for that!

 

getting the front struts out of the knuckle was a pain, and getting them back in was just as much. I can post a how to, or you can PM me and I can talk you through it on the phone even. In short.. I used a dead blow hammer with penetrating oil to get the strut out. Getting in back in required some super slick teflon spray into the knuckle, while jacking the knuckle with a floor jack and prying the pinch point in the knuckle apart with a chisel. Autozone makes a spreader tool for macpherson struts specifically, but it's $90 and special order only. I know this all might sound bad, but I promise it's not, you can do it.

 

yeah sure, I would appreciate that! when the tech was putting it on my car, he really struggled to get the knuckle loose! He was banging away for a while. How tight do the bolts need to be once its put back together, any idea on the torque specs?

I really DO love the way the car handles and looks with the NM springs, but noone, including my wife wants to ride in the damn car cuz it's so rough!

My m-coupe with coilovers rides softer and better than the r60 with these springs!

 

I had to beat on it for about 45 min each. My shoulder is still sore I found an article on doing this on an r56 which included torque specs. I used those as a guideline and increased them by 20% since the r60 is about that much heavier. Call it stupid, but it's all I had to go on. They are basically the same suspensions, just one is bigger. It's better than just finger in the wind with no torque wrench at all-- at least I'm in the ballpark, erring on the side of higher torque.

 

broussardc
Do you have any comparo photos of the drop w/ the NM springs. I have mine sitting in a box. I also have the factory Sport Suspension. I'm wondering how much more it actually lowers it. ?
Can you take measurements of the arch to ground for F & R? Since mine is still stock I'd like an idea of drop.
(it will be off some for me some as I have 45 series 19's) (a simple calculation though)

Do you find the ride as jarring as others? i know the Sport Susp. shocks help out a lot here.


As for Install. You need the Spreader bit to simply insert/remove the front strut/shock from the knuckle. It's like $30.
You may also simply insert & twist a wide flathead screw driver. It's the same on newer VW's & others.

 

That's what I do, hammer a chisel upwards (into the split in the knuckle) from the bottom, and then they go in and out without too much problem. It is a tight fit though, I'm used to Honda where it just slips in and out by hand.

I just check the box mine came in and it has the same part number label that reads: 558860/61. Here are the part numbers from their website:
NM.558860 Front Wheel Drive
NM.558861 ALL - 4

So if all the boxes are sitting on their warehouse shelf with the same dual part number then I wonder how they tell which is which when it's time to ship a box out to a customer.

In my opinion it's not a real big mystery. I don't think the ever-so-slightly-stiffer shock from the sport pkg. makes a difference. The fact is that the soft part of the spring (the upper, tightly wound part) is too soft and as you can see in the photo it's completely used up the travel of that soft portion of the spring just by the weight of the car sitting there. They screwed up, that soft part is supposed to be to absorb little minor road irregularities and then the stiffer part of the spring (the bottom half, where the coils are spaced further apart) is for the bigger hits... if that soft/initial part of the spring is already fully collapsed just by the weight of the car sitting there with no occupants, then what good is it? So all you're left with is the other (bottom) half of the spring... and what's that going to give you, maybe two inches of travel before you get coil bind (spring fully compressed solid) and have no more travel... which bounces back seat passengers out of their seat.

They need to scrap that progressive rate spring. People have been trying that forever and they have never been worth a damn, especially when you have a lowered car with limited suspension travel to begin with. If you've got a truck or something with a lot of travel then you can afford a dual rate/progressive spring... but in our limited travel situation they need a straight rate/linear spring like they made for the front.

What I really want to know is what is the difference between the grey and blue springs. If you just got yours last week, and they're blue, and they ride nice in the rear... then what is different from the older, grey version of the springs?


EDIT: Since the rears come off real quick, with only three bolts, I think I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to take the stock rear springs and cut a loop or so off and see how they ride. It will be like old times when I was a kid cutting springs on every car I got my hands on.

 

Ive emailed NM asking them what good their progressive rate spring is when the top part is bound, waiting to hear back exactly what they have to say

As for now, I'm pretty sure I'll be going back to stock. I'll miss the nice handling in the twisties and the better looks but really when none of my friends/family/wife want to ride with me in the mini, what good is it?

Too bad it took me springs + arms + tires + labor + alignment to figure out that NM springs are junk. Phhhh..

PS: can someone link me to a place I can buy the spreader for cheap online? Im going to tackle the suspension re-install soon.. I was going to go with the H&R springs, but I really cant trust they'd be any better.

 

So I heard back from NM, they're saying the dead part of the spring is by design.. Here is their explanation:



Unfortunately, it is by design. The 'binding' is necessary to get the correct spring rate, we call it dead coils. This keeps the spring sitting firm on the shocks when the suspension is at full droop (on the lift, driveways, or slight airborne). And with the MINIs, you cannot have fully spread coils top to bottom with progressive rate (or stiffer rate for that matter) on the rear and lower the car at the same time too. Just physically impossible for MINI Cooper unfortunately. Even the OEM's springs are linear. :-( And to get the rate that we need, the springs need to have certain amount of coils.

It WILL improve with Shocks. We like KONIs, but with Countryman specific I think the Bilstein will work better.

 

I'm really sorry to hear that you are so disappointed with your springs. However, my wife has over 12,000 miles on hers (40 miles worth of commute weekdays + weekend travel) and she still loves them. So to say that the springs are junk is not entirely accurate. They may not be to your liking, but they aren't junk.

 

Theyre completely fine if youre driving in the car alone, add some passengers and cargo and the ride becomes completely unacceptable

again, I have a mcoupe with coilovers, and it rides light years better than the mini. So it's not like my other cars are buicks.

 

Well, I have no idea why yours would be so different, but my wife drives half of her commute with my 170 lb son and his football gear (drops him off and picks him up at school) and still no complaints from her at all. Our whole family (2 adults, one 16yo and on 12yo) travels in the car on the weekends and again, we are totally happy with it.

I am in no way saying that your experience or opinion of the way your car rides is wrong, but our experience with ours is quite the opposite.

Just for comparison, my wife's previous car was a lowered 2001 BMW X5 and previous to that was a lowered 2004 3 series. The MINI rides the same as the lowered X5 and only sligtly different than the 3 series.