Can someone enlighten me on why the Koni FSD struts cannot be paired up with lowering springs?

 

The valving get beaten by the length of the tube/strut...
Koni sport shocks are PHYSICALLY shorter....so internal dammage does not happen.
Remember springs carry the weight of the car....so lowering springs keep the strut compressed too far....

 

What Zippy said. I contacted Koni about and was given that example. The FSD travel length is too short on the MINI and was damaging the struts. They offer lowering kits on all other cars except the MINI. That being said, I do know a lot of folks in the UK still lowering them and claim that it is fine. I'm just not sure I want to trash my investment.

 

Zippy is correct with what Koni said.
No you can't lower a MINI with FSD's. I've actually seen a car with JCW springs ruin the FSD shocks in 3 weeks of use.

 

so, if instead of the FSD, if I paired the Koni sports with the NM springs, I know I'm going to need adjustable rear control arms, but will I also need camber plates up front to bring the camber back to spec?

I'm not looking to track the car, it's my daily driver with the occasional fun weekend ride, but let me know what I'd need!

Thanks!

 

The front camber does not change too much when the car is lowered. The main benefit of adding camber plates is that you get additional camber in the front, which can help handling. It is not a requirement, or even a reccomendation to add plates when adding springs. If you think that you want to add camber plates, 90% of the work is already being done when you install lowering springs.

Rear control arms are highly reccomended, because lowering the car will give you too much negative camber, which can wear the tires quickly.

I think that there are several people on NAM that have yellows and NM springs and seem happy with this combo.

Mike