You could probably get some rides in some of their cars to get an idea of what you want

 

I missed this the first time around. Are you saying the sport suspension springs are actually different from the standard springs, and that if I want to get the most out of FSD shocks I should get the standard springs as well?

 

I wouldn't go to the trouble of changing to the R50 Cooper standard springs,
but you could if you wanted to. There's only about a 10% difference in spring rate.
The optional sport suspension plus springs on the R50 have the same
spring rate as the springs on the R53, and the FSD shocks work fine on both models.
In fact, depending on the specced vehicle weight, some of the R53 springs are exactly
the same part number as some of the R50 sport supsension plus springs (see post 16).

 

Thanks for your reply. That's really informative. One less thing to worry about ordering.

I took a little bit of time to look at some coilover options, particular the Megan Racing coilovers, but it would still seem FSDs are more appropriate for my goals. Not sure when I will order them or have them installed (or install them if I'm feeling really ballsy), but I long for the day I can have a comfortable ride on any road...

 

Judging by your original post, the FSD stocks on your stock springs do souds like the best choice for you.

 

BTW - regarding tires you might want to check out the wheels and tires posts in NAM. Lots of informative insights. Whatever you consider I would recommend you go to the Tire Rack's website. They are VERY helpful providing tire reviews based on track and real world tests. Keep in mind there are so many opinions out there in NAM and other sites about which tire is best it can really get confusing. All you have to do is a little digging here in NAM and you'll see what I mean. But the Tire Rack is very helpful so you can make a more informed decision. I've had three sets myself (including my current ones). Mine are Kumho Ecsta 4X which are an all-season tire. I REALLY like them for their versatility, stability, grip, ride quality, and price. However, there's loads of other tires out there folks adore for their MINIs. It comes down to your goals. It sounds like you are looking for a balanced ride. Comfortable, yet aggressive when you want/need them to be. Compare tires at the Tire Rack with your goals in mind and you should be able to narrow it down to what you're looking for. NAM is really useful because it can help you find trends too regarding what folks are most commonly raving about in an all-season tire, but I'd confidently say stay away from runflats if you're looking for a more comfortable ride.

As far as springs/shocks you've got some great insights right here in your post. Go to the suspension section in NAM and there's more insights regarding combinations, compatibility, performance, and reliability from folks who had the same concerns you do. All of my suspension mods are geared toward making Cary more neutral with the ability to adjust it to give it a little oversteer if I want while at the same time making him comfortable to drive yet somewhat aggressive. Cary does not have a sport suspension, but I ordered him sans sport suspension to give me the flexibility to do the specific upgrades I wanted without feeling I wasted money up front ordering a sport suspension and then turning around and tearing off what I bought initially.

Regardless of what you do my advice is to make the upgrades ONE AT A TIME so you can feel the difference each one makes until you reach the combination you're looking for to give you the ride/performance you seek.

 

You don't say if you have factory wheels or aftermarket wheels at the present time.

For example, if the sport suspension package included the 16 inch wheel the weight of the wheel is an issue.
Heavy wheels affect the way the car rides and handles over bumpy roads.

As example let's say you're using the stock 16 inch wheel, R83 5-star (aka Daytona) ET48 20.1 pounds,
and switched to a lighter wheel such as the 15 inch R81 7-hole (aka Imola ) ET45 12.1 pounds,
the difference in the ride and handling would be day and night.

Again as other posters have said at 90,000 miles it's time for LCA Bushings as well as a set of Konis.

Hope this helps...

 

Coilovers come in all flavors. Some are great for the street and offer significant ride improvement. These will tend to have variable rate springs and on a lot of them the shock will be adjustable. At the other end of the spectrum are the setups intended for racing. These are generally not "ride oriented" as they have much stiffer springs and shocks. Basically all coilovers offer some degree of lowering the car.

As for the sport suspension...It is purely intended to improve the handling of the MINI. It does this by 3 significant changes...stiffer springs, stiffer shocks and stiffer sway bars. It is a great option, if that is what you want. However, stiffer usually means a loss of ride quality.

As for improving the ride, I would highly recommend a set of the FSDs. There is little out there in the way of aftermarket springs that you can use as most will lower the car and should not be used with the FSDs. As was said, you could get a set of stock springs from the dealer to go with the FSDs and that would probably be a great setup for you.

The 1st gen MINIs were very hard on the bushings and as was mentioned above, you should replace these, especially on the front. I would suggest going with the stock bushings as the poly will be stiffer and your ride will suffer a bit.

 

I've retrieved the printout of all the options in the car.

I may have been wrong about my claims regarding the sport suspension.

"Sport suspension w/front and rear anti-roll (stablizer) bars" is listed under "Standard Features" rather than as an addon. Based on my research, there is a "Sport Suspension Plus" upgrade, which is not part of the Sport package and wasn't purchased by the original owner. (You can see why I might have been confused.)

With that in mind, I'm going to guess my current springs should be fine for the FSDs...

The Sport package however does seem to include 16" alloy wheels and run-flats. Obviously the run-flats are long gone, but I'm fairly sure the wheels are still on; they're white with five spokes and have a MINI logo on the cap.

So, 15" wheels provide a better ride? I'm going to guess that 16" probably provide better handling?

Question is, in pursuing a smoother ride, which purchase would make the most difference? An adequate pair of 15" tires/wheels, or the FSDs? As suggested, I think I would want to swap one of the two, see how that improves things, and then go from there if it's still not what I want.

 

The 15" will give a better ride and because they are lighter, better performance and gas mileage. I have had both on our '04 R50.

I put a set of 15" holies on it that I bought used off NAM market for $400. The tires are Yokohama AVID ENVigor in a 185-65x15, but you probably will stay with the 175 size that the car came with. These Yokohamas are quiet and ride nice and are all season, if that is important to you.

As for which is a better change between the shocks and wheel/tires...they will both probably give you the same amount of change in ride for each change and the changes will be additive for ride improvement. The wheel/tires will be cheaper once labor is included for changing the shocks. That would be a good start.

 

15" can potentially give a better ride than 16" but there are other factors to consider. Choice of tire can make a bigger difference than 15" vs 16". Check the ride comfort ratings for different tires on TireRack. The selection of tires in 16" is also larger. I have 15" aftermarket wheels, and have watched in dismay as tire manufacturers kept dropping the models I wanted from 15" size. For 16", there is an especially large selection in 205/55-16.

 

Never saw 'em. One of the previous two owners definitely replaced them.

 

The cheapest, easiest way to change a vehicle's ride is to change its tires.

 

I'll probably do both, one after the other. I just don't know which one first. My hunch is that while tires may be easier, the switch to FSDs will be the more noticeable change. But that's just a gut feeling and I could easily be wrong.

I'm fairly sure I'm going to stay at 16" and am leaning toward the Kumho Ecsta 4Xs. As someone mentioned previously, there do seem to be fewer options for 15" and the "Ultra High Performance" category is completely empty at 15". I'd also rather not have to buy new wheels if I can avoid it.

 

Do you belong to a MINI club or BMWCCA? The easiest thing would be to just find someone with 15" wheels to switch with you and take a ride.

As for "Ultra High Performance" tires, these tend to have stiffer sidewalls to improve the handling which will tend to have a less good ride quality than a lesser tire. If you are going to stick with the 16" wheels, stick with what you have, change the shocks and see how you like the improvement. If you want more improvement in ride and you stay with 16" with "Ultra High Performance" tires, then your only option will be light wheels. Both OZ and Enkei make really nice light weight wheels in that size. These wheels are only abuot 2# more than the holies which would be a good option as they will be much lighter than any stock 16" wheel.

 

I was afraid of increased NVH with the poly front control arm bushings and replaced my
dead stock bushings at about 30K with new OEM ones - which lasted another 30K.
I then changed to the Powerflex front control arm bushings and was pleasantly
surprised to find very little if any increase in NVH (noise, vibration, harshness), even in
very cold weather.
Those who have had them a long time say they last way longer than the OEM bushings,
and there's less give in the suspension, so they feel more stable with less toe-in change
with acceleration and braking.

I highly recommend the Powerflex FCAB's over the stock ones.

 

I guess what I'm getting at is that the whole point of staying at 16" is to save on wheels. If I'm going to be buying wheels along with tires, at that point there's no reason not to consider 15".

 

Replacing rubber with polyurethane bushing won't help with smoothing out rides. I am speaking from experience.

 

I think he was advising me regarding my complaint that my car has started to wobble a bit I packed too many issues into one thread and probably should have just kept focused on the ride quality.

 

I would change to a 15" wheel and tire first. The taller sidewall of the 15" (keeping the final outside tire diameter the same for your speedo) will give you more flex/cushion going over bumps. And that may be all you need. Also you can bolt on the new wheels yourself. The front/rear struts are not something you would want to DIY without a spring compressor. As the spring needs to be removed from the strut when changing struts. The spring is under a lot of pressure and can be dangerous.

 

One tip...
Stock springs are sold in different spring rates based upon the cars weight....
Based upon the options the car were built with, different springs were installed to match. Using springs from the wrong car can make things worse!!
If you go used find a car with similar options....same roof option and tranny.....
Koni fsd's do improve the ride, but MUST BE USED WITH STOCK HEIGHT SPRINGS.
with almost 100k on the current strunts/shocks....any replacent would be better...if the car is lowered...they are likly very dead lowering spings tend to kill stock lenghth struts....that is why "sport" ones are sold....they are physically shorter so they work correctly with lowering springs....
Next thing to look at are rims/tires.....i find standard 16's to be a good compermise...17's look good, but tend to be tough on bumpy streets.....15's...i used them for winter are ok, but the look is not quite right, handling is ok though...better than you might think....smooth riding...but the 16's, non runflats changed tge car as much as getting koni fsd's did.....tire choice is important too.....so hack away at it, one item at a time. Imo do not get coilovers for a street car you want better riding....the $$ you want to spend are pretty low end.....so they are mostly fow lowering, rather than for ride....high end ones, setup RIGHT might get you a better ride, but $$$$$.
Suspension diy's can be a pain....corroded bolts and age of parts not moved in many years....a decent shop might need a tourch to heat and loosen bolts....and replace some...they have them...you might need multiple trips to go find them.....if it is your eeekend car, go for it, but for a daily driver....get a pro.

 

No, it certainly won't help the ride comfort.
I, too have had harsher ride with poly bushings in this and other positions in other cars.
But in this particular case and position, I've found that it really doesn't hurt, either.
I haven't read from anyone else here who has actually done it who has said otherwise.
DDM, have you replaced the front control arm bushings with Powerflex Poly ones
in a MINI and had increased harshness?

 

That's something else I was wondering... Although I haven't had my shocks inspected, at 92K miles wouldn't it be a worthwhile investment to replace them anyway?

 

Yes, they're at the end of their usefull life.

 

As they age, they soften, and loose dampering ability....so i bet it is time. The oem shocks and struts (made by delphi) are not the best imo, and are not like the typical asian ones that last till they leak.....heck my wifes highlander has 200000+....still oem...my mini's were swapped at 55k...