Than that is even better

 

My MINI is in the shop for a (yellow) Service Engine Soon light. These guys supposedly specialize in BMWs/MINIs. They're saying the suspension is actually in great shape and that the last owner took pretty good care of the car. Maybe the wobble is all in my head -- my last car was a Suzuki Verona and it had numerous suspension problems at ~100K, and I remember the wobble being one of them. So I still have residual paranoia where every little blip is perceived as a tremendous problem.

They kind of pushed back on my desire to upgrade to Koni FSDs, which is strange in that they wouldn't just take my money at my command, but I guess that means maybe they actually care about the cars they service.

Still, I intend to replace the shocks and/or moving down to 15" wheels, just need to find a place staffed by enthusiasts who like to do aftermarket installs for fun.

 

That's pretty odd. Did they take a look at your front control arm bushings? Those are almost certainly toast at 100k unless the previous owner replaced them.

- Andrew

 

Maybe the previous owner had suspension work done, perhaps before selling the car. The first mechanic to inspect the car cited nothing wrong with the suspension other than it was rough. These guys also said the suspension is in good shape... Can't really argue with them unless I look for myself.

Can the bushings be examined without removing the subframe? Because if that's the only way to peek at them I can see a mechanic getting lazy about it or simply overlooking it.

It would be silly to replace those parts if there's no immediate need, but on the other hand I still have my doubts. Their labor rate is as bad as the dealership (in fact I should have just gone to the dealership) so I'm not going to ask them to double-check...

 

With the car on the ground, you can see how far the front wheels move back and forth
by kicking the front tread or grabbing the tire with both hands and rocking it fore and
aft. It helps to know how much a MINI with new bushings gives with this, but If I
recall, it moves less than 1/4 " with new bushings, much less with poly bushings, and
much more with worn out bushings.
Here's a video:

With the car up on jackstands or better yet on a lift, you can see how much the rear
control arm moves with a prybar or similar on the arm, and again, a new one moves a little,
a bad one moves quite a bit more.

 

I got my car back. (So good to no longer have a SES light.) According to the mechanic the wobbling was due to low tire pressure. Don't know why I never thought of that. Could have sworn there was a tire pressure light; I remember it being on before I purchased the car and the dealership fixing it. Then again, I don't know what its tolerance is or what actually triggers it. Should probably pay more attention to things like that, though.

 

Bump because I'm closer to doing this now then I was then.

It was suggested that installing new camber plates and shocks should be done together, and control arm bushings separately. If I for example install the shocks one weekend and then the control arm bushings later, is there a big enough overlap in those projects that it would be easier to do it all at once, or are they separate from each other?

Also, are there any other facets of the suspension I should look at replacing, such as ball joints or tie rods? Keep in mind this is a 2004 R50 with almost 95K miles... I don't want to do a bunch of suspension work and have some other part I didn't look at affect the handling negatively. I kind of just want to knock everything out at once and not have to worry about the suspension for a while.

 

If you're looking for about as comfortable as possible, my recommendation is get a set of Koni FSD's, keep the stock springs and get a set of Ireland Engineering Fixed camber plates.

If you're going to do control arm bushings as well (which generally requires you to drop subframe) if you can afford to, I highly recommend doing inner and outer ball joints as you'll be right there, steering rack bushing, front sway bar bushing (all oem) and then the control arm bushings. If you are really looking for overall comfort, do new OEM control arm bushings, they won't last as long as the Powerflex ones, but they will ride slightly better and you won't feel AS MUCH.

Having tried multiple suspension setups, the most comfortable I came across (not worrying about lowering) was FSD's and stock springs. But again, this is my opinion, but getting a lifetime warranty with the Koni's never hurt either

 

There is some overlap but not a lot. You will need an alignment after either job, but not if you do them both close together.
If you are doing this yourself, it will be a pretty long job to do both at the same time.

 

Hmm OK. I'll probably do them separately then. Who knows it might take an entire weekend just to do the shocks on one end. Hasn't been a DIY yet that didn't have some snag that set me back.

I just didn't want to find myself undoing some of the work I had done when I went back in to do control arm bushings. Probably not a real concern, I just don't know enough about the suspension to visualize what I really have to do.

 

Got all of this installed professionally recently.

It was closer to a complete rebuild; I got tie rod assemblies, all four wheel bearings, control arm bushings (Meyle HD all-rubber instead of OEM rubber/fluid), in addition to the Koni FSD, IE fixed camber plates, IE 22mm rear sway bar.

I hadn't even realized how loose my steering had gotten. First thing I noticed was that it required a bit more strength to turn the wheel, which is how I remember it being when I test drove new MINIs.

Truth be told, the Koni FSD are not quite as smooth as I expected... Definitely an improvement over stock, but nothing like I had hyped myself up to believe.

I haven't gotten an alignment so I don't know how much that affects the overall feel, but I suspect I'm not getting the most out of the new parts until I do. The shop I went to is slowly expanding and they don't do alignments yet.

One thing that improved: I previously had a problem where the car pulled to the right whenever I braked. That for some reason is gone now. Not sure if they fixed something behind my back or if the problem was due to a worn suspension part. It's actually kind of awesome, I can brake with no hands on the wheel and still stay relatively straight.

And that's that. On to other mods.

 

I would have gone with a 19mm rear swaybar, but not a big deal.

Sounds like a good complete rebuild and I bet it feels pretty good. It will drive even better after your alignment.

Check your tire pressures too. Often times when I get my car back from a shop they'll jack up the psi way too much.

- Andy

 

Ireland Engineering advertises their 22mm sway bars are more along the lines of 19mm because they're hollow.

Also, yeah they had the PSI at 35 all around. They probably glanced at the sticker on the door and didn't read it too carefully. (35 is for max load, 30 is for two passengers.) My pressure gauge has an air release so I dropped them down to 30 this morning.

I still can't decide if I want summer tires and new wheels or not, which is more $$$ but seems appropriate to really complete the setup.

 

22mm hollow is definitely good.

- Andrew

 

This car is never going to have a great ride because there is such limited suspension travel.

 

In my head, Koni FSD were going to turn my MINI into some kind of futuristic hover-vehicle. My expectations were sky-high so it's not surprising that I'm disappointed.

As I continue to drive it, I do notice a lot of spots during my commute where I brace myself for turbulence that's no longer present.

 

And that is my experience. Bracing for areas that previously induced cringes and grunts are now merely bumps!

 

Some of the benefit of the FSDs was lost with the camber plates and control arm bushings. Stock would have an given less NVH, but I would likely have chosen what you did. Struts take a while to wear in, they may feel better after 5k miles.
Next spring I think I will get some FSDs and switch to 16" wheels with a softish sidewall. This is my wife's car and she likes smooth more that grip.

 

Cutting the bumpstops from the firmer end just a bit would help too.

- andy

 

I didn't know if the new parts had to be broken in or not... The comfort seems to have improved just in the few weeks since the installation.

I'm getting an alignment as I type this post.

So here's a question I have: the Koni FSD are be used with stock height springs. That said, there's tons of aftermarket springs options. Some of them advertise improvements to handling/comfort. However, I can't find any that don't lower the ride. But let's say that I could find stock height aftermarket springs, could that be a worthwhile investment, or would I just be wasting money?

Me being as OCD as I am, it bothers me that I have these aged springs on top of new shocks, but if new springs wouldn't feel noticeably different, and the ones I have will last X0,000miles, then I'll leave them alone.

 

Finding a shop that does alignment for MINIs is harder than I would have thought... Chains like Monro don't seem to do it. Kind of a wasted morning, especially considering I got up at 6AM on a Saturday! I did get my sway bar tightened down by the shop that did the suspension work; and end link had come loose and was rattling/clunking, so it wasn't all for naught. Need to track down an indie shop or visit the dealership.

 

Find a shop that works on European cars, usually they can do it or at least recommend somewhere.

 

Hi,
Yes struts do break in over the first few weeks.
Old springs don't really wear out. They may sag a little over time and sometimes rust and break but the rate stays pretty consistent over time.
Do you know if you have the sport suspension? Is was optional on the R50. There is a member here that will look up your VIN# to see if they were installed at the factory.
I think your best bet would be softer tires. You could even run 15" wheels and tires.

 

I put Koni FSDs on my 2013 S convertible (having liked them on my previous Mazda3). I felt virtually no improvement. I then switched to non run flats (Dunlop 7000s, as it happens) and felt a huge improvement. I'm guessing that the harsh run flats just masked improvement from the FSDs. I'm carrying a dealer donut flat on the back seat.