Bob any issues with the lowering springs and the FSD's yet?

 

No issues as yet - but I haven't inspected them for leaks. Just no change in ride or handling since I installed them.

I will be swapping summer wheels/tires on in a couple weeks, so, I will take pics then.

Bob

 

 

I didn't take any pics. But, I did not notice any leaking or other issues either.

We had an Autocross school last weekend (I am on the autox committee) and after the teaching, the committee and instructors got to do timed runs. OH MAN WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Our course designer drives a Civic and he is very quick. Last year, I always ran 5-8 seconds behind him on a 40-45 second course. On this go around, I was only 1.5 seconds off! So, I made up about 4 seconds!

The course has some very rough pavement. For example, there is an area where the asphalt layers are peeling off and this makes for a few 1.5 inch high transitions about 3-6 feet apart. We had an uphill, off camber turn there and I actually did not notice the roughness in the pavement. The FSDs are awesome in this respect.

Bob

 

Thanks for this reply, I was wondering about this. Seems like the sport/yellow Konis are the go-to but I like how the FSDs sound. I wonder how the Sports would have done in the Tire Rack test if they moved them away from full stiff. My car's a bit of a daily too (base cooper) and I had "planned" on the sports but I wonder how much I really give up with the FSDs (on sport suspension) Please keep us posted.

I had wanted to do struts and RSB individually to see the the benefits of both separately but it seems like as far as labor goes it'll be easiest to do both at the same time - any thoughts on that?

 

Rear sway bar install is virtually independent of changing the rear shocks/springs. I would say that you really don't save any labor except maybe the time to put the car on jack stands and drop one of the shocks (maybe 15 minutes). If you want to do one at a time, I really will not take that much more time.

Bob

 

Gotcha, thanks. I wonder how these struts will compare to the sport suspension dampers..

 

FWIW, my Koni Yellows do ride pretty darn well on soft, better than stock. But...stock is really awful.

I'm a Bilstein fan and I bet you could get the performance of the Yellows with the ride of the FSDs, but it would take a (very skilled) revalve and end up costing too much. Many do like the soft Bilstein HDs for the Mini. The Bilstein Sports will be a little rough. They can be revalved to be nice and digressive though.

- Andrew

 

I'm a bilstein fan too, esp after you sold me those Bilstein HDs for the evo . I ended up going with Ohlins afterwards obviously but I loved the ride of the Evo then and now. I dont think the extensive revalving is worth it for me, but this thread has me seriously considering the FSDs. yeesh.

 

I've been running FSD in the rear with tein h techs (0.5 or 13mm drop) for over a year. No leaks yet!

My fronts are sports though.

 

I did changes in steps. My car had sport suspension, and I added TSW springs. Ride was harsh, car was bottoming a bunch. Then I installed the standard 'cooper S' shocks, and ride got better. I ran this way for about 8 months. I just put Koni Yellows on with my TSW's, and the improvement in ride is dramatic. I have them 1/2 turn off of soft, and will likely stiffen the front a bit.

My car is a daily driver, and I just hustle on on-ramps and such. I'm no race car driver, nor do I pretend to be. I'm happy with the yellows, and I like the slight drop of the TSW's. This may be my setup for the rest of the car ownership, I would reccomend this.

Mike

 

I have a 2011 MCS w/OEM Sport Suspension. I installed the Koni FSD's to improve the ride quality and boy did it do that! Great ride and overall performance. I do not track the car but I do drive it aggressively through the corners.

I have had trouble with the MINI ripping up the top strut plate bushings and ending up with an audible clunk in the cabin and under the hood, coming from the towers. Up on a lift with 2 people, one in the vehicle turning the wheel and one under the hood looking for the source of the clunk, it became apparent that the rubber was separating from the shock/strut bushing. Bummer! Now I put new top strut plate/bushings in (OEM) and after a few months they are doing the same thing.

Does anyone have an idea why??? Everything else in the front suspension is OEM Sport Suspension.

 

would love to hear any updates on this - I am strongly leaning towards the FSD's

 

Apparently my issues with the FSD's come from the top nut loosening, just slightly and that causes a clunk. Soon I am going to go back, again, and take the top nuts completely off and put some blue locktite on the threads to try to stop the loosening. Got to do it soon so as quick as I can find new 12mmX 1.25 nylock nuts I am going to try the fix.

Stay tuned

 

^ have you autoxed/raced on them yet?

 

Don't track the car, just drive it like I was dodging bullets

It has 22mm RSB, Helix IC, Sport Suspension, Team Dynamics wheels (nice and light), Milltek Cat Back Exhaust. Goes well and it corners better than my old heart can take. I might change the air intake system but only after I get the clunking cured.

 

Not sure, but I think nylock plus Locktite does not work. One or the other...

 

Glad to see others running in DS, as I may very well move there when I get tired of STF

And glad to see the JCW springs and Koni's made such an improvement

Great job man!

 

Well, OhBe1 just might be right! After reading the bottle of Loctite Blue it says something about not using it on plastics. Sure enough, it did not work so back to just new NyLocks.

This time it better work. I have new NyLocks Grade 8 (European rating). If the stampings/markings on the nuts say 10.1 then it is an American Grade 8 equivalent and if they are stamped 8.1 then they are about a Grade 5.

So then next time I have a few minutes I will swap them out for new, top nuts. If they FSD's did not work so well I would have abandoned the efforts long ago. The top strut plate bushings are good, it has been the nuts backing off tension ever so slightly and then the clunk appears.

Stay tuned.....

 

Our driveway is built in such a way as to cause one rear tire to lift every time we go down or driveway, on both the Cooper and the "S" and I suppose that is putting a bit of extra stress on the front top strut mounting.

Maybe that is what is causing the top nuts to loosen?

 

How is this setup working for you now? If you ever get over to the West Sound I sure would like to see the setup and talk to you about it.

Cheers!

Stephen

 

Rotated tires and inspected the shocks before the autocross last weekend. I posted one pic of the inspection - all others look basically the same. NO LEAKING whatsoever.

This is the third autocross and probably about 5-7k street miles on the FSDs and absolutely no problem.

Bob

 

i doubt there's going to be a problem, dampers are designed for a range of **** and it's not like there's a magic line you cross and suddenly dampers blown.

how are they performing??

 

If you read the first page, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth on using the FSDs on *any* lowering springs. I really didn't expect any problems with them, but, I promised to post periodic updates on this thread.

As far as performance, they are great. For autocross purposes, they erase irregularity. One of the lots we use is pretty beaten up on the lower lot (Baysox stadium in Bowie, MD). The area where we usually put a sweeper or skidpad has multiple areas where one layer of asphalt has peeled away leaving several 1" height changes in the surface height. This cuts laterally across the sweeper and should cause the car to skitter out a bit. I had three runs down before I even remembered the surface problems - the FSDs made it so I just forgot. Then, when I was paying attention, I could feel them, but, it did not upset the car in any way.

Bob

 

bobesser, thanks for the updates! I read on other threads that some people feel the FSD's "can't keep up" with auto-x driving but glad to hear your setup is working well.