It occurred to me yesterday that I never posted pics of my car with the H&R springs installed. It's not much but you can get a good idea of how much drop they provided. They have been on for several months on stock struts with no issues.

 

Nice stance, that is a sharp car.

Drew

 

Thanks!

 

Did you do any other mods along with this like adjustable drop links or camber plates or anything? I am thinking of doing springs and want to know what else I would need.

 

I didn't do anything but the springs and the RSB. The person who aligned my car said it lined up just fine. He didn't make any note of camber being too far out so for now I'm just going to keep an eye on tire wear. If the tires are wearing too fast I may check into camber plates and/or control arms to correct the issue. I was on a strict budget when I did springs and bar so I couldn't really afford to do all of the other little things at the same time. I rarely get to take any decent corners so the stock sway bar links should be fine for now.

 

Any vibration after installation? What is your camber settings right now? Thanks

 

I don't think you'll find you need rear lower control arms at all. I've had my H&R's for two years now and tire wear is pretty even. I just mated them to Koni Yellows about 2 weeks ago and really like the feel - not cushy by any means but feels better than stock for certain.

 

cant wait to order my springs. looks great

 

The only vibration I have noticed is under heavy acceleration, but then again I installed the BSH mount before the springs, so I may not be able to tell. As for camber settings, I really have no idea where it is set. I told the shop that I had installed sport springs and needed a 4-wheel alignment and they took it from there. The service writer assured me they had serviced quite a few Mini's and all would be well. Since it's a daily driver and only gets to play on the twisty's a few times a year I just went with it. The same shop has been servicing my family's vehicles for about 15 years now and we have never had the first problem so I trust their work.

 

Thanks for the reply. Vibrations worry me... It seems that there is no consensus on why they happen. Some cars get them after a modest drop like yours, and some people are scraping on the ground on coilovers and have no vibrations. There is a discussion going on in the "show me your slammed mini" thread if you're interested.

 

Thanks for the reply, Any added noise inside the car? Do you have any close up pics of the wheel and fender gap after installation. Thanks

 

There definitely isn't any noise from the springs that I can tell. The exhaust and motor mount on the other hand, are a different story. I'll get a couple of pics at work today of the wheel well gap for you.

There is something to note with these springs that sort of goes without saying. Tall speed bumps may scrape the undercarriage just a bit, but they have to be unusually tall. The other thing is you have to get used to pulling into parking lots at an angle to avoid scraping the front end. That's the only "bad" thing I can come up with, but it's something you take into consideration when lowering anything.

 

Here are the gap pics as requested. First pic is front, second pic is the rear.

 

Looks nice! Strange how some cars can get away with lowering with no need for rear camber adjustment and some do. I put the same springs on my car and without the adjustable control arms the shop was only able to get it to -2 degrees. I am sure that wouldnt have been good for my new v12 tires.

 

Could it depend on tire width? Mine are 205's.

 

Thanks for the pics, it looks great.

 

Not sure? Mine are 205 as well. The alignment shop I took it to said they adjusted it as much as they could witht he minimal amount of adjustment provided by the factory arms. The $ for control arms was well worth the savings in $$$ for tires.

 

Thank you and glad to be of service

 

when doing the install did you need any special tools? i purchased nm springs from WMW at the dragon and im going to install them tonight, any help on what i will need for the install would be greatly appreciated.

 

Mostly, a spring compressor that will accommodate small diameter, tight coil springs. I found that the Autozone rentals expect a large spring and doesn't work.

 

Do you NEED a spring compressor? I've heard the springs are small enough where you don't NEED one? I'm not sure if that's true or not

 

I would not have attempted it.

 

There's several videos and threads on removing springs. If you have an impact wrench, you can try it by laying the shock on the ground. Then hold the spring against the ground, and bust off the top nut. The shock will shoot away from the spring and bounce off the ground. There is a significant (not tremendous) amount of energy stored, and you should be aware that you are releasing the shock which could hurt you or something around you.

I used an autozone compressor for removing the stock springs. My TSW springs had less preload, so I didn't need a compressor for those.

Mike

 

Watch this.

http://jalopnik.com/5981491/car-spri...nt-to-kill-you

 

I don't have an impact wrench, I was going to give it a shot without a compressor but I don't know how that was going to go, ill give autozone a call! Thanks for the info!