Bilstein Sports are made for lowered cars, not sure about the Touring although Pelican Parts do suggest they are. They also include them in their suspension kits with H&R springs.

Would also be interested in anyones thoughts on the Tourings as a cheap option.

 

Long seen those over at Pelican. Awaiting 1st hand reviews. I would expect them not to be far from stock though.

 

I'll be happy to give an update in a couple of weeks. My stock struts have likely been shot since I bought the car this last summer though, so it wouldn't be a fair comparison.

 

That's OK - mine have probably been shot since I bought the car in 2007 Didn't know enough to know better...

 

I've had the Bilstein Touring for about 9 months now. I have them paired with TSW v3 springs. I did IE fixed camber plates in the front and some eBay adjustable lower control arms on the rear.

Huge difference to the blown out (> 120K miles) stock dampers that were on there. The Touring are supposed to be about 10% firmer than stock (dunno if that's Sport or normal) so I matched them with the about 10% firmer spring from TSW. I've done two track days on this setup and the car handles excellently, plus lots of Austin, TX commuting. No complaints about ride quality, firm but still comfortable (at least for my butt). I haven't noticed any decay yet and I have about 15K miles on them. Highly recommended for stock or a very mild ( < 1") lowering spring.

 

sup guys...there back in stock....I just bought a pair. I guess I should buy strut mounts too?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/141210564213

 

I have them on my 05 cooper s. I say for the money you can't beat the price.

 

welp I'm officially PISSED. Spend $300 today for nothing. My mechanic got all the wheels and old struts off.....said the new ones ( stage ) I supplied, did not fit the strut mounts and are in-correct. I also had him put in new strut mounts so I have old the old ones....and I tried to fit them into the Stagg..its close...but does not quite fit.....anybody else have a tight fit on theses or any problems installing them?

 

I looked up the kyb interchange number shown by the seller....
Google says it fits gen2 mini's....

 

Surf, what build date is your Gen1? It seemed to get the Koni numbers right.

 

01/04....they said they sent me the correct part #'s but the struts do not fit in the stock mounts

 

That's odd. What strut mounts did you get? Sachs, Boge, Lemforder are all ZF owned, OE & identical.

 

Sachs. New Strut Mounts fit on stock struts but not STAGGs. The "thread" part of the STAGG fits through, but the "sleeve" part does not. Its close...but does not fit.

 

Do the rest of the strut body, spring perch look identical to your old 1s? If so,
you're saying the shaft diameter is slightly bigger for all 4 corners? Is the vendor taking them back? This should be corrected.

 

His ebay link indicates at least 10 sold. Hope we get to hear if others have similar issues. If yours weren't wrongly packed/labeled or aren't an isolated error, Seller should pull them off the market.

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/120932025@N06/13286983284/

 

As you can see it does not fit over the "sleeve" , its close....but no cigar.....

 

Everything else look identical to your old struts?

 

yes

 

Unacceptable blooper. Vendor should ship you the right ones. Please keep us posted on any update.

 

I am in touch with vender....he sais he shipped me the correct part #'s, and they are the correct #'s on the strut...but they clearly do not fit. Will keep you guys posted. Very upset over here.

 

I ordered a set of Stagg's yesterday for the 02 off ebay.

 

I received my Stagg struts and I had the same problem. The shafts do not fit through the strut mount hole. My build date is 4-02 and the sellers listing stated they would fit. The package matched the part number on his site. I contacted the seller; techdeals and they responded the same day, had UPS pick them up the next day and issued a full refund. Since I had the Mini apart, I needed struts like now, so I went to NAPA, they had them in stock @ $409 out the door.

Here is a picture of a factory strut and a Stagg strut. You can see the different diameter on the Stagg.

 

Yup same deal with me! I was issued a full re-fund for parts. Then I asked them how they were going to re-imburse me for the $300 I spent on labor....they are sending me a free set of Monroe OESpectrum shocks which arrive today........


Really upset about the STAGG but we'll see how the Monroe's are.