Does anyone know where I find how to instructions for installing springs? The search is not bringing up much.

 

Try this I hope it helps https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ll-how-to.html

 

Hi Minibx,

What I was really needing was if the nuts holding the rear strut on are inside the car (pull apart the rear interior) or are they accessible from the outside of the car.

 

Hi they are accessible from underneath the car, pretty easy just make sure that you mind the brake lines and such

 

Perfect, thank you.

One last question, do you have to have that special 21mm socket or would any deep 21mm work?

 

It would be nice to have it but if you don't and I didn't have it, you can use a spark plug socket with and Allen key I can't remember the size ?/16 sorry bad memory but it works on the 21 if you are keeping the same struts, if you are changing the struts they may be 22 mm instead and that will complicate things a bit but not much lol, just make sure that you have a spring compressor, rent from your chain auto parts store or buy one ( I would rent). I see that you have an R56 in my opinion they are easier to than the r53's to swap springs. Good luck

 

Thank you minibx. I appreciated your time and your assistance. I'll snap some shots when she's all done (weather is changing fast)

 

Cool we like pics lol

 

I almost forgot about pics! Is it too late? Haha.

 

Sweet, any issues?

 

Wouldn't be a Mini mod without an issue.

My car suffers from a vibration right around 30 MPH. If I am too aggressive with the skinny pedal I get a bad vibration. It's easy to live with for now. Heard replacing the axle will resolve the issue. The car only has 60k on it so I'm not going to replace it just yet.

The Mach V motorsports spring is a 1.25" drop up front and 1.0" in the rear. Easiest mod I've ever done. One hour, forty minutes.

Wouldn't mind a more aggressive drop.

 

That's a pretty cool drop I hope that you can fix the vibration I couldn't live with lol. Looks great enjoy

 

Stock shocks?

 

Yes, stock SS. Works very well together. Couldn't be happier.

 

Yeh just wondering, on my other car one of my shocks started to leak causing a vibration that would only happen at 55+ mph. Car was lowered with only 15k miles.

The other time it vibrated was cause all the weights were gone.

 

Wow, that's hardly any miles! Frustrating

 

Good morning minibx,

Just wanted to give you (and NAM) an update on my axle vibration. I found a reman CV from O'Reilly Auto parts. It was only $100.

After getting the wrong axle the first time (long story) I finally got the correct axle and replaced that yesterday. 40 mins later my car was vibration free. BTW this was a super easy job!!

While this was a gamble for me I did have some insight from my brother (a mechanic), he stated that most unequal length axle setups (like the Mini) tend to wear out the shorter side first (driver side in our case) mainly because the long side will 'wrap up' or twist when heavy accelerating is applied. This twisting of the long axle can prolong its life. Well that theroy was proven yesterday. While the axle is not 100% vibration free I can barely feel it now and I can live with that.

Now to figure out my new coolant leak that I just noticed

 

Thanks for the upgrade, I'm glad that all worked out for you. If most of the vibration went away but you still feel some. You can check you wheels and tires try using a shop that has road force balance it will help a lot , not all shop use road force

 

The problem is that shocks, especially OEM shocks, are designed to dampen oscillations within a certain specified motion range. When you put 1" lowering springs on your car, the motion of the shock/strut isnow starting 1" already into its designed and intended stroke range of motion. The first inch of dampening is now never used, and the remaining range of damping motion has to do ALL the dampening. This is why lowering springs typically wear out OEM shocks/struts rapidly on almost any car.

 

That's why I can't lower my car, I have Koni FSD on my Mini. There is one memeber that had good results installing JCW spring with 0 problems so far so who knows I guess it will shorten the life of the shocks eventually.

 

My R56S,
Check the coolant overflow bottle on Winnie. Mine had a small crack on the bottom of it, so it would only leak when the car was hot. If the top of the trans is wet, it is the thermostat, the water pump is on the passenger side of the engine.

Have fun,
Mike