Party up front, Business in the back JK


So front was after intalled and lowered, rear is stock height (Rear coils weren't installed yet) Just to see how low the front looked so I can pre-adjust rears before installing.

After everything got dialed in, here is how it currently sits (no side shots yet, iPhone had to be restored so i lost all pics from install day )




OVERALL: Super happy with how they came out. Wheels are 16" OZ Ultra's on a 205/50 (I think) tire... Might be going lower but new wheels soon so might just wait till those come in before I adjust height.

Install wasn't too bad, have never done suspension before and was told its pretty straight forward. So me and my friend, a 12 pack of brews and 6 hours later, everything was dialed in. Having the right tools from the get-go would've made this MUCH easier and less painful, but thats all a part of the process right?

Handling feels 10x better, and I can only imagine with a new RSB on the way and some real performance tires, how this will hold up at the track in a couple weeks. Would definitely recommend these coilovers for a good daily/occasional track day setup. If you're in the market though, go for the ones with camber plates as they're only like $150 more... I just got a steal on these from a local vendor that I couldn't pass up (Mine have no camber plates)

 

Looks nice. What control arms are you using in the rear?

 

Stock control arms... to my knowledge iirc, they are adjustable? I could be confusing them with the fronts though.

 

Side shot for anyone that cares

 

That looks great man. How would you describe the ride?

 

Looks good. I have Megan's as well. The stock rear controls arms have just a tad of adjustment in them. Would like to see a rear view to see how much neg camber you now have. Might need to invest in a set of adj control arms before long to help save tire life..

 

 

I think that would be the opposite, no? Either way - that guy is the man.

 

^Aaah yes. My bad!^

 

Its a party no matter how you look at it.

 

Hahaha that picture explains it all...

As for my negative camber, it was pretty bad in the back when everything settled. I got an alignment and fixed everything back to spec, but Ill definitely need to invest in some camber plates. Not too sure about control arms, but that's also depending on your wheel setup. My current setup won't need it.

 

What did your alignment specs end up at..

 

Im not 100% sure, Ill have to look at the papers and post up a pic probably... I wanna say the rears ended up at 2.7 and 2.9 (I could very well be wrong though)

 

that is a lot of neg. camber. I think the factory specs are around -.09 and has a + - of .05 tolerance. I would definantly check your sheet to see. If that is correct you'll be wearing out the inside of your rear tires pretty quick, depending on how you drive the car, DD, weekend toy etc....

 

Ya I don't know if they tried to pull the arms in to adjust the camber or not, seems like they just aligned to factory specs minus the camber. My friend's dad has a shop and he is going to check on that before i go about getting control arms. Ill try and post a pic this weekend of my sheet

 

N2mini, Actually toe destroys tyres much faster than sheer camber will.
Though to handle better you want to reduce rear camber.

 

I thought this but wanted to see if someone else would chime in... None the less that is a lot of rear camber for my car, no?

 

Correct. I didn't go into the whole Toe in, Toe Out thing since the OP didn't mention it. and there is adjustability in the car to get the Toe setting correct, but not enough Camber adj. to fix the rear.. Try doing a lot of Hwy miles with Neg 2.5 in the rear and you'll go thru a set of tires in less then 15,000 miles regardless of the Toe setting..

 

Ya if I get that many miles Ill be real satisfied... I barely drive 8-10k miles cus of how close my commute is, and my M3 would eat up rears in about 10k miles, and much more expensive tires (a set of 4 on the MINI is the same as a set of rears on the M3)

 

I would not run more than 1.5 in the rear.

 

I had similar camber when I first lowered mine and drove it for near a year before I fixed it, the good news is that car was on rails! I could not break the rear end loose in turns, the bad was it killed those rear tires. You can do new control arms, or I just put some eccentric bushings in my stock control arms and straightened the camber out that way.

 

You did what to the bushings? serious question though... cus I do love the way it handles, night and day difference honestly.

If I could do what you did to fix the camber, Im all for it (if it doesn't change the handling too drastically) OR like I said, Im ok with having to eat up the rears. Did that a lot in the E46 and those rears cost me the same as a whole set for the MINI

 

As mentioned you won't have to worry about the rear end coming around on you but it is going to push the front end if driving hard.. but I rode around for awhile with -2.0 in the rear till I had the money to fix it.. I had to purposely back peddle and brake in turns to get the thing to turn at the Auto-x...

 

I used something like these http://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-93...ac-street.aspx

 

Whew! not cheap little boogers are they... Seems like I paid $250 for my Adj control arms way back when...