Long story short, I have an '06 R53 with a completely worn out factory sport suspension. I've narrowed replacement choices down to 2 options for now...either BC coil overs or the Megan EZ Street's. I know there are better options out there, but just having a newborn means my budget has been slashed dramatically, and the car only sees spirited street use.

Reasons for these options are 1. both have solid upper mount plates which means I don't have to purchase 2 replacement uppers to fix my torn and worn out stock pieces, 2. both have dampening adjustment for me to tailor to PA's not-so-wonderful roads, and 3. ride height adjustment independent of strut stroke.

I've searched through the many different MINI forums (and others) to find positive and negative reviews on each, but I'm having a tough time finding good information other than "oh yeah rode great" or "you get what you pay for" (obviously).

Does anyone have first-hand experience with either of these who can comment on ride and adjustability for just street use?

 

Is there a reason that you have to go with Coil-Overs? Why not just replace the factory struts with some KONI FSD's or yellow Sport shocks?

If you want to keep costs down....that would be the best option, and you would have a nice ride also (probably won't with cheap coilovers).

 

Mostly at this point it's total cost versus bang for the buck. The cost of the Koni's plus the upper mounts comes pretty close to c/o's already, and the amount of adjustability seems a better option. Getting rid of the stock progressive rate springs and going to a linear rate set with a slight drop for lower cog is something I'd like as well, as I'm not a fan of the wild body roll I experience on the stock suspension. I'm also trying to dial out some of the massive under steer the car seems to exhibit.

I realize low end coil overs won't be the greatest option by far compared to higher end Ohlins or track sets, so just trying to tailor the suspension to how I drive as much as possible with my limited funds. Plus I think I got spoiled years ago from formula fords that I used to play around with lol.

 

You get what you pay for is a good statement and I feel this way personally with a few brands out there. One of which being Megan. I've just personally not had luck with the brand. I have, however, seen people get good use out of the coils without issues. Again, everyone may have different experience with them. For a cost effective best bang for your buck coil over, I recommend ST coilovers HERE. They're manufactured by KW and come with a good warranty. For lowering, you'll also want to look into adjustable control arms to help with abnormal tire wear in the rear. Usually a set of Hotchkis Adjustable arms HERE pop up in the marketplace from time to time. You could also post up a WTB for the ST coils and Hotchkis arms. Someone might have some they want to unload. I saw a set a few weeks ago in there.

 

I put the FSD, fixed camber plates, and a solid swaybar on ours and I haven't found the car's limit yet. The thing handles like it's on rails and doesn't roll at all. Wife hit a deep pothole that knocked the spring out of the pocket and tore up some other stuff, strut and plate are just fine. The lifetime warranty is a nice fallback on the struts.

 

Yeah, the ST's were one of the first sets I looked at. I love everything about them except for two things: 1. Lack of solid upper mount and ability to pre-tension the coils, and 2. No dampening adjustment. Adding in those additional parts to a Koni/custom spring set would put me up in KW territory anyway, and again out of my pitifully small budget.

I'm going to rule out the Megan set completely though. If there was a dealer that offered something like a Koni yellow set with custom spring combos and adjustable strut mount plates as a package, I would definitely lean more towards that direction. At least the BC construction seems better than the Megan's and I can still get them with custom spring rates and valving.

At any given day my drive can consist of horrible pothole town and city streets, and 10 minutes later turn into twisty backroads that could give many road courses a run for the money lol.

 

The ST X Coilovers can be utilized with your OE strut mounts just fine. However, the ST XTA Coilovers do give you adjustable top plates and allow you adjustable dampening, but are more in KW territory. I've had the ST X's installed on some pretty big HP builds with great results for the price. Ultimately, they're a good bang for your buck coil for what you get compared to the price they're at. I saw some KW V1's in the market place the other week, so keep an eye out. For what you're wanting, I think it might be best to post a WTB thread in the marketplace and see what people may have right now. You could also keep an eye out in there as good stuff pops up every week.

 

I have the Megan EZ Streets and I love them. they work great, exactly as advertised, and you have the flexibility of Height and dampening adjustment.

 

Figured I'd give everyone an update, after much debate I decided to save (and then spend) the extra money on a better set of coil overs and went with the ST XTA set and a 1/4" wheel spacers (about 7mm roughly, sourced from my local auto parts store), as well as 35mm extended wheel lugs for the front (better safe than sorry).

I've had Taiwan sets on my cars in the past, most notably the K-Sport Kontrol set on my 530hp Evo 8 a few years back, and for as well as they handled the XTA set is leaps and bounds better. Driveability so far has been incredible, no harshness or bouncing affect so far around town although I have yet to tackle north east PA's notorious highways. In hindsight I wish I had drilled holes up through the rear mounts to at least try and access the rear dampening adjusters, but that's another project for another day. Setting the ride height is pretty straight forward as well and making height adjustments is much easier than the BC/Megan double locking collar designs, although I do miss being able to preload the coils without raising the ride height.

Next up, LCA PowerFlex bushings...should be fun on a 10 year old car!

 

+1 for the ST XTA

https://www.ecstuning.com/News/MINI_R50_R52_R53_Cooper_S_JCW_2002_2003_2004_2005_ 2006_2007_2008_ST_XTA_Performance_Coilover_System/




With the PF LCA bushing , you will be set


https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ll-joints.html