I want to know actual experience from those who have had, or still have the spax coilover kit for the S... the spax kit is the closest thing that satisfies all my requirements... and im real keen to hear the + and -s of the system...

i realize there have been threads about it... but i want first hand experience, not hearsay

 

Good luck, i asked the same question a while ago(you'll see it in a search, here and MINI2) and for some reason people run from it. Only one good person answered and he said he loved his kit.

Something strange about it, i would love to get the spax kit as BAT Inc. has it for $949! Of course i would much rather get the PSS9's but i don't have $1700 to toss at it. Need some money for better brakes.

 

Wow,

I thought at least someone else would give an answer.....

I guess you'll have to do a search either here or at MINI2 for my Spax post where a great MINI owner gave me alot of info on his system.

Just went through my CP and found the old thread. Don't know if you've already seen it through a search but here it is:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=27556

 

Hi,

I am from the UK and have had SPAX RSX coilovers on my car for 6 months now so I feel that I am qualified to express a balanced opinion on them.

Firstly, they are great value for money and endow the MINI with prodigous cornering composure, but unfortunately they are very very unrefined around town and on country lanes (aka crap 'A' - roads here in the UK) they don't posess the means to control the PRIMARY dampening very well - by this I mean the strut's ability to prevent vertical 'bouncing' on rough surfaces. Get into the corners though and the car handles bloomin' well but in my opinion there is too much of a tradeoff between everyday town driving and blasts on open windy roads. In the US I would consider this compromise even more unacceptable because your roads are far more straight than ours and some of the concrete highways in West Florida for instance aren't the last word in quality surfacing :smile:

I have had these profesionally installed, spent hundreds on super duper 4- wheel alignments etc but still they don't perform the way I expect them to as an all rounder; on a perfectly smooth track where you can lower the car optimally and set the dampeners rock hard, the setup is great, a real eye-opener in fact. On the road however they are mediocre at best and lose their composure very quickly. To be honest I would have been better off keeping the standard dampeners and getting Eibach springs put on.

All is not doom and gloom however. I have experienced lots of different MCSs here in the UK with different suspension options because I am very '****' when it comes to suspension mods. The MINI remember is my everyday car, I have a new 410bhp Audi S4 for the weekends

Anyway, the best coilover kit I have experienced thus far is the AST suspension kit which are made by a Swedish company. They have alot of experience in dampener design and their spring rates are spot on. Amazingly, they are more compliant than Pss9's around town yet are capable of comfortably outperforming them around a track

The place I am getting my new coilovers from is:

http://www.powerstation.org.uk

I shall be arranging a MINI2 buy from them soon because I need to spread the word about how good these units really are.

Failing that, the PSS9's are good but pricey and the new Eibach kit is nice but a little hard around town again, just like other coilovers really. The thing that blew me away about the AST coilovers was the fact that they behave soooo well around town (more compliant and controlled than stock).

Hope that I have been of some help. In my opinion, don't make the mistake I made and get the SPAX kit, save and get something that is better. You pay cheap you buy twice as we say over here (at my place of work anyways!)

Take care,

Henry

 

great review! thanks for your help in saving my 1000 bucks ready for the spax!

thanks for the full-on review... i wish it was better.. for the price, the height and the damper adjustability is just unbeatable.. but ultimately it fails i guess in the aspect of reliability

think i might turn to fk or teins now... hm... decision decision!

 

I purchased 2 sets of the RSX for our MINI's, and had 3 front failures in less than 4 months.

I e-mailed Spax repeatedly, and even called England once to no avail.

Basically, upper seals blew out, leading to thumping in the front suspension and fluid dripping on the ground.

We ended up throwing them away due to their poor customer service.

Good luck PSS9 for me now.

 

I had a set of RSX on my MCS for 20 months and 45,000 miles. The car was autocrossed about 25 times per season. My daily commute is 90 miles round trip on mostly rural highway with some in-town miles each day.


I was happy with the ride and handling using this setup (along with camber plates, rear camber links, stiffer rear sway bar, 16x7.5 wheels with 215 Azenis). SPAX offer a wide range of adjustment in damping. The softer settings (1-5 or so) were too underdamped for me, but 8-10 was pretty comfortable if my kids or less sporting passengers were riding with me. For general use 12-15 felt good to me, and for autocross it was 24-28 depending on course conditions.

Adjusting damping on the SPAX is very, very easy to do. The fronts adjust (I just kept the proper size nut driver in the car all the time) on top and have distinct detents. The rears adjust near the bottom via a **** on the side of the damper body. The clicks are very distinct and the ***** are easily reached by laying parallel to the bumper and adjusting by feel.
I was forced to install and remove the RSX 5-6 times due to problems with the camber plates (nothing to do with the coilovers). When using camber plates it is difficult to get the damper top nut snugged all the way down without the shaft spinning. We were forced to use vise-grips (well padded) to hold the shaft while the top nut was installed. This situation is probably not entirely unique to the SPAX design. It becomes important because both front shafts eventually developed some pitting. Once this started, it was merely a matter of time until the seals were damaged and the fluid leaked out. The rear shafts are fine, and we did not have the same difficulty holding them as the fronts. I had no other issues with the SPAX whatsoever, but that is just my experience.

I've since installed a set of PSS9s. They are much beefier, and far stiffer. The ride on my route is tolerable to me, but annoying to others, even with the dampers set on 8 (9 is softest, but too underdamped and it ends up being very jiggly). Installing snow tires this weekend in place of the Azenis made a noticable improvement in ride quality. So far, so good, since the Bilsteins are also much stiffer and I think will end up being superior for autocrossing. That being said, I suspect the difference from the SPAX to be subtle on many surfaces.

Scott
90STX/SM/STX

 

For just 200 more you can pick up some tein coilovers that are height and damper adjustable....and havent had failure problems...maybe thats a better option?

 

that was my top choice until i found out about their ride height range... (ie too low!) highest drop is like 1.3 inches up front and 0.7 in the back... with my 215/45-17 tires i wont be able to use much more than the initial few inches so i dont see much point...

i still want the teins though... damper and height adjustable type ss is my prime choice if i decide to ditch the 17s early

 

I have the same sized tires with an agressive offset...i dont have problems with the H&R springs i currently have...you should have a decent amount of space. I still plan on getting the teins i think.

Even if you dont have a lot of room up front for height adjustment, they still allow you to corner weight the car and adjust the dampening. Pretty good for the price, and 1.3 is the perfect drop if you want a good balance between stock and slammed.

 

Bot a set of Spax's made for pre-3/02 mini's on EBay VERY cheap a while back. I've been running the rears for about a year as I refuse to pull shocks to adjust them (aka Koni). I have found the rears equal in dampening to the Konis and the ride a bit better probably due to lower rate springs. I modified the swaybar link on the fronts and used an H-Sport coilover adapter to allow them to work on a post 3/02 car. Finally put them on 3 weeks ago. I found that they were a joy on the street next to the Koni's and H-Sport springs. Their performance on the track was equally good even though I was forced to raise the car up over an inch. Unfortunately, the height adjuster rubs my 225/50/16 Victoracers so they had to go. I really miss the ride and control. Some have had issues with quality. My rears have been on a year and are just fine. I don't know of another coilover setup that allows compression and rebound adjustment for under $1k. If I were counting pennies I'd go for the Spax's, full race and wallet says PSS9's. More street than track I'd do the Spax's over the Koni/H-Sport if I had it to do all over again.

 

I had Spax shocks as OEM on my Caterham Super Seven which I autocrossed extensively, locally, only, and drove less than 2500 miles a year. I was disapointed in how long they lasted (7500 miles) which I was told was typical of Spax, for a Seven. Most Seven owners try to upgrade to other shocks so I'd never get them for a MINI.

 

I don't think the teins will be adjustable unless removed in the rear. My friend just got a set for his MP3 and he has to have his rear decklid removed to be able to adjust them at autocrosses.

I rather have a system that i can adjust be either reaching through the wheel or simply taking it off.