I've got an 03 R53 with mismatched shocks. I have yellow Koni's in the back but the orange ones in the front. Is it worth taking them out and selling one or the other so they are the same all the way around? I only use the car for a daily driver. Will I notice any difference? Is there a reason why this is a bad setup? If not, I really don't want to go through the trouble of selling them and replacing because all four are almost brand new.

Thanks for the advice!

 

as long as they are the same on each axle, you'll be fine with yellows in the back and orange in the front.

If it was yellow on the left front and rear, and orange on the right front and rear, then you'd have problems.

 

Interesting. I didn't know Koni made a orange (STR.T) damper for the Mini. It must be the precursor to the FSD. You would be fine since left and right on each end are the same. Adjustable dampers, especially those in low price points, are so overated.

 

Early Gen 1 MINIs, FSD, yellows and orange.

https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2005-Cooper-R53-S-Coupe-L4_1.6L_W11B16A/Suspension/Shocks/





Gen 2 MINIs just yellows and FSDs.


Just make sure they are paired, front and rear from side to side.

 

Orange Koni STR.T is very similar to Koni Yellow close to full soft.
If you run the yellows between full soft to 1/4 turn harder, they should
be pretty pretty well matched to the oranges.

 

Why would mismatched left and right cause problems? Might not be the most comfortable thing because one side would be slightly bouncier than the other, but I don't see how it would actually cause a problem. Legit question.

 

Actually I almost agree with you left and right mismatch may not be much of a problem as ignorance is bliss. With a lot of cheap coilovers that has more ***** and clicks than you can shake a stick at, even with the same model left and right and set to same dial/click position you may never know what you get, according to this guy. Reasons are damping adjustable valve is seldom linear, and worst they are not repeatable, and/or can varies greatly from unit to unit for cheap dampers/coilovers.