Considering koni yellows.. not sure on springs
 

Im getting the mod itch, and was thinking of getting a more refined/sophisticated ride and cornering setup and am looking at the koni yellows. I have a r52 jcw and I want to keep very near my same ride height (snow, clearance etc), and dont care about a low stance etc. Is it a waste to get the konis and use stock jcw springs?

I was thinking of going to a linear rate spring to get a bit better corner turn in with less lean, but it seems like they all want to lower the car .5”+. The Swift seem to be closest to stock height?!

Looking for opinions on what to do and whats available. I like the cost point and reviews on the yellows - seems easy - having just rebound adjustment is ok with me, Ill set it and not fiddle much. The adjustable height shocks seem too pricey for decent ones; $900+.

I dont track the car, this is just for spirited driving and daily use.

I don't want to overserve on my experience with the Koni yellow and Swift springs. I did a lot of reading before making the decision and I cannot be more pleased with the combo. I will not buy spring kit or coilover when all they give you is the amount of drop or no spring rates provided.:roll:

Swift is very conservative on their marketing of this spring kit and I think most people are turned off. It says it is designed to work with stock dampers. To me having set the Koni yellows to fairly high on rebound, I know the stock dampers are too weak to work properly with the springs.

This combo transforms my Mini on road as well as on track and provides just the right amount of drop for dealing with the lousy American roads.

I also have a vert and also have been reading everything I can on the vert suspension. The biggest issue is that the R52 weighs around 180 lbs more than than the R53 and even Way will tell you their TSW springs will sag on the back of the vert. There are older posts here where there are discussions on the R52 not being able to take the additional stress of stiffer suspensions. With coilovers you will need to go with adjustable control arms, change end links and most likely add wheel spacers (that may require longer wheel bolts). Some of the lower cost COs come with adjustable front camber plates while more others that cost more do not requiring more expense. I know that H&R offers springs for the R52 where many others just lump the R52 and R53 together. From what I can tell, MINI did not offer the JCW suspension kit ( 1 CM lower) option for the vert. With lowering springs you then remove some good shock travel and many have gone back with spacers to put height/shock travel back in. I am leaning towards leaving my 226a sport suspension springs and going with Koni Yellows.

I have done several group runs on some very good twisties including the TOTD, the BOTD and the Snake. In that environment it is more driver skill than auto set up as a mere R50 Justa with a NASCAR Stig was not eating too much exhaust. I have my JCW modded so at higher revs the Gen2s do not pull away on shorter runs even with their much greater torque. I have Michelin AS/3 Pilots and with the 22 mm rear sway bar I can go fast enough to get a very big smile and more than a little adrenaline pumping.

You mentioned JCW springs, are your springs red? If not you have the 226a sport suspension that is about 4 mm lower whereas the red JCWs are the 1 cent/.4 inches. If red, somebody put them on from a R53.

I will just mention one point on the Swift springs. It drop the front and back by exactly 3/4" on my R53 when first installed. As time goes by, the front settles a bit more, but not the rear sue to the piggy cast iron block of the unbreakable lump. I believe R52 is heavier mostly at the rear, especially top down.

The springs are not red, so I guess I have the normal cooper S suspension?! Pardon my ignorance, I didnt realize.

I am not looking to lower the car so I shouldnt need the end links or spacers. I do already have the front IE plates and upper and lowerarms in the back, so I should be ok with any adjustments needed near stock height (my goal). I have a25mm bar too (I like it best on full hard), so I'm just looking for that last little bit of AH-HAHHHH for cornering excellence.

This scares me a bit, can you elaborate a bit? What fails over time? :)

Thanks for the info pnwr53s, very helpful, and I loved your build thread!

Does anyone make spacers for the top of the rear shocks? Seems like it would be an easy way to raise the rear a bit. :) I could fashion a plate I suppose if its an issue.

You should run in your vin to see if you have the 226 option. As the years have gone by and there are no postings of a R52 wheels falling off from suspension mods I have am not concerned of those older posts as I am not going to track the car. In other posts it notes that Way had shock spacers

05 MCS:
curb weight: 1215 kg / 2678 lbs, gross weight GVWR: 1585 kg / 3494 lbs

07 R52:
curb weight: 1290 kg / 2844 lbs, gross weight GVWR: 1640 kg / 3616 lbs

The difference is about a slim male weight.:roll: I would be most concern if you always carry a car full of Miniacs.:lol:

Would be more helpful if you can find the front/rear weight which may be on the driver side door pillar.

Perhaps by now there are springs that compensate accordingly. There is an older post where the guy says the front being lighter did not set down as far as the back. There are many posts on different setups for the R53 but not that many for the R52. The front on the vert is lighter, the back heavier. The support for the top is just above the back wheels and the below body crossbraces are from the back of the driver seat to the rear wheels. In other words for me, the center of gravity on the vert is lower than the R53.

Allot of it comes down to how much money you want to put into a 10 or more year old car. Other than the rattles, that the vert has no lack of, I like the car the way I have it set up. With the age, and as I am pushing a little over 50k in miles, updating the suspension is not out of the question for me. Maybe we can get some longer vert owners to chime in.

Since you have an R52 Cabrio if you go with just lowering springs it will sag in the rear for sure due to the extra weight. None of the lowering springs will correctly compensate for this so I would say stay with your JCW springs. Otherwise you will have to go with coilovers to keep it from squatting.

From the VIN: "226 Sports Suspension Settings Sportliche Fahrwerksabstimmung" Looks like I have the 226..

It would seem like keeping with the same springs would sort of be a waste of effort/money.. I guess the corner suspension setup feel I'm trying to get rid of is due to the spring being progressive, not linear, correct? I'm a little confused on what to expect with just doing Konis on stock springs. I've read a lot of people saying they love it, but not many people really describing the actual change in feel.

Way, do you still sell the spacers? How much sag are we talking about here? .25", .5"?

Can you recommend a (decent quality) budget coilover?!

Does Koni offer, or recommend, a spring set that is tuned/matched to this shock for this application ?

Hodge podging with other brands, rates, installed lengths and diameters seems to be too much of throwing darts as the wall approach.

With all of the engineering strength that Koni carries... I can't imagine nothing is available as a matched set?

Saying all of this, I DO understand that this is an adjustable shock.... and a 'systems approach' with something as important as springs would be more preferred for me.

My understanding, and correct me if/where I'm wrong.... Since this is basically a rebound-adjustable shock, where the adjustment has only a minor effect on compression-damping, stiffer/softer/progressive springs will not necessarily be an ideal match unless you know where you are starting. IMO, a good set of springs should allow the adjuster to have space on both shoulders of the range to dial it in.

At this entry level of performance shocks... I'd like to see something that has less of a "black art of suspension" approach... hence my inquiry for 'matched' springs

Thoughts??



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