Ordered! THANKS!

 

I just did the fronts, and now few reflections and some info for anyone who is reading this thread and planning to do their shocks in the future...

The nut on the top of the stock shocks is a 21mm, or 13/16. Not a big deal, because you take use a sparkplug style socket with a hex on the outside and any sort of wrench to take it off. You can also vice grip the old shock or do whatever destruction suits you. Again, not a huge deal if you dont have a 13/16 sparkplug socket.

The Koni nut on the top of the new shocks 3/4, which happens to be a 13/16 or 21mm on the back side. This one is important to have since you need to torque that nut to spec. Unfortunately, 13/16 or 21mm is an impossible size to find for a crows foot. You will need to order that in advance or just order a window socket, 3/4".

The sway bar end link nut is 5/8, and like the others mentioned above, needs an allen key through the middle, instead of another wrench on the bolt. Not sure what the dimension on the back of the 5/8 sparkplug socket is, in case you want to get a crows foot on it for the torque wrench.

I definitely recommend that you take this project as an excuse to buy a nice set of T Handle Allen Keys. This is really tough with the little "L" shaped Allen Keys. I used a small deep well socket on the short end of the L to give a little more leverage. My hands are sore.

When you are taking the shocks out, leave the top 3 nuts on until you get the bottom of the shock out of the pinch collar. You wont get them out if they arent still attached up top.

When reassembling, you should note that the 3 bolts sticking out of the top are not in an equilateral triangle, they have to be oriented correctly around the bearing.

Go ahead and buy the upper and lower rubbers for the struts. I think its probably a good "while you are in there." I also suggest you go ahead and buy new bumpstops and sleeves as well. While mine were still intact, all the rubber parts are pretty old and showing some fatigue.

You may also want to go ahead and buy the upper bushing/bearing while you are in there. My bearings were fine, but I didnt realize this is a mostly rubber part, again, fatigue over time. You can buy the OEM ones or get some that are much cheaper. https://www.outmotoring.com/mini-coo...t_bushing.html

I did buy and use new collar nuts as listed above. A nice floor jack was really helpful for supporting and lowering the whole steering knuckle. You should also have plenty of PB blaster and brake cleaner on hand.

Anyway, Im going to do the rears tomorrows. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

okay, got the rears done, a few thoughts...

Rears are easier to get out and in than the fronts. No need to disconnect the swaybar in the rear. The rears are tougher to reassmble. There are more layers and parts, so just be aware that the time under the car is lower, but the time at the workbench re-assmbling the shock/strut is higher. The tip above about getting everything rethreaded carefully was helpful. I needed a little grease to get one of the trailing arm bolts back in. Also, working the shock up and down and rotating it a little while you are rethreading that trailing arm bolt is helpful, too.

I put both of the plastic discs on between the body and the bumpstop, I guess that was right? One of the perch rings was a little tough to get on the koni's, but the other was easier. The Koni instructions are pretty minimal. When you put something in pictures that everyone can understand worldwide, no one can understand them. I did leave one washer off of the first spring I did, but I dont think it will be a problem. We shall see.

No crazy specialty tools needed in the rear. You will still need to use and allen key in the top of the shock along with a wrench. The nut that comes with the Koni's was a 17mm and my wrenches only go up to 16mm, so I used a socket with vice grips. Also the deadblow hammer is still the MVP for auto work. If you dont have one, go get one. Some liquid wrench and brake cleaner is great to have as well!

BTW, compressing the new shocks by hands and watching the rebound rate, vs compressing the old shocks and rebounding, it was definitely time for some new shocks. This whole project was prompted by oil leaking from one of the shocks, and it was definitely the worst one. Now that I've test driven, the car feels good. Its certainly smooth and bumps in the road are a monetary disturbance, not a seismic event. Also, turn in is really sharp, no body roll then an unsettled bounce back.

 

Thanks for the informative writeups and feedback from everyone in this thread. I'm doing a full suspension overhaul within the next 2wk (shocks + springs + camber plates, rear sway bar, sway bar end links, rear camber arms) and this will be very helpful as I figure out how to do everything.

 

I have KW V2s on order and am going to install them myself. I'll also put in SPC lower control arms in the back. It will be my first time replacing shocks/springs. Thanks to all of the contributors to this thread for the great information.

I have a question: what's the conventional wisdom on replacing the various nuts and bolts needed. I'm thinking of things like the lower shock bolts in the rear and the pinch bolt in front; the bolts for the control arms; and the nuts for the end links.

 

Hmmm - Wisconsin - Rust - replace anything rusty... and figure on the possibility that things like the pinch bolts will break before you get them out... Ugh - I know, but it happens.

I assume that you are working on the Countryman listed in your signature and that the rear shocks are mounted the same as they are on the Hatch. If they are the same, then I can’t stress this strongly enough, the lower rear shock bolt is self tapping. You must get the shock in place all the way into the pocket in the control arm before trying to thread the bolt in. And when you do thread it in, do it by hand to make sure it is not cutting new threads over the old threads. I used some never seize on the bolts to help with that. You could replace that bolt with a conventional high strength Metric bolt (I think the grade would be 10.2, but not sure) and washer.

Hope it all goes well...

 

Eddie07S - thanks for the reply. The car has only been in Wisconsin for about 2 years but some rust is likely. I know there is surface rust on parts of the subframes. I'm going to address that with POR15 while I have the car on stands.

The warning, about the rear lower strut bolt is very useful. On RealOEM, the rear shock setup on the R56 and the R60 look similar but the bolts are different part numbers and the images on ECS's site for the two are different. The R60 bolt (33176760342) doesn't look self-tapping but I can't be sure. Either way, I'll keep your advice in mind.

What about replacing the bump stops? I'm planning to lower the car about 35mm (1.4") on the KWs. Should I cut the bump stops as I would if installing lowering springs?

 

You are lucky there. I am in upstate NY and even in a couple of winters the salt can get to things. That said, I have reused nuts and bolts without issue when the cars were only a few years old. Even the rear lower shock bolt, which I found was pretty well protected and in really good shape, although salt water can get in from the back side. The backside is where you want to put some rust buster before trying to take it apart. This bolt and the front pinch bolt, I would put back together with never seize. For the price, replace those 2 sets for peace of mind? Your call at this point.

That bolt (they call it a “nut” on realOEM ) is used on a lot of BMWs and I know a lot of those are self tapping applications. But that aside, I have reused (taken out and put back in) that bolt many times. But, that was with extreme care and hand threading. The torque I used was 95 ft-lbs (same as the wheel bolts). It is my opinion that the 120-130 ft-lbs is for first time assembly, when the bolt is cutting threads and is way too high for that application a second time around.

For the Countryman, I don’t know. On the hatch, the car has only a couple of inches (literally about 2”) of suspension travel and lowering it can can put the shock well into the bumper stop. And there is only about 1/2” of travel until the bumper stop is engaged. My guess is that there isn’t much if any info out there about this on the Countryman. You may want to put a shock on without the spring and take some measurements fully compressed and fully extended and split the difference to see where the “sweet spot” is for ride height. You can measure from the hub to the lip of the wheel well for reference.

 

Thank you again. I decided that I'm going to replace most of the nuts and bolts as well as the bump stops and strut bushings. Compared to the cost of the coilovers and to the time it would take to disassemble again later to replace them when needed, it's a small investment. Having said that, for the bump stops and strut bushings, I'm going third-party since the genuine Mini parts are outrageously priced. All of the nuts/bolts are Mini/BMW.

 

Go with Loemforder for upper front strut
mounts (same as MINI part except for
the stampings) as some of the other
brands suck.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. By sheer luck, that's what I have in my shopping cart.