Well my 13 R56 S decided it didn't like to be parked for the winter and the LF strut puked all of its fluid up on the floor. So now I'm shopping for coilovers. I am curious as to what others would recommend. I am willing to spend the money for something good if it's worth it. I am not looking to go much lower at the moment as I am running a 225/45/17 so I am taller than stock and don't want to rub all the time. I don't plan on tracking the car right now so I am looking for something fun on the road without giving up much ride as I am in Michigan. I know you should get new sway bar end links and rear control arms when you go lower but since my car has 90k I am thinking about just replacing more of the bushings as to not have to do them later. So I am looking for people's experience with their coilover or strut and spring combos and any other things I should do while I'm in there

 

Folks usually don't consider coil overs if they don't want to be lower. If you want to keep OEM ride height, my suggestion would be to keep the stock springs, and get Bilstein B6 shocks. Get new front top mounts, like the new ECS stiffer version. Add some front lower control arm bushings, thicker rear sway bar, and lower rear camber arms, and enjoy!

 

njaremka I'm also in the market for refreshing my suspension, I'm piggybacking on this thread actually. I'd really love your insight as you have a ton of posts here. My mostly stock R58 S is my weekend canyon toy and it needs new dampers badly. No track work, just OEM+ street canyon driving. Needs to be stock ride height, I've already cut the bottom of the chin spoiler off because it scraped ****ing everywhere. The roads around here are smooth but have lots of "yumps" and I drive rapidly. I've hit the bump stops a few times, though my weak dampers are probably not helping. Sounds like coilovers aren't for me.

Are the B4 dampers like JCW dampers? And then the B6 dampers are another step up from that? What sorta spectrum are we talking here. I have a S, not sure of its equipment level.

What do you know about the third engine mount and its improvement to shifting feel? Does stiffening that one (with poly instead of rubber) help limit the driveline movement and improve shifting accuracy at high load? What about the other two engine mounts? I'd like to keep those rubber if possible because OEM+, not track car.

What do rear camber arms do if you aren't lowering the car? I thought you only needed plates if you were lowering. Is this just so you can get a more aggressive alignment? I only put a few thousand miles a year on this so I can go quite aggressive, the tire wear doesn't bother me.

Other than the front control arm bushes, are there other changes I can make to improve steering feel?

Is there a company who can tune my car to remove the rev hang? Not talking about flywheel weight, that is fine. I want the car to drop revs like its in cold start, once it warms up the 1-2 and 2-3 shift is just brutal with the rev hang slowing things down. Don't want more power from a standard tune.

And then unrelated to suspension but, this post is long as hell already, I need to pull the front of my car off to service the oil return line. I'm looking at a kit which also has some other gaskets and stuff. Are there any other "while you're in there's" I should be doing while I have the front of the car off?

See video for my use case and the brutal rev hang


Thanks a bunch.

 

Although these comments pertain to Gen 1, should also be relevant to Gen 2...

Ironically, the OEM LF strut on my buddy's R53 (2006 JCW with prox 9k total miles) started spewing hydraulic fluid a few weeks ago, so time for new ones. From our prior experiences with Bilstein on non-MINI applications (despite being pleased with the 5100 set on my Ford F150), we decided not to choose Bilstein for his R53 but instead a complete set of Koni Special Active struts/shocks. Our thoughts being, likely more responsive to road and highway irregularities than OEM dampening rates while maintaining OEM (or perhaps better) ride level. So, we installed those in recent days and all is well now... Koni Special ACTIVE

 

My experience is the exact opposite. I have had good success with Bilstein, and terrible experience with Koni.

 

Oh, there's a lot of stuff going on here...

B4 would be similar to OEM shocks. They are twin tube, low pressure, OEM replacements. I believe they can be had as either "Normal" or "Sport" versions, similar to OEM. B6 and B8 are mono tube high pressure dampers. I believe the fronts are inverted, too, for better strength. The B6/B8's are internally the same as each other, but the B8 are designed with a shorter stroke to work better with lowering springs. Plenty of information on the internets about the different Bilstein offerings.

The lower 'torque' engine mount will make throttle response more direct. It will have minimal impact on shifting effort or smoothness.

Targeting -1.75° camber at all four corners will make your car handle VERY well. If you can get those numbers with all OEM equipment, excellent. If not, front camber plates and rear lower camber arms will be needed, regardless of your ride height.

A little extra camber, and toe values slightly lower than zero will help slightly.

Not sure if any tuners can dial that out. Best to talk with @Lou@Prototype-R to see what he can do. He can tweak to your hearts desire and power level.

Check the condition of your alternator, auxiliary cooling pump, possibly throw in a cat-less down pipe, get rid of the turbo outlet pipe muffler... That's all I can think of right now.

 

Awesome thanks for your answers. It's easy to find information, hard to ask followup questions. Onward with my mission of restoring this car. Thanks!

 

Preliminary list. That should be everything right? Shocks, all the arms w\ ball joints, rear bar, camber plates. Sway bar links are fine for now, I'm not going super aggressive on the rear bar and they are still in good shape. And I don't want to pull the front subframe to hit the front bar.

Just to double check - the ALTA arms I chose here are the lower arm pair, and the ones on FCP Euro are the upper pair. That's correct?

 

Skip the upper control arms. The bushings in those do not have a lot of rubber, and even after 200k+ miles on mine, they are still pretty tight.

Also, skip the Alta version. Those use solid bushing Heim joints, which will be noisy and obnoxious. Get the inexpensive Doman brand on RockAuto and save some money.

If you can get your hands on some Ireland Engineering fixed front camber plates, you'll keep the front quiet, too.
https://www.iemotorsport.com/product...6-r57-r58-r59/

Where are you located? I have some Mevotech front control arms and ball joints sitting in my garage....

 

I'm glad I asked. Will make those modifications. I was looking at the control arms, all the ones I found use those heim joints I thought that was the only option, I didn't look hard enough. Though this is my first pass. Won't be ordering this until I fix the oil return line. Searching on ECS is tough. Their filters suck.

I'm in the states, Colorado. I haven't decided on the control arms yet. The tire doesn't have any slop in it, but I succumb easily to "while you're in there itis".

 

Hello, you can always reach out to me if digging and cant find something.

 

I actually could use some help. After doing the front re-seal with the car in the air, this caused the front struts to start clunking now that I've been driving the car. The mounts are shot, can see the bearings. So, now on to shocks a bit earlier than I wanted.

I won't be doing rear sway bar or rear control arms for camber right now.

The B6's come with bump stops and insulator boots. Do I need to buy anything else? Do I need to buy new strut mounts for the rear?

This should just be pull all 4 struts, install new camber plates, move the springs to the new B6's, reinstall struts, align car?

https://www.iemotorsport.com/product...6-r57-r58-r59/

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-bilstein...ispsetr56~bil/