For my MC I will be getting a suspension kit. I am not sure what all is required to have lowered suspension. Could someone please tell me what ALL I need, such as camber plates, struts, sway bars, etc. I also don't know much about the different brands to buy. Any info. would be greatly appreciated.

 

minihune can probably do alot better job than i can

basic suspension mod should start with a rear sway bar.. pick up a mcs sway bar (there should literally be thousands)... it is the first step to neutral handling

then lowering springs... rear control arms on this is optional if you want to retian stock camber... h-sport, m7, h&r, all have great reviews

shocks and camber plates should be after this... camber plates is really unecessary if you are not going to track the car or autocross it... same as shocks if you are not going to fiddle with the hardness and rebound/compression settings (kinda defeats the purpose if you are not going to use them often!)

another option is coilovers... once corner balanced, they are great.. but you must pay to get it re-balanced everytime u tinker with the height... just simple height adjustable coils cheapest would be spax, h&r is higher quality... pss9, ledas maybe a bit overkill for the street.. but what do i know!

i autocross the car.. and ill be doing shocks/springs, with rear control arms...

 

Here's a good, relatively short article that'll explain the basic principles involved in suspension tuning.

http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html

Enjoy! - - m

 

HailUnc33,

First ask yourself "why" you want to get a suspension kit- for what purpose?
Street use/autocross/track/ driving school events/ show?
Next ask yourself what is your budget- less than $300, less than $600, $1000, $2000, $3000+.

Then what wheels are you going to be using with this MINI? When you do your planning you want to consider the tires and rims as part of the suspension package.

For starters the cheapest suspension upgrade is not a "kit". It's an adjustable rear swaybar. It won't help for everyday driving at normal street speeds but will help when you do hard cornering. For the MC a good place to start is a 3 hole adjustable 19mm rear bar. Another cheap solution is a stock MCS rear sway bar- find an MCS owner that has upgraded to another bar. The rear swaybar when thicker will allow for your MC to understeer less and handle more neutrally- having the adjustable bar helps you fine tune how stiff you want the bar to be and that will help with how much understeer you wish to reduce. Rough cost is $200 for the bar and one hour to 1.5 hours install labor.

Next most common upgrade is still not really a kit but just a set of lowering springs like H-sport, HR, Alta, M7, etc. You reuse your stock shocks and replace the stock springs with stiffer springs. This will lower your car about 1" but it varies with different makers and for MC vs MCS. The car will handle better on corners and ride much harsher especially with run flat tires. Rough cost is $230 for parts and about 3 hours labor.

Once you lower your MINI you will notice you will have only a little negative camber in the front and alot in the rear. You cannot adjust camber in a stock MINI. You'd have to add rear adjustable lower control arms ($240 for parts) to change rear camber and add front camber plates ($500 for parts) to change front camber. For most people you can add the rear control arms to make camber about -1.2 to -1.6 in the rear with good results and leave front camber alone. For those that want to do track and autocross, having more negative camber in the front will help with cornering at higher speeds. Roughly 1-2 hours install for the rear control arms and 3 hours to install the front camber plates.

Alignment should be done last and costs about $90 to tie everything together depending on what you want to use the MINI for.

Coil over kits come in many forms and range from just over $1000+ to over $2500+ plus 3 hours to install. Some are adjustable and some are not. Some are tuned more for track use while others are more suited for street use and autocross or occasional track use. Send me PM if you need more info.