Hi, All:

Just a quick question:

I had my Bilstein PSS9's installed last week at the dealership, and subsequently they also did a complete alignment on it afterwards of course. My question is, how much can I adjust them before I throw the alignment off enough that I have to have it redone? I'd like to lower it just a little more...

Thanks in advance,
-Justyn

 

Lowering the car will increase toe in. I can't give you a specific answer on how much you can change the ride height without getting the alignment reset, but for what it is worth I've found toe to have a far greater impact on tire wear than camber.


If you just had the Bilsteins installed, I would suggest driving on them a couple months before lowering any further. Let them settle a bit, and make sure that you can still get in and out of driveways reasonably and get your jack under the car (if you are using a floor jack).

Where did the shop set the height? I started with mine set right in the middle of the range that Bilstein recommends. After nearly a year at that setting, I raised it up 10mm (to the top of the recommended range) to make street driving a little less noisy (the plastic air dam is now significantly shorter than when it was new) and to let me get the floor jack under the lifting blocks when the R compounds are on (225/45-15). The 205/40-16 street tires are still slightly tucked up into the wheel wells.

Scott
90SM

 

Thanks, Scott. I will most likely just leave them alone for the meantime, just curious how far I could lower if needed. I'm not sure where they set the ride height, but my tires are pretty well tucked front and back. I do know they had to raise the front a little, as they were getting some sort of noise where something was hitting.

 

on this car, i would say within 1" up or down.

nice look, btw. :smile:

 

Justyn,
Your MINI looks great as is. Give it some time to settle- a few months depending on how much you drive.

Anything you do to the ride height at any corner will affect your alignment and more importantly your corner balance. If you didn't corner balance then don't worry about this. If you track your MINI then corner balancing is helpful and best done after you have set your ride height to your needs. You'll need at least one adjustable end link for the front and rear swaybars to offload weight on the bars when doing corner balancing.

Lower is not always better. Depends on your driving conditions, load requirements (how many people in your MINI most of the time), driving style, wheel/tire size.

For street driving you are at a good height. For autocross or track use you could be lower but the demands and requirements for each are very different. On the street you want much more comfort and less road/suspension noise.

Alignment can always be adjusted and changed once or twice a year anyway. Try out your current height with various shock settings to see what works for you.

What alignment settings did you choose?

 

SOCRATES- it looks great. I ended up removing the factory front lip on mine as it was scraping on everything- no more issues now that it is gone

 

Thanks for the compliments! As for the settings, I really don't know. I tried to find out from the lead tech at the dealership, but he had no clue, and the tech that installed them had gone for the day. Nonetheless, the ride is very good and it handles oh so well (coupled with new 22mm rear sway bar as well). Now it's time to change out the runflats and wheels...

-J

 

jbsf3,

You might want to reconsider that front lip, if you are talking about the flexible plastic air dam back underneath the front bumper. The one I'm refering to is located directly under the radiator and is the lowest point on the car. The reason it is located below the radiator is that location causes creates greater airflow through the radiator above it, thus improving the cooling system's ability to disipate heat.

If you leave it on there, it will eventually grind itself down to a height that doesn't drag as much.

Scott
90SM

 

I'd recommend that anyone who installs coilovers learn how to do their own aligment. I installed coilovers on another car I had, and with less than $100 in tools, I was set to do my own alignments, and have been doing my own on several different cars for 3-4 years now. It isn't that hard, just requires a little patience and time, and a level surface to work on.

-Keith

 

I was under the impression that a corner-balance can be properly done without adjustble drop-links or end-links... or even without one per bar. I have a set of front and back ones that I haven't made the time to install yet, but if this true, I'll put them on very soon as I'm planning an alignment and corner-balance with my next tire purchase in a couple of weeks... Thanks for the clarification.