Under, the site won't let me PM you. you can email me at dkeens@sbcglobal.net

 

...thought the rates were 280/320???

 

Should be. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=53788

Steve

 

Thanks

 

The Megan Racing dampers come with 5Kg Front and 6Kg Rear spring rates OUT OF THE BOX. That's why the numbers are...

62.150.005 - Front
62.180.006 - Rear

So if you convert it.. that makes it..
280 - Front
335 - Rear

See.

 

Yes, that sounds exactly right. One of my concerns was that the fronts were mounted solidly in the monoball, and the rears used the stock bushing that flexes. Not a good situation. There should certainly be solid mounted monoball in the rears to eliminate any play, and match the solid mounting of the fronts. I assume Megan will make that part available to those of us who have purchased the set? Also, the rear allen adjusters are not long enough to reach through the drilled hole in the body to adjust the strut while still mounted in the car. Can you provide longer adjusters? My installer was also instructed to add 1/4" stack of washers under the rear top mount to space down the strut. While this may be a temporary fix, I hope Megan is going to develop a proper spacer, or perhaps that need will be eliminated with a new solid rear mount.

 

Even better!

 

Looks like I'll be working with you on developing the "Missing Link" for the damper system, that top mount.

 

...I think you might like a little compliance in the upper mounting bush. With only 37% of the weight out back on a good day, just a thought...

I replaced these once front and rear - another application, same weight distribution - with very little increase in control out back but a hell of a lot more noise and discomfort. Depends upon how hard the bushing is, that's the real question. Eventually these were all replaced with hard rubber.

 

[quote=meb... Eventually these were all replaced with hard rubber.[/quote]

meb, you've mentioned your success with hard rubber bushings in several threads. are these for sale somewhere or did you custom fabricate them?

thanks

 

No I did not fabricate them. The experience with these has been with other cars. I'm just now in the middle setting this car up.

My reference to hard rubber is hard to qualify on these pages; the hardness in every application was meant to offer more control, but not to remove the designed action of any of the suspension components. Some, like swaybar bushings, can be hard as rock while others need to be less compliant in one direction but more in another. Each was very specific (hardness) to the specific part of the car. I was simply amazed by how well these controled movement, but also allowed, enough compliance to allow things to work too. These were also much more comfortable than the poly I used - from Energy Suspension. Those were all very hard indeed.

These new bushings for the Mini appear to be a great compromise; dual compound and long lasting - rubber is not. The other down side to pure one compound poly when applied to components that must twist and bend by design, is that poly will begin to wear away under these loads...in some instances they will cause the suspension to bind becasue they do not allow the component to move as designed. This affects suspension movement and operation, but also, corner weighting. If the bind is bad enough, it will either unload or over load the suspension at a given corner. Rubber cannot do that if the suspension components are final torqued at the correct ride height.

Mugen makes complete sets for Honda/Acura. I purchased these thru a broker directly from Japan. They have nothing for the Mini - I checked.

Hope this helps. I'm not damning poly, I'm just throwing some info out there. Every material has its place and time. I like to be aware of the pit falls so I can make intelligent choices...when possible. These are a lot of work to install; the last car was done twice. No fun this stuff!

 

I've been in contact with the design engineer at Megan, he and the company are anxious to get the complete MINI suspension system engineered properly. They indicated they are designing a rear mount for the strut that will locate and distribute loads correctly. After my communication with them, I feel confident they will do an excellent job, and look forward to retrofitting the parts to the installation.

Again, I want to make sure my comments on this board regarding the Megan coilovers are not misunderstood. These are really nice units, elegantly machined with attention to detail not seen in units for a much higher price. I am really happy with the units, and confident about the install once the additional parts are provided. I will be able to give some evaluation of the ride very soon.

 

DK23,

Any idea about a time frame?

 

My understanding is that right now they are getting the stock part from MINI, so they can design from that baseline. I have no idea how long it takes to engineer something, but I believe they realize it is important to do this right away since they have products on the road.

 

They are nice when working properly.

 

Do tell

 

i agree 1000% it looks to me that especially in the rear mcs suspension, some of the rubber bushings are acting like "poor man's" heim joints in that there are designed to allow multiple degrees of freedom. it's unfortunate that megan/pilo had to learn this the hard way in public. i hope they sort it out.

 

If you think about it, it's hard to follow in the footsteps of the engineers brain; what assumptions they made basically. This gap makes it very difficult for the after market folks...they actually reley on us for feed back...or should.

I can't wait till Pilo gets this right, or this small portion right.

 

I may be wrong, but at this point I don't believe Pilo has much input. It is my understanding that Megan is doing the engineering.

 

DK23 and I have been going over the issues and are finding ways to correct this issue for you guys. The factory has Mini Cooper's available to them so they were able to attain the missing piece for the mounting up at top and they are manufacturing us those pieces. After we recieve them, we will give them to the distributors who sold you the Dampers and also to those who request them directly from Megan Racing. From that point on, all the new dampers shipped out will have the pieces for you guys. We're gettin this ASAP for you guys.

I'd like to thank DK23 and the rest of you for your patience and understanding. Thanks guys.

 

You're right, we do rely on feedback.. and that's why I'm here. Same as Alta and M7 and the other manufacturers. We're here to hear what you guys have to say and to help develop more efficient parts for the Mini Cooper community. We rely on the consumers to tell us what THEY want and then we use our abilities to bring them what they want. So I thank you guys for giving me your input, and I'm sure the other reputable companies on NAM appreciate it as well.

 

I have had a chance to put a few miles on the Megan coilovers, and I have to say I am very impressed. Having taken off HR and Konis, with camber plates, I was worried I might be making a mistake, and actually lose some performance. In actuality, I believe it is just the opposite. After complete corner balancing, alignment etc, the performance from the Megans is very impressive. I set the struts to 15 clicks from full hard (out of 32) and the ride was taunt, controlled, and yet comfortable. The car cornered as flat as the koni set up, I actually think even flatter. We lowered the car a bit more than my sig photo, (24"frt, 23 5/8" rr, from ground to fender lip), and yet there is plenty of suspension travel. Today I stiffened the struts 3 clicks, to 12 from full hard (the rear adjustment thru the holes in the storage compartments is done easily once you rip out a fistful of the insulation back there) The increase in stiffness was noticable, and in a very reasonable amount: not too big a jump, but enough to know you made a change. I imagine the level of adjustment is going to be very wide considering the 32 click range. Pushing the car around a huge parking lot today, I was able to rotate the car with lift at the limit, and throttle steer easily. There was immediate response to quick transitions, and with constant skidpad type loading, the body lean was still minimal. One other aspect that surprised me was that torque steer was reduced noticeably. It might have been more to do with the careful alignment and corner balancing, but in any case, it had much less effect

Overall, based on limited miles and time, my initial impressions are very positive. FWIW, I like this system quite alot.

 

As it should, given the switch to higher spring rates and to linear from progressive springs.

 

I guess this pretty much answers the question I have been asking for about a month now! "Have these units been tested properly prior to that group buy sale"? It seems very clear now hearing from both Pilo and Megan that the answer is no or this would have been noticed quite a while ago.

I'm glad to see some sort of professionalism came out at the end as it seems people are happy and Megan (where is Pilo?) I guess is going to correct the problem. Not trying to be an %&$#@ here gentle men but may I suggest you thoroughly test your products before releasing them as this incident may or may not have caused some bad press. I was looking forward to trying your coilovers but this little fiasco sent me running to KW for a set of Variant 2's.

 

We thoroughly test ALL of the dampers that come out of our factories. Unfortunately the Mini Cooper dampers were the only ones that were tested out of house by Pilo Racing and we were told that they had no issues. We trusted Dan over at Pilo just as many people do. Pilo Racing is an honest company that strives to provide the Mini Cooper community with a wide variety of products.

We had no reason not to trust Pilo Racing with their results and we stand by their name and proffesional demeanor in this situation which I am sure that have caught flak for.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may of have caused you or any other customers who have had such an experience with this or any other products that Megan Racing manufactures. Immediately once we were notified of the situation we stepped into action in first stopping all sales of the damper kit and then finding out Who, What, Where, When and most importantly WHY this all happened.

We cannot turn back the hands of time and for this reason we could only try within our best efforts to rectify the situation by offering our support 100% to the customers who were affected by this situation.

I respect your decision for choosing another suspension setup and I truly do hope you enjoy the suspension that you have chosen. I do hope that this does not lead you to continue to have an image of Megan Racing and our products negatively portraied in your mind.

If there is ANYTHING at all that we can do for you or any other members of NAM or the Mini Cooper community, we are here to help you.