Yah...but if you keep the same tire diameter 17s will be no different than 16s. Heck, i run 15s with a smaller than stock diameter.

So as i asked....is that pic them set ALL the way down? Because, i can set them with 5-8 threads remaining and i am able to completely tuck tire on 205/50's (which are about .5 inches smaller than the tires on your 16s). So, if that is them all the way down, it looks like those springs raise the car about 2.5 inches compared to the original springs set to all the way down.

 

I'm in the same boat msfit....my car is set to a little lower than yours and have yet to experience any problems. I just fear that i will begin to experience problems once i get a few more autocrosses under my belt.

 

Usually the bottoming out will occur when you have a sudden drop or sudden rise in the pavement that won't give the body of the vehicle enough time to react to the abrupt change in the road. The tires don't touch the chassis, it's the shock running out of suspension travel and a very violent impact between the top of the shock body, and the bottom of the camber plate. There's a nice rubber Bump-Stop to soften the blow, but there's still a lot of energy being passed on through it.

When it happens, it makes you cringe... you usually drive slower and get really quiet to see if your car hasn't taken some serious damage. And people in the car often ask.. "Is your car alright?" It's not a good thing.. not at all.

 

Is there any way that this thread can be re-titled?

Being a helpful guy, I click on this once every few days thinking that someone actually is stranded and needs urgent help right now.

 

Yah, that would be good... cause it sure draws a lot of attention.

 

any comment on whether those pics were taken with the coilovers set ALL the way down or not? (the question in post #226 above)

 

That's why I posted earlier, the fact, that some people are totally happy with their Megans and are not having bottoming problems. I can't help but wonder if these coilovers, because they are made in the orient, are lacking in quality control. Putting shock cartriges together consistantly isn't easy ( I used to rebuild my own motocross shocks and forks) and I could see that a few, or even a lot of them don't get assembled properly. Megan should replace some of the cartriges for people who are having problems and see if that solves the problem.

 

You will also find that many of us who havent experienced problems are the ones who happened to be SLAMMED. And that only helps because we are fully aware of the bumps ahead of us and need to be, so we slow down and avoid the bumps at all costs. So maybe if we drove like people who were only lowered .5 inches and didnt need to worry about bumps, we would experience the same thing??

 

It's never the big ones that get you.. it's always the ones you can't see because they are so abrupt. Everytime I bottomed out I had to look back going.. "What the hell was that?!?"

And yes, that's as low as I can go. :-(

 

We have some pretty irritating "bump" strips created from the asphalt being pushed up between the concrete slabs on the freeway and those are very jarring...but I'm not sure those are causing bottoming...In the cases of large undulations where my Mini gets light and crashes into the valley on the otherside of the intersection, the Megan's are very capable of absorbing the landing...

My main issue with the Megans are:

1. The front struts keep rotating inspite of repeated tightening of the shock threads
2. The dust boots are very thin and have all torn in under 1000miles
3. I bought mine last year and noticed my friends new set have adjustment ***** that are captured in the front...I wanted that

I had serious bottoming issue early on with HSport springs and stock shocks...across the same intersections, my glove box/radar detector/G Analyst would come ajar Those were scary days...

 

thats a huge wheel gap. i dont see how this is any kind of solution. yea it can take the bumps now but it should have from the begining. people are going to have to change their entire setups now. i dont get this

 

Yah, i wouldn't call it much of a solution either. You could get better results with some koni struts. Why run coilovers if you have to run stock ride height?

 

A few points that I feel need to be made. One, if you are not experiencing bottoming out problems, don't change your set up! It will allow you to retain you current settings and will save Steve some time, expense and energy in having to ship springs to those who don't need them.

Two, If you haven't already done a check of your front suspension, do it. Please take the time and pull off the dust boot, compress the suspension and look at how much travel you have. At the very least, you will understand the system a bit more.

Third, Megans have independent ride height adjustment that will not effect damper travel. So you can be as low or as hight as allowable w/o affecting travel. However, the lower spring perch will affect travel and depending on your setting, you will be able to adjust ride height but at the same time affect damper travel.

Please, see POST #220 for a possible solution to the new spring issue that will allow you to be slammed if you prefer.

Fourth, most systems made for the mini with the exception of Megans (and other symilar systems), H&R Coils, and one other outthere (the name escapes me right now), do not have independent ride height adjustment. So, any time you adjust height you also adjust travel. For the slammed look, you will loose significant travel on those systems. So again, with the Megans you can have the slammed look by lowering the bottom spring perch to your desire height in addition to the ride height adjustment.

Just my $.02 worth...

 

there Has To Be A Reason Why Some People Are Having Problems And Some People Are Not!! Megan- Please Take A Look At The Setup Or The Consistancy Of The Shock Cartriges Of Some Of The People Who Are Having Bottoming Issues!!!

 

1) Keep rotating? With the lock rings, I usually give a few light taps using a punch and a light hammer to the lock rings. Yes, the rings get scored a little, but it doesn't really bother me as it can't be seen.

2) All of them?!

3) There are no changes to the adjustment *****. What do you mean by captured?

 

I pulled out 4 new sets and installed the fronts, and on each set the bottoming out had occured at a consistent level.

What are the tire sizes of those who are not having problems?

What position are the camber plates at?

 

I'll try the punch method...I've been using the supplied spanner and rapping it with a hammer to tighten...

I haven't checked the fronts but both rears are torn...

The ****/hex key on mine drops into the adjustment hole but tends to bounce out while driving...the new set my friend installed has adjustment ***** that are secured to the top of the strut (front set)...there is a thin silver nut under the knurreled black **** and some how the whole key appears to be attached to the top of the strut...does this make sense?

 

205/50/15

no camber added

 

I'm running 215/45-17 combined ET40 (sometimes 215/40), front camber -2.1, rear camber -1.6

This will give you an idea of my height setting...

 

It must be a long term memory problem!

 

How about driving a car belonging to someone who claims they are not having a problem. Maybe it's an opinion problem. If their car doesn't have a bottoming problem then you could take a look at their setup to see why they are not having a problem and advise people on how to set up their cars.

 

I still bet a lot of it has to do with driving style. I literally watch like a hawk for even the smallest bumps because my car is so low.

More indepth of my setup

205/50/15 on 15x7's ET40 with 5mm spacers which make it ET35
Camber is set at 0
Coilover settings havent been touched since installed
Mini cooper, no sunroof, back seats still installed
Height set to about 5-8 threads left
Ride height which is pretty low, the lower lip needed to be cut because it was resting on the ground:

 

The plastic scraper lip on the front was resting on the ground? I think the 15" wheels will help the bottoming problem a lot, but the ET 35 isn't going to help.

 

yah...that little veritcal plastic piece was about 1/4 inch off the ground, so it scraped on pebbles

How do you think the 15s help? The tires or just the diameter?

Just as a note...the 205/50's that i have on there are 1 inch shorter than the stock size....so they lower the car .5 inches more and also increase wheel gap by .5 inches.

 

RallyMINI- Your ride height front to rear seems pretty level. It looks like you lowered the back more then the front. I wonder if that makes enough of a difference by taking some weight of the front of the car and making it not want to bottom out.