My wife is the proud new owner of a 2004 Mini Cooper S with plenty of mods (Borla; upgraded brakes; strut tower brace; the list goes on). The car was swapped out with a 1.5" drop and we are finding it too rough not to mention the cambre is WAY out on the back wheels now.

Wondering with all of these suspension mods is anybody willing to part with their stock springs? Im assuming that it would have to be an S model conversion, but Im very new to this car so not completely sure..

thanks to any experts willing to help out, or sell their old springs!

 

I'm willing to sell mine as soon as I get the guts to install the H-Sport springs I've had sitting next to my desk at church for the past month.

Vibration issues have kept me from taking the plunge, but I'm guessing a very nominal price will make them yours plus shipping. I'm way more interested in just helping each other out than trying to get rich off of used parts like some do on NAM.

PM me and I'll keep your address and contact info until probably three weeks from now when this gets done by Central Coast Coopers.

Paul

BTW - they are MCS springs, stock.

 

What kind of upgraded springs are in the MCS now? How many miles on the MCS and how many miles on the springs?

It is common with track use for the stock shocks to take a beating when using lowering springs and not changing the shocks. Ride quality will suffer as a result.

One option is to consider Koni FSD shocks either to go with the lowering springs or to go with stock springs or even M7 springs.

With all those mods if you are detuning suspension then you are actually creating imbalance in the upgrades you have. It's like putting on completely stock touring luxury tires on a modded MCS- can be done but you loose quite a bit.

If you wife really drives sanely and easy then it doesn't matter, she will be OK but if she likes a hint of performance then consider the FSD shocks. They are good for street use, comfortable and better than stock shocks which at this point might have gotten worn out.

Did the previous owner disclose track or autocross use? Do you know anything about how the car was driven?

 

I'll second the FSD's, but the two most popular springs to run on the FSD's are the H-sports and the H&R's. There isn't much/any history of FSD's being run with the M7 springs which lower the car more than both the H&R and h-sport. Also take into account that Koni recommends that only the stock springs be paired with the FSD's, and I wouldn't feel comfortable running lower than the h-sports/H&R's (at least I wouldn't want to be one of the first running a more agressive drop with the FSD's).

Oh, BTW, I probably should mention I'm running the FSD's now and have used both the stock and h-sport springs. The h-sport/fsd pairing is better than stock ride comfort wise, but if you want the best possible ride comfort I would go stock springs/FSDs. I have also used the stock springs/fsd's for autocross and can assure you the handling is still very good (in otherwords the FSD's do live up to thier billing, and for agressive driving they are as good or better than the stock struts while still being much more comfortable in a daily driver roll).

Dave

 

Well it sounds like Koni FSD shocks and OEM springs would be a good pair for normal street use but better than all stock suspension.

Check out the shocks you have and make sure they are not all worn out. If so then consider the FSD. If the shocks are ok then you can keep them on and change just the springs.

If you budget allows the FSDs are good and the labor difference to change springs and shocks vs springs only isn't much.

That's quite a modded MCS you picked up. What happened to the original owner?????

 

I've my original components in the garage, having switched to H&R @ about 18,000 miles. Don't think I'll be going back, so holler if interested.

 

ya id be willing to trade you a set of lowe mileage stock springs (less than 3k miles) for whatever you got on the car right now.

holla back (lol)

 

Hey guys - thanks for all of the valuable information. I had the car 'once overed' this weekend. The struts are stock and it was Eibach Sports put on all 4 corners. From what I can see of the car, it was babied pretty good and somebody was just interested in modding for the sake of bragging rights (I could always be wrongthough).

The car has 29K miles on it and I just replaced the stock tires - seems pretty normal. Stock brakes...also just asking for replacement too. The undercarriage, other than the mods, looks pretty run of the mill; no scrapes or signs of damage etc.

Those springs were killer hard and I cant imagine somebody putting up with it like that for all that long - or the car being able to for that matter. Since there are no signs of wear Im gonna to guess that the previous owner had done it just before he decided to trade it in on a Mercedes Benz...

I (we) decided that I look of lowering is attractive so we went with an HR spring set with the stock progressive dampening rate...if anybody wants to take the Eibach springs off my hands...shipping and a small amount to cover my return to normal would be great! No intent to profit here - just looking to cover some costs and make somebody happy with what is probably a great track spring!

 

Stock MINI springs are linear. If you're looking for a softer ride, progressive can be the way to go, but if the initial rate of the progressives is stronger than the stock rate it'll still feel stiffer than stock. On the other hand, as long as the H&Rs have lighter rates than the Eibach's, you should be happier with the ride.

 

I must be getting some inaccurate information from the Mini dealer and the spring shop about Mini stock springs - they explained to me that they were progressive, not linear. The H&R version I got certainly is according to the specs that I have read and they have the same dampening rate as stock...it certainly is interesting seeing many of the dealerships giving opposing views (reading the some of the other threads about factory alarms etc)