I am considering lowering my car but i am not sure if it is possible. I was wondering if anyone has 19 inch wheels on their mini and it is is lowered. Some pics would be great. Also any rubbing issues while driving and if so how bad. Any info would be great. Thanks

 

MINITOR's running 19's lowered and no issues, i believe.

 

Im wondering if some cutting of the wheel wells would be nessesary.

 

I was running 19" and lowered...trimmed the plastic on the front fenders.

 

that looks great!

 

Any rubbing issues while driving? Thanks for the posts

 

I'm gonna go with 'no, you can't really lower your car with 19s installed'. Despite the fact that you can easily trim your fenders, install coilovers or springs, and get rid of the wheel gap.....have anyone "lowered" on 19s measure the distance between their front lip and the road......you will notice that its still pretty high off the ground. So you can get rid of wheel gap but you can't really lower the car.

Just for giggles, very little wheel gap so it must be lowered :

 

I am not worried about the front lip clearance, I am worried about the possibility that there may be too much rubbing while driving. By the looks of things, people with 19's did lower their cars.

 

Yah...you can avoid rubbing with the right offsets, tire choice, and a little trimming. But its not "lowered" if your front lip is 3 inches off the ground. That's all that i was saying.

So you can put springs on with 19s...but you wont really have a "lowered" car in that it will still be sitting high off the ground like in the pic above.

 

Huh? To me, "lowered" means "ride height lower than stock." Springs definitely lower the car compared to stock; hence, if you install lowering springs, your car is "lowered."

Back to the original question: If you could keep your tire diameter the same as stock, you'll have no issues with rubbing. Or at least, you'll have no more issues than with factory tires.

A browse through the web shows that it's going to be tough finding a 19" tire with the factory 16" tire's 24.4" diameter. The closest I can find is a 215/35R19, which is 24.9" in diameter. It's only 2% taller, so in most cases it won't matter much.

Keep in mind that a 3" sidewall is VERY hard to live with. Plan to replace a lot of bent wheels, and drive with an eye out for potholes and other obstacles that most people can ignore.

--Dan
Mach V

 

But as you said, riding on 3" sidewalls is no fun so many people opt to go for slightly larger aspect ratios which increases the overall diameter even further. A 3" sidewall is already a full half inch larger, so going with a sidewall larger than 3" is going to increase the diameter a fair bit. Team that up with some of the springs on the market that only lower around .5"- 1.2" and you may be able remove wheel gap, but the larger final diameter will also raise the overall height leaving the arch measurement at (or very slightly lower) than the stock arch measurements..... i.e. not really "lowered" from stock height. Sorta like one step forward, one step back.

 

I have seen a few Mini's dropped on 19's. Not slammed like what mine is on an 18 but pretty damn close. Now 20's are a different story. You would have to extend the body kit some as the Mini body kits sit a little high.

 

Bodykit low doesn't count

 

Rally is the voice of reason on this one, honestly. He speaks the words of wisdom! It's impossible to keep the stock wheel diameter with 19s or larger, unless the tire is like a 195. My 215/35/18s are a little larger than stock, and certainly bigger than my 215/40/17s. I rub with the 18s and never with the 17s, but I am quite lowered (not slammed).
You could run 19s with a large offset (45+) I'd guess and not get too much rubbing, but it might not look so good. You would also have to run quite a bit of negative camber as the Mini's arc of travel is quite different front from rear.

 

Well said

Now to just discover why we're bumping a 2 year old thread

 

I dont rub on my 18's....

 

Its cause there is nothing to talk about since RMW/MYNES is bumping ******* in the other threads.....

 

I think it is possible but the choices are somewhat limited.

The biggest problem is tire size. You don't want to get that much bigger than stock tire diameter.

The smallest reasonable size in 19" is 215/35-19 which gives a tire diameter of 24.9" which is about 0.5" taller than stock.

Using a rim that is about 19x7 to 19x8" and stock suspension you could get this to work if the offset is about +42 to +45mm.

If you lower the suspension you have to worry about how low since the tire shoulder edges can rub the inner plastic wheel liner.

If you choose a tire diameter of over 25" then that would make the MINI higher off the ground like what Rally was discussing. It's possible to do but may not look as nice or balanced.

If you use Coilovers that allow for full ride height adjustment then you can custom drop your MINI to the height and clearance requirements of your tires. To help with clearance you can use rear adjustable lower control arms to increase rear negative camber or adjust to tuck the tire in a bit.

Another trick is to use wider rims and a more narrow tire to gain a little more clearance under the plastic wheel arch.

The plastic wheel arch especially in the rear can be trimmed a little with a dremmel tool to gain some clearance.

Rubbing doesn't have to be an issue but when you test your MINI put two people in the back seat and go for a ride on an uneven road with dips. It's pretty easy to get rubbing under those conditions.

 

Good lord!

 

That's a slammed 18".

I don't suppose you want to take that MINI for a test drive on the normal pot hole ridden urban streets we have all across the US?

Might feel like a WWII bomber getting hit by anti-aircraft fire.

Many owners do it for looks and it is popular with the younger drivers. I do notice they tend to drive very slowly near speed bumps.

 

Sorry for the dirty car pic... That was at Paradise Bakery about an hour ago. Its hard to keep up with 3 cars... I walked out this morning to find the BMW with 2 flat tires. I guess the tires didnt like hitting the fender at high speeds...

 

We rode to Los Angeles it held up fine, on the way to my place in SoCal the only casualty was not the wheels but the side skirts flew off

Ohh this guy UKSUV also owes me a set of 18" tires

 

Well...I something is loose or I have a blown shock in the front left corner cause I can hear something clanking around. I have everything set to the stiffest setting so I bounce pretty hard.... It hurts when my head hits the roll cage... And yes...I go super uber slow over speed bumps and I still high-center sometimes... But its not like im not used to low cars. Here is a pic of how low my 3-series sits (not mine but I bought all his parts...i need to take photos once i get it back from paint) and my Touareg will be sitting on 22" OZ Canyon ST's...


Anyways...you caqn dump anything on the Mini....its just depends on how much camber you want to run. You cant have STOCK camber measurements if you want that. Its one or the other....even IF you have the right offset/tire size.....There is always a breaking point.

 

They didnt FLY off....they were still held on by the door... That was classic when as soon as we opened the door they both fell off. Stoopid I-10. And hey wait....I thought the sexual favors paid for the tires....

 

I drive slowly over speed bumps and take the time to venture around the potholes. I have no need to go fast on public roads and am in no rush to go over speed bumps. Slowing down near speed bumps is what they're intended for is it not?

I take it slow and enjoy the motoring