Mine was built the 3rd week of July. It is sitting in Oxford awaiting transport right now....the wait is agonizing.

 

Thanks guys!

 

this topic seams to be a heated dicusion on this board as to it being product or insallation. I wanted to share my two cents worth with you all and see if I makes any sense. I have an 09 Mini S on order and plan on lowering as soon as I take delivery so i don't have experience with the Mini yet. But I work at a large Porsche dealership and we do aftermarket suspension all the time.
I had an incedent 10 years ago when I was installing my lowering springs on my 95 Honda Prelude and did not remove the CV axle nut before pushing down on the spindle to get enough clearance for the strut to come out. And by pushing down pulled the axle out of the CV cup just enough not to go back in smoothly. After reinstallation of everything and driving revealed a pretty loud clicking noise. I had to buy a whole new axle. I am wondering if the techs installing these lowering springs on the Minis and letting the spindle with all the heavy brake components just hang while they swap out the struts and maybe just enough angle to pull on the CV joints. I fully understand that the suspension is designed for large angles of articulation but when the strut is removed and the wheel assembly is just attached to the lower control arm with no support laterally and they let is swing around than that may pull on the length of the axle which is not part of its normal range of motion. We have 20 certified Porsche techs here but I see them do things that just baffle me at times and I am always going back after them to double check their work when they tell me something is wrong. Even some of our "Master Techs" will not be as gentle or by the book as someone working on their own car.
just my 2 cents worth on this subject.

 

I can honestly say that I noticed a slight vibration / shudder in my car after having installed my cross coilovers (linear spriings) I thought maybe I had damaged one of the CV's during install. It always seemed to happen in low gear, under acceleration. HOWEVER, after having had my aligment done by someone who knows how to align a mini, the problem is no longer noticeable. Keep in mind that after lowering, both the front and rear toe will be out of spec. and need to be brought back. So perhaps excessive toe may have been causing this? Not that the rear is the likely culprit here, but do keep in mind that in order to adjust the rear toe, the trailing arm needs to be loosend up, so anyone NOT familiar with aligning a mini would likely pass off the rear as being non adjustable. I'm also running 1.5 degress negative camber in both the front and rear. I hope this helps!

 

Did you have mini do the alignment, i dont know anyone that would know how to except for mini, but i dont even know if they do that and im sure i they do they will charge an arm and a leg, if i had one wish it would be for a solution to this vibration

 

Hey all,

My car was lowered 2.5 inches in the front and 2.0 inches in the rear and my car was vibrating pretty bad under slow acceleration espically in second gear but after getting a 4 wheel allingment done and menting to the allignment shop what amazingrando had stated, the car is running sweeeet!! most people would probably just do the front but getting all 4 done should solve the problem.

Thanks amazingrando!!

P.S-- I didnt use Mini I went to O.K TIRE

 

Glad it worked out for ya! do you happen to know what your final aligment specs were?

 

Glad that worked out folks! I just lowered my 09 JCW about 2.5" on coilovers and no vibrations so far and no alignment.

 

im from england, i also have this issue the install was done by a very reputable comapny that deals with performance upgrades on amg and porsche ,they lowered my MCS C and all was good for a few weeks then i got the vibration through the floor and at about 70 mph ,ive had a friend check the car over and he couldnt see any problems but now ive found this thread i will print it off and show him ,SO what do i do bring it back to off road stance or do i hope it sorts it self out or what ? the trouble is england does not have many after market mini experts like the USA and if you take it to the stealership (whoops) they will shrug their shoulders and say" oooh its because you lowered it ,that will be a million pounds please" ,oh forgot to say i have the eibachs fitted is there any issues with these at all ,look foward to a answer if anyone can you can PM please as i will lose this thread knowing me ,many thanks paul the limey

 

I have had the same problem. There was a thread linked on page 2 or 3.
SO far, some do vibrate and some don't. Mine an '06 MCS lowered with
mini madness springs DOES! I've had the wheels balanced a bunch. Peter
Eames (Greasy) ran it on the lift. (I am running 17" momo rpm) Weird.
we could see the centercap spinning "OFF CENTER" put on Stock Slites...and spun
centered.

hmmm, from all I've read tonight. You have to either mod your cv
joints or NOT LOWER passed 1.5" I just ordered another set of wheels
before reading this. But, i'm anxious to see after another alignment.. I'm
guessing for the select few of us.....just can't go too low. I might just
get TSW springs incase.- GoodE on www.massmotoringclub.com

 

Ugghhh.... I am having this same fricking problem. I have a shudder/vibration from what seem like the front passenger side, only during acceleration in low RPMs of second gear. My car was built the 3rd week of July 2008. I have KwV1 coilovers installed. The handling is excellent but I cant live with the vibration/shudder. Ive had it alligned twice. Ive driven the car approx 600 miles and it just sucks. I hate to go back to stock suspension. If I do that, I will just sell the car because the stock suspension/ handling sucks.

Any new updates on this issues yet???

 

My car is lowered 2.5 in the front and 2.0 in the back.. mine had a real bad vibration so i took it in for alignment and chatted with the guy and mentioned that he might have to loosen the rear control arms.. he said that you have to loosen the real control arms in order to adjust the toe which was the cause of the vibration, after he fixed everything, my car is fine

Maybe take your car and just double check the toe in the rear.. make sure you got a 4 wheel alignment.

 

Does anybody have their alignment numbers of the cars with vibration issues? My shop forman would like to know the settings of cars that are having these problems.

 

Man..... I don't know whether to keep my H&Rs (which haven't even arrived yet) or not now. Build date on my MCS is 11/08.

 

does anyone know of a fix for this? im thinking of taking the car to the dealer i put the stock springs on it again and i still get the vibration. im afraid the won't fix my problem under warranty.

 

Im currently @ the shop having my alignment checked and adjusted...keeping my fingers crossed that the vibration is gone. The shop belongs to a fellow BMWCCA member. I took a printout of this thread to him. He says the tow in the rear is just fine. They have told me that I need adjustable rear control arms but I have only dropped the car maybe 1.5 inches...I just dont get it. Im not slamming the darn thing. I will see how it handles and hopefully the vibration/shimmy is gone. Will update this thread later today. I will also get alignment specs on paper.

 

Here is what they did/found.... any comments, suggestions or observations based on these numbers? Thanks! I dont feel any vibration but I havent really driven it much since getting it back from the shop. Will update soon.

 

No more vibration....Im very happy.

 

I wish after almost 2 years this thread would be moved to the suspension forum....

 

OK, here's another data point for you all.

I just lowered my 2009 MCS (build date 11/08) on H&R and I got zero vibrations. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

 

Gah............... nothing concrete or solid on this topic yet. I have this issue with NM springs on my car. It's annoying. Only happens under acceleration and more noticable around 3K RPM

 

Really