Posting in the hope that someone has traveled this road before me and found a solution.

I wrenched cars for many years and continue to do so. Worked professionally in the business for 20 years. Raced SCCA Sports Renault in the `80's and built and maintained my own chassis for several seasons. I wrench all my own stuff so none of this stuff is foreign to me, but this one has me miffed.

About 4 weeks ago I installed Mach V springs. A complete no-brainer, IMHO. Results were positive outside of a nasty torque-induced rotational vibration from the drive wheel (no LSD). Nothing coming in through the steering wheel but rather through the floorboards, so my first assessment is the inboard CV. Adam from Alta as very helpful and suggested I check the assembly order of the upper mount. I tore it down to be sure and all is in order. Nothing of any consequence anywhere in the system.

Friday I had the alignment done and no change at all. The car handles, tracks and responds to input better (like you would expect after alignment) but no reduction in the rotational vibration. Can 1.5-2 degrees of static change really affect the inner joint to this degree? I've never seen such pronounced vibration from such a small change.

Unfortunately, if I can't reduce this I'm forced to go back to the 4x4 ride height and re-align or risk popping a CV. I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance. -Chris

 

That's scary... I hope it works out.

 

have this same thing in my r56. i have the h&r springs. i was told its a bad drivers side axle. i have a new one on the way.

 

so after lowering the front end it changes the geometry on the CV joints causing damage ? Any way to prevent this?
I want to do the lowering springs too but I really don't wanna risk anything, perhaps installing only the rear lowering springs?

 

that's a bizarre suggestion, you risk all kinds of other bad stuff by going that route (install rear springs only)...

so it seems that same issue that some of us ran into on the previous model MINI also can happen on the new R56... interesting...

 

Wait this just doesn't make sense. I don't know enough about the M V vs. the H&R, but I have too many happy clients (including myself) on the H&R's without this issue. In fact my torque steer was reduced even with the H&R's. Plus I have coilovers on the Mellow Yellow Mule and it has a ton of miles on it, and no issues (read much lower than sport springs)

I refuse to believe that is not related to the installation. (No offense to the installer.) I have a TON of other things to discuss on the subject but this is gonna take forever here.

PAUL: Call me tomorrow. I know we are going to be slammed but I promise to call you back. I want to solve the issue regardless of who made/sold the springs!!!!!!!!!

Lets chat, then get back to the board!

Thanks folks!

 

I've heard this happen sometime with poor installs on R53's. Since the R56 is almost identical, I can see this happening here too. Us lowrider R53's run more extreme CV angles than anyone with simple lowering springs, and honestly, there are no issues with the CV's; they have sharp working angles.

 

Now I'm spooked... And I have Mach V springs for my R56 arriving probably tomorrow... here's something though now that the CV joint thing is on the table, only a few days after I got my '07 MSC, I noticed a clanking sound coming from one side of the car when going over certain bumps, potholes, etc.
Long story short: the dealer said it was the inboard CV joint jostling around. They proved the point by putting it up on the lift, grabbing the axle and shaking it to replicate the sound @ the joint. The service rep ordered a new one but by the time it arrived the other side was making the same sound... Another axle was ordered but I've held off on having them replaced... Has anyone else heard this sound? (the best way to hear it is to have the windows open, and drive @ 5-15 MPH over a moderate bump.)

 

I have been Pm-ing Paul (Chris) about this also "vibrations coming out of a right handed turn between MPH - MPH, I have 2007 MCS with 2K miles on it and the shake happened instantly after having H&R's installed by a company who has worked on Mini's Bmw's "m3, m5, ,m6" 350Z's etc and they have never ran across this issue. 07 MCS how did you get the dealer to replace the axle after an aftermarket part was installed? Did they give you any s#Q$ about it? Also for those who have this issue do you have what sounds like a loud throw out bearing when the clutch is not depressed sitting at idle (as posted in other threads)? I am wondering if our cars already have a bad axle or cv and lowering it just exposes it quicker? Adam and Paul (Chris) let me know what you come up with, I have an appointment with my peeps on Thursday to look at my car, either way I will share what they find if anything on Paul's (Chris) thread.
Thank you to everyone who posts constructive information and to Alta for supporting the cars!

 

I would guess something out of place on the inner joint. I have not had one of these apart, but it sounds like something was disturbed when you installed the springs. I would remove 1 axle at a time, and see if the inner joints move freely ( and smooth). One more thing I would do first is run the car on a lift and watch the rotation of the axle shafts(while in gear) to see if anything looks strange, and that may help to isolate the problem to one side. Good luck,and keep us posted.

 

I get a very minor amount of vibration in the gas pedal and steering wheel at very low speed after putting the springs on and an occasional very small knock or creak at very low speed going over speed bumps or other bigger imperfections on roads but not enough to feel like it is anything wrong with the car.

I wonder now if I should be wondering...

 

I really thing this has got to be installation. (Not pointing fingers, please don't misread this.) I have been doing suspension work since the late 80's and I can attest to what may seem simple, not being as such and then causing an issue. I / we have done several and not had issues (and this includes R53) before this gets blown out of proportion I REALLY want to speak to a customer that is having the issue via phone.

OR

Is there anyone local to me that could bring one buy that is having the issue?

It simply MUST be related to the installation. The CV's are VERY unlikely as from a deg change standpoint it is VERY minimal and keeping mind that if it was related to angles it would do it on ALL cars at some circumstance. (e.g. when going up and down on a road it would vibrate, then not vibrate, again an again.)

I WANT TO FIX THIS!!!!!!

Keep me posted!

 

No issues for me after I installed Mach V springs with JCW shocks.

 

+1.

I dropped mine with H&R's with no problem. If the shaft is roughly a foot long, and I dropped the car an inch and a half (again, roughly)... the change in the axel at the CV joint is maybe 3-4 degrees, tops.

The basic nature of a CV joint has a far greater range of operation designed into it than that. Otherwise, how would we be able to steer around corners? Your standard city-street 90-degree turn has the joint rotating at 35-40 degrees off center (meaning you have to turn the wheel 30-40 degrees to steer around the turn, right?).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constant-velocity_joint

I seriously have a hard time believing that lowering has anything to do with this. More likley a design issue with that particular CV (somthing in the manufacturing process allowing the joint to wear out too quickley) or somthing occurring during the install.

 

Perhaps you should go back to the alignment guy and ask for a print out of the specs. I had my springs put on at Mach V in Virginia and it took a couple of hours to do just the alignment and a couple of times on the rack. My mechanic was very careful and gave me all the details in writing after he finished. We also found that the felt lining around one of the springs had come loose and was getting caught in the springs and made a lot of noise. I fixed it with industrial strength Velcro. Good luck!

 

Adam, I'll call you today. Like you, I had a busy office day after the holiday weekend.

FWIW, I don't take any offense to concerns or comments about the installation. I'm a big boy and can take constructive criticism. For me, it's about resolving the issue.

I find it interesting that there are several MC's that have the same (or similar) symptom after lowering but on balance, there are thousands of units out there with no issues at all. So to those that are getting cold feet about lowering I say: Nonsense. Lower your car as you planned and like many have done and perform due-diligence during installation. Make sure your alignment is where it should be and check your work.

MSH441 makes an interesting point; "I seriously have a hard time believing that lowering has anything to do with this. More likely a design issue with that particular CV (something in the manufacturing process allowing the joint to wear out too quickly) or something occurring during the install." If the joint were wearing prematurely right from the get-go (car is at 10K), modifying the static-angle would induce rotational vibration. So the possibility exists that all of this may have nothing at all to do with lowering the car, but doing so has only exacerbated an existing condition.

After I speak with Adam, the next step it to consult with the selling dealer and get their spin on it. The saga continues. But it's just a machine; I can fix that. More to come on this.

 

Did we figure anything out on this one yet?

 

I did speak to Paul yesterday on the phone at length and we discussed several things to try. I believe he was going to try them and then remark back here. He and I both agreed from a mechanical point of view that is VERY odd and that something must be amiss, more so than across the board on all cars.

Hope to hear back from him ASAP!

Thanks folks!

 

I believe there are several 1st gen. cars that have this issue. low mileage, high mileage, small drop, large drop, different suspension set-ups. Some of us just live with it (I do)...

 

Just curious if this fixed your problem? I am having the same issue. Gen I MCS.

 

I have the same vibration problem with Mach V Springs being used with the JCW suspension. Has anyone been successful in understanding and fixing the problem?

 

You should try a run out check to verify that the axels are not bent when you take them apart. At times ive scene when people step on the spindle so that the arm will drop down which may bend the axel?

 

Still haven't seen any confirmed answers on this one folks. We have yet to have a problem with our local clients with the cars we have wrenched on. I suspect it may be still an installation issue.

Hope more information comes soon!

 

There are dozenz of MINI owners affected by this:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=32790

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=140892

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=120956

I have also been talking to some MINI owners in Germany. They are having the same issue with the H&R springs. A German company has started selling spacers to correct the CV joint problem with a 100 percent success rate. I am trying to get my hands on a set to see if this is something we can start using here. Apparantly the front axles are too short once the vehicle is dropped and it can be a problem even if your car isn't suffering from the vibrations. I'll let you know once I find out futher.

 

Just to clarify. What I said was "We have yet to have a problem with our local clients with the cars we have wrenched on. I suspect it may be still an installation issue."

I DIDN'T say it wasn't a problem nor did I say I didn't believe or understand that others had the issue. What I am saying is that we have installed quite a few on our personal MINI's and local clients MINI's and none have had this complaint. SO I would hope to get one soon so I can then play further with a solution or a root cause.

Thanks for the post an the info on the German company. Interesting stuff!