Had my H&Rs installed by a friend at the dealership and the car shimmies between 20-30 MPH. I've had the car aligned the first time and it still happens. I rotated the tires and still shimmies. I finally disassebled the front end and had it realigned and It still shimmy beween 20-30 MPH. I can't take it back to the dealership and complain because my friend installed them off the clock. I've dropped 5 of my cars and this has never happened. What do you think is the problem?? I talked to a guy at the alignment shop and he said it could be the tires, defect. wheel bearing, or maybe drive shaft. But he said if it did not shimmy before i dropped it, it is probably not the drive shaft. He suggested that I put the factory springs back in and go to the dealer to have it looked at, but this is a pain in the butt any other options?
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Rob/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG]

 

H&R springs or H&R coilovers?

Sounds like something might be loose. Have another mechanic check everything for tightness.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Do you mean the vibration between 20-30 mph? If this is the case, this problem with the lowered minis was mentioned before.

I had the same problem after I lowered my car. The reason there is a vibration is that the change in the angle of the drive shaft. It is supposed to work in a certain angle but when you lower the car that angle changes and the car will suit that new angle in time. During this time you will have some vibration.

When I first installed my H&R coilovers, the nuts used for setting the ride height/stiffness over the threaded body was in the middle. So the car was standing very low and I had the vibration.

So I raised the car back with the lift and adjusted the nuts all the way up in the fronts and some at the back.

Now the car sits well and no vibration. I think the drive shaft is in the tolerated angle right now.

 

By that logic, all cars lowered with H&R springs would have this vibration between these speeds.

Mine doesn't.

How do you explain that?

 

Nothing odd at any speed with my H&R springs.

 

what's your alignment settings?

we've been playing around with heights on our AST coilovers and front camber. We have found huge variations in the amount of vibration depending on height and camber up front.

 

We've now had two different sets of springs on our R56 (H&R, and Mach V Technic), and have observed no vibration in either case.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Dan, I live in Reston so i'm going to try to stop in and see the shop. I think I'm going to give your springs a try and maybe pick up some LEDs. see you later. thanks for all the posts

 

Cars with H&R coilovers are much much lower than those with H&R springs or other brand springs. Thats why vibration occurs when lowered too much.

Here you can review some discussion about this under 1st gen:

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

 

Cool! I hope to see you soon.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Don't have them in front of me, but off the top of my head... the front all came back into stock alignment specs... the rears now have 1.8 degrees of negative camber vs the 1.3 I had as stock. I was considering pulling them into around 1.5, eventually... but I really like the way the tail behaves right now and I haven't noticed any adverse tire wear... so I'm not sure I want to mess with it right now.

OK, that makes some sence to me... I have just the springs, not the coilovers. But on the other hand, if I'm reading correctly it appears the original poster also only swapped springs, too. So...

 

I believe this vibration issue depends on how much you lower your car regardless of installing coilovers or springs.

 

OK... Believe it or not, I'm trying not to be difficult, here,... I'm just trying to wrap my brain around this. I've now read through the thread referenced here... as well as all the offshoot threads mentioned in the other 1st gen. "lowered car/vibration" thread.

From everything I've read, the THEORY as I'm beginning to understand it is that it's not just ride height... but the front alignment settings and how that alignment+height has changed in relationship between the driveshaft and the CV joint.

It seems that running a bunch of negative camber up front has brought on the shimmy on a number of 1st gen cars as well as a couple worn out CV joints. But most of these were running in excess of -1.5 degrees and set up specificly for the track or autocross. That's waaaayyyyy more than the stock specs call for up front. Anything in excess of a degree & a half is visually tipping in up top and really agressive for a street alignment set-up.

It's a good theory... but even in those threads there were a bunch of people calling BS. And it still doesn't explain why same springs+alignment within MINI spec = vibration for some, but not others.

I'll post my alignment specs here tomorrow and maybe some of the other people can do the same. Maybe there will be some glaring commonality we can see if we can get enough data on the subject. Anyone?

 

I'm running -2.1 degrees in the rear, but only -.7 degrees up front with the H&R springs, no shimmy. You sure everything is tightened and tq'd right? Something doesn't sound right here....