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SuspensionSprings, struts, coilovers, sway-bars, camber plates, and all other modifications to suspension components for Cooper (R50), Cabrio (R52), and Cooper S (R53) MINIs.
yep KW V1's and no vibrations (until the inner tire wears from the retarded camber I have )
I have just had to replace my front tyres for the same reason.... My tyres lasted 6 months and were worn right through on the inside... Because i have now raised the height the camber is not that bad so my new tyres should hopefully last longer.
I had to put 5mm spacers on the front as the lower spring platform on the KW'S was scraping on the inside edge of my rim, and wore the spring platform away slighty but no long term damage.....
I have just had to replace my front tyres for the same reason.... My tyres lasted 6 months and were worn right through on the inside... Because i have now raised the height the camber is not that bad so my new tyres should hopefully last longer..
Unless you had camber plates and made alterations that way....raising and lowering the front doesnt change camber a noticable amount and would not effect tires.
Unless you had camber plates and made alterations that way....raising and lowering the front doesnt change camber a noticable amount and would not effect tires.
lowering minis in general doesnt change much up in fronts right?
but some said toe is the thing that changes when you raise or drop...
i'm almost done setting the height on my car tho hehehe will post then..
How do you determine the height when you adjust em? In another word, how do you make all four corners to drop evenly? Do you guys count the threads on the coils? or measure X to Y ? Cuz I'm having a bit of difficulty making the corners to drop evenly.. (almost tho)
Dang, Ryan! That looks GOOD. Even with the little bit of wheel gap, I can see how LOW the car is. Nice picture, too - it makes the roof look silver.
Edit: Your car is my desktop picture for a while.
I need to drop my car some more....
BLUSH, thank you very much for the compliment!
--->sprp85: It's important to measure the preload desired and overall length of the damper [if you have coilovers with length adjust]. Pick a reference point on the shock body versus the spring perch, and measure as exact as you can for each side. From there you really should bring it to an alignment shop that has coilover experience and can corner-weight your setup with your weight in the drivers seat. You also need to pay attention to the amount of preload, as this determines where your ride height is within the range of suspension travel. The stock MINI suspension has a bit more than 2x the droop travel as up-travel, and this ratio seems to work very well with aftermarket coilovers too. Too little droop and the car will lift wheels very quickly in corners and on bigger undulations and create a tough-to-drive MINI. Conversely, too little uptravel and you'll be bangin' the bumpstops and bottoming out the shock too often, making a harsh, jarring MINI that has big mushrooming issues and snap oversteer if you hit a big bump mid-corner. The MINI's body isn't perfectly symmetrical from my experience with several MINI's, so don't freak out if the axle to wheel arch is an 1/8" off here and there. A more accurate way would be measuring the angle of your suspension arms to a reference plane on the subframe.
The other aspect of your question relates to motion ratio. The MacPherson strut in the front of the MINI has a 1:1 motion ratio, meaning that when the wheel moves 1", the damper moves 1". From my crappy measurements, I've found the rear motion ratio is in the neighborhood of 0.87:1. This means for every 1" the rear tire moves, the damper moves 0.87". This means a smaller change in preload or overall length is needed to achieve the same level positioning versus the front suspension.