so what are you offering as the new design? a longer spring with an increased rate as well as a shorter bump stop?

 

megan,
how are we suppossed to contact you? i tried calling to no answer, tried asking question through the website. who do we email?
id atleast like to get these on before snowfall lol

thanks

 

I just put 160mm-8Kg Springs in the front of my car and pre-loaded them quite a bit. I don't think you'll have to preload after this, but I did it anyway, figured it couldn't hurt and I am only doing a .75" drop on my MCS. I have to do final adjustements and take it out for a run. After that I'll get some pictures of the suspension after load has been placed on them as well as give you guys a description of the ride. I'll keep you posted. Also.. I cut off two "nubs" off my Bump Stop, which gave me an extra 15mm of suspension travel and surprisingly doesn't hit hard.

 

Aright, I have good news and bad news... Good news first.

Good - I put the springs on my car today. 160mm/8kg with my shortened bump stop. I was expecting them to ride pretty harsh, but you know what they actually ride extremely nicely. They weren't harsh at all, not bouncy, just smooth. I took them on some rough roads and hit some pretty hard rail road tracks and So Cal potholes. Not once did I bottom out. Looking under the wheel well I have about 2-3" (Guesstimate) suspension travel with full load on the car.

The Bad - I put the cylinders as low into the brackets as they'd go and my car only dropped about 1/2" from stock. The springs are 160mm, but I have them pre-loaded all the way down to 135mm (25mm+). I have a little bit of space above the Spring Perch, maybe 10mm. But I also have 15mm before the lock ring is then sitting on the lower lock ring.

Tomorrow I'm going to let off on the preload by 15mm (rings stacked) and see if I bottom out. If I am not bottoming out, then that means we can successfully utilize 150mm springs which will allow it to drop a total of 25mm (1") more than my current drop.

The problems that we're facing. I thought of perhaps having a shorter cylinder body that would be able to screw in deeper, but that wouldn't help because the location of the sway bar bracket is too high and cannot be altered.

Another thing that I am thinking about and will be testing on my own is removing some of the lock rings so that the spring perch is acting as a lock ring for the lower bracket. I don't really want to go that low, but I want to see how it will react in terms of suspension travel being too short.

Anyway, these are my $.02 and my findings for the day.

 

Having a stiffer spring in the front compared to the rear to fix this problem is like puting a band aid on a gash that needs stitches. Now we have to chase an even more unbalanced chassis (stock is bad enough) with a stiffer rear swaybar. What about those people, like myself, who prefer to use a stock rear sway bar? How could this problem even happen? I thought you guys were the experts. It seems that the customers are the experts around here. Or is this system just a generic system from the orient that you are tring to make work on Mini Coopers? Im sure glad I have waited this system out and not purchased it yet. But I would have to say that it does have everything I am looking for in a suspension kit, except for one thing: PROBLEMS. Ive lost all faith in this system. I think this system has not lived up to all of its promises as advertised (it doesn't get full travel like the stock suspension in the front) and people should be able to get their money back if they ask for it. Unless something changes big time, and real fast with this system, I think I'll have to pass and starte looking for something else. This system has been one problem after another.

 

Steve, are the current dampers designed to work with the higher rate spring, i.e. 8kg? as Meb pointed out in post #17. You and I had a phone conversation a number of weeks back and your concern with increasing spring rate was that the current dampers were only designed with a tolerace level of -+2kg. Assuming that the current dampers were properly designed to work with the current spring rate of 5kg, changing the rate to an 8kg throws spring rate out of the tolerance level for the dampers. Again, this assumes that the current set up was properly designed. This, in addition to the sway bar issue, seems to create a whole new problem. So I go back to my first question here, are the dampers designed to work "properly" with an 8kg spring?

I'm not discounting the viability of the set up you're suggesting, however, I feel we need to ask all the relevant questions if this is to be a long term solution.

 

Using higher spring rates up front does not automatically dispose your car to an unbalanced state. The rate Steve is proposing basically mimics the H&R adjustable coilover rates and I know a few folks who move along very quickly on those.

You have to read and understand one of my replys above. Though, the new rates may not be a great autoX setup?, it certainly is track worthy. You simply need to tune other things in a slightly different way.

 

and around and around we go, where we stop no one knows

 

good luck

 

hey megan its been three days anymore news?

 

ive been quietly (not like me at all) following this thread since its birth and all i can say is im effn' confused. i mean, i understand to a point about the possible solutions but, should'nt you have had that worked thru before you released the set up to the public?
i do agree with cynmini on many of the things she said.
needless to say, i am not to happy with the set up either and have experienced problems with it. i do hope that either a refund or even better, a much improved replacement set up is in the works because im not looking forward to shelling out $$$$$$ to get a replacement set.

a good question is...how do we get in touch in regards to this problem? i know all about the phone dance and am not looking forward to doing that. email?
whats the story?

 

I agree with you. except the "she" is a he. ********* and all! 100% red blooded American womanising male. The Cyn stands for canyon, it seems to confuse a lot of people, I forgive you!

 

hey rival what kind of problems have u been experiencing? just curious.

for me its just the constant bottoming out. i cant drive my car without tiptoeing all over the place. now when im not even in my own car i twinge going over bumps cause i expect my teeth to chatter.

 

oh man, sorry. thats embarrassing. i feel stupid.

yeh, i bottom out on nothing. i absolutely cannot take my eyes off the road. my ride height has a lil to do with that fact but, im afraid of hitting any type of dip, bump, whatever...anything that is a quick drop and BAM!!!

 

The 8kg springs are a lot closer to what these guys are spec'ing (9kg Ft./5kg Rr., DT uses this spec also) for the MINI with their version of this design. I need to find out what spring length they're using though, and the piston shaft length is also. It seems like 5kg is way to low considering there is about 370kg on a front corner w/o passengers.

http://www.ksportusa.com/products/in...lications.html

 

I like what I see! Lets see if anyone has any experience with these.

 

...5kg/mm is still heavier than stock. Suspension travel can be preserved many ways; heavier springs and/or dampers is one.

 

The Megan Coilovers are junk. I threw mine away two weeks after I installed them and put on pss9's. The Megans rubbed on the back and one broke the first time out, they are hopeless.

 

mine have held up well sofar except for the bottoming out. didnt have anywhere near the problems ur saying. no rubbing. and no breaking, i have pushed them hard but time will tell. would like an update from megan on this solution though. did you really just thow them out?? thats 900 bucks right there. pss9s are 2000 thats mucho dinero

 

It sounds like you had a set of the original design. Megan replaced those at no charge. I've had mine on for 25k miles and only have a problem with lack of travel in the fronts. Megan customer service is excellent in my opinion.

Steve

 

How do I get replacements? I've PM'd Megan and they told me to keep an eye on this thread...and...

 

...and...

 

I was talking about the original rear design. The new front design is coming, but I don't know when.

Steve

 

duh guys comon havent you been listening. jk

 

i have the ksports. owned them for a year. like them alot.