Coil over suspension.
Turbo Mini Forums

I've read different things about these. Do we think they are a worth while Upgrade for fast road/ track day use?

My car is generally used on the road and with the condition of roads now the rubber cone suspension will soon rattle my teeth out and turn my spine to dust (no the shocks arn't that hard).

So your honest opinion on coil overs please gents.

I have them on the back and they are great! They are stiff but dont smash your skeleton! They dontlike with massive pot holes mind! I hit one the other day and the car bounced into the air. General Driving over decentish roads and they seem fine! Ill be fitting them to the front as soon as i can afford em!

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


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So they're no good in Barnsley then...

I'm sure on a track or smooth surface both have there advantages but in the real world the Spring coil-over does sound more progressive and so surely should handle better on a rougher surface.

Are we talking about the coil spring upgrade for the cones or your a typical modern day set-up?

Own the day

coilovers are not the same as a coil spring conversion

Sorry i am refering to a modern day Coil-over setup. i.e. the spring around the damper.

You would have to brace the suspension mounting on the rear. A bar between the 2 mounts in the boot fixes it, but the fuel tank gets in the way. Anyone else have any other solutions?

In boost we trust

Im running coilovers all round on mine, and I've found the ride is much better than my old cone setup, without loosing any of the handling characteristics or mini feel.

they're much more progressive, and allow a smooth compliant ride that's still fairly stiff with minimal body roll.

the only area they suffer on as said above it large pot holes, where they seem to give a pretty almighty crash, which is infact far worse than it sounds.

If fitting them to the rear, you're best off getting the proper centrally mounted pin version as opposed to the offset pin ones available. To run the decent ones, you need your arches turretted to accept the larger body of the coilover unit and spring., as well as to strengthen the shell, as the area wasn't originally intened to take so much weight.





Fuel tank problem is easily solved too :)



I'm hoping to make up a strut brace in the near future to see if it makes any difference.

Edited by Prawn on 7th Jul, 2009.

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Nice Job Prawn.

Like it alot. Will be great to keep the CofG low as well.

If you're running 1.9 inch ID rear springs, what poundage and length are you using ?

I'm interested as I'm fitting a pair of offset pin GAZ lowered coilovers to the van tomorrow.

Cheers.

Richard.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

I know the difference but some do make the understandable miss interpritation so ill save the rant for the appropriate thread

A friend ran into a problem with his coil over set-up, he had to modify the front subframe turrets to give the strut more clearance because it was hitting the subframe during its travel. He also had to fabricate new lower brackets for the front top arms to supplement his subframe mod.

Edited by Mr Joshua on 8th Jul, 2009.

Own the day

Aha cheers for that prawn. Your project looks great aswell mate. Looks like lots of nice work carried out very professionally.

Cheers

I think im going to have to do the same. I cant quite get it as low as I want without the subby hitting the mount.

On 8th Jul, 2009 Mr Joshua said:
I know the difference but some do make the understandable miss interpritation so ill save the rant for the appropriate thread

A friend ran into a problem with his coil over set-up, he had to modify the front subframe turrets to give the strut more clearance because it was hitting the subframe during its travel. He also had to fabricate new lower brackets for the front top arms to supplement his subframe mod.

On 7th Jul, 2009 miniminor63 said:
coilovers are not the same as a coil spring conversion

Build Thread Click Here

Just a thought but there are two lengths of coilovers to cater for standard ride height and lowered.

My previous Spax coilovers smacked the crap out of the back suspension and I think its because I bought standard ride height coilovers in error when I should have bought lowered ones. My car is on 10's and could be considered low so its probably with good reason why I suffered what sounded like the dampers bottoming out over large bumps.

I've just finished fitting the GAZ replacements to avoid the effect and the literature definitely says they're lowered jobs so when I take it back out on the raod I'm hoping to have cured the banging noise over large potholes.

Will report tomorrow, weather permitting.

Richard.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

Give me a shout if you've got the car at work.

Cheers guys,

my front brackets used to hit the subby too, running a 7'' sill height on tens.

You can just about see where they touched in this pic:



I just whipped them off and put a radius on the brackets that now nicely follows the subframe as the top arm moves up. the ball joints now go solid before the bracket can hit




As for spring poundage, I'm afraid I'm not completely sure, they're 1.9ID springs, and they came from hudds Mini spares.

I ordered my coilovers direct from gaz and they turned up without springs. a mate who'd done a vtec conversion has these spare from his original A-series coilover kit, so I whacked them on. they feel great.

I've read somewhere that the hudds springs are 80lb rear and 130lb front, although I can't confirm that. my car's pretty light though (570kg) so a heavier road car might want some tougher springs.

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Sorry my post was a little missleading the actual shock was hitting the subframe.

Own the day

ah right. Perhaps some redesigned lower mounts would mount the shock further outboard to solve that problem?

Mr. Prawn, the friendly Crustacean- slowly making steps towards forced induction.

Own the day

Gents.

Have an update to fitting my GAZ rear coilovers from Friday;

Edited by turbominivanman on 11th Jul, 2009.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

Those other shocks may require revalving as bottoming out can (in extreme instances) cause impact damage to the valve.

Own the day

Good point but they've only done about 800 miles in the last 12 months.

Will get them checked out. Ty.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

What dampers do people usually run with 13s? The lowered coilovers or the standard height ones?

In boost we trust