MINI springs n' things...

A lot has happened in MINI-land since my last report.

We left our hero slightly injured in Hancock Park suffering from a mildly damaged bumper, and I had just scored a deal on some H&R sport springs.

Since then the bumper has been repaired and I am really happy with the results- Al's body shop did some amazing work - and even detailed the car before I picked it up.

The springs arrived right on schedule as did the the spring compressor set I ordered from Sears.

With all the necessaries in hand Vaughn and I tackled the installation of the springs this past Saturday. I was particularly excited to do this mod because it's one that I have been thinking about since the day I picked up the car. Two of my previous cars (the 320i and 325ic) both had it done and I was really pleased with the results. I have also always felt that the MINI could stand some lowering- especially in the back.

Before I dive into the details of the install- here's a brief explanation about what the benefits of the new springs are:

• Improved handling


• Lowered center of gravity


• More aggressive stance


• Progressive rate (springs get tighter as they are worked harder- this makes for little sacrifice in ride quality for normal driving- while providing increased stiffness for hard cornering)

So that's the "why" - here's the "how"

In anticipation of this mod I read up a little about others experiences with doing this installation- one thing seemed consistent throughout all of the accounts- The drivers side front strut was apparently the most difficult to remove - and this job was not for the faint of heart- warnings of "danger danger" were strewn though postings and "only attempt if you have previous experience.." - yadda yadda yadda-

Keeping all of this in mind Vaughn and I decided to do it anyway. Since neither of us had ever done this type of job before we thought it best to start out slow. Since we were already familiar with the set up of the rear suspension (from the sway bar installation) We figured we would change out the rears first to get a feel for using the spring compressors and such.

This turned out to be a great idea- because the rears practically changed themselves- switching the rear springs out was one of the easiest, most straight-forward mods I have ever done on a car.

You just pop the wheel off and 3 bolts later the shock comes right out.



Here's what it looks like removed:


Once that was out- we just removed the top nut holding the collar in place and removed the stock spring, popped on the new one and reinstalled. Here's a pic of the old spring (black) vs. the new spring (green)



Here is a pic of the finished rear shock:



Swapping out the rears took about 45 minutes. It was so easy in fact that we decided to break for lunch (an unprecedented move in MINI-garage- special thanks to my lovely wife Kerry for providing lunch :) )

After some tasty wraps from Subway, and feeling very confident, we moved on to the front end.

At first glance it seemed only slightly different in procedure than the rear- When we looked closer it became apparent that these were gonna be VERY different.

There are a few major differences that make the fronts harder to remove- the most major is the fact that the bottom of the strut is seated about 3 inches deep in the steering knuckle and the top is recessed in the shock tower- because of this, in order to remove it from the car you have to compress the living hell out of it- Oh one more thing- these springs are about a thousand times stiffer than the rears because they need to support the weight of the engine- so compressing them - even if you can get at them is no easy task.

Here's a pic of the bastard still intact:



We made short work of removing all the necessary hardware to set the strut free- that took about 10 minutes. The next hour was spent trying to coax it out of the car. I have to say that the spring compressors were an invaluable tool for this portion of the job- even if they were difficult to implement due to space constraints. I had read about some people using ratchet straps to compress the fronts because they are easier to fit up inside the tower- we tried this but it didn't work. But here's a pic anyway:



Instead we wound up squeezing the compressors up inside the tower and reaching down through the large center hole in the top of the tower with a crescent wrench to tightening the compressors that way- the was a slow process and resulted in several bleeding knuckles. In the end it did the trick for compressing the spring.

Here's a pic of the shock tower (this was taken prior to removal- the hole in the center of the three silver studs is where we accessed the compressors)



The next challenge was, now that we had some wiggle room with the shock compressed, to remove the assembly from the steering knuckle while not allowing the front drive shafts to fall out of the transmission. This part took some doing- and I am sure would not have been possible to do alone. With a lot of cursing and sweat the strut finally came out.

I thought that would be the hard part- granted it was difficult - but the challenge was far from over. The next roadblock was the recessed nut holding on the shock collar. The install instructions I downloaded glossed over this portion of the install with the phrase "innovative tool usage required" - they were NOT kidding. The nut itself is sort of accessible if you have a set of deep sockets (which I do- and no that is not a euphemism) the problem is that in order to loosed or tighten the nut without the entire shock body rotating with it- you need to place an allen key in the set screw centered within the nut- which means you can't get a socket on it.

Vaughn and I put our monkey-brains to work and came up with this contraption:



It's basically a deep socket with the allen key through the driver hole (holding the set screw in place) - A set of vice grips were used to turn the nut and another to hold the allen wrench.

This worked alright - and we were able to use a torque wrench to tighten everything back up- since I didn't have the actual specs I just went with "REALLY TIGHT"

Getting the assembly back in place was so easy it was almost insulting. Here's a pic of the bastard back in place:



I wish I could say that the passenger side was easier- that we learned some trick to save time on that one- but I can't - it was a right sumbitch too and took just as long if not longer to do.

One other minor install that was done- was the addition of a protective screen for the power-steering fan. I figured that since I was lowering the car, and this fan was already in a prime spot to get smashed- I may as well kick in the $30 bucks and protect it while I had the car on the jack. Two bolts later it looked like this:



Following the installation Vaughn , Kerry and I - met some friends across the street at El Cholo for margaritas and some awesome Mexican food. Perfect

I have to say- that while this turned out to be the most difficult install that I (we) have done so far- I think it is one of the most rewarding as well. Not only does the car look and feel better- but I feel as though it was a right of passage to have done this one "in house." My other cars had both been sent out to a shop for this mod- this one probably would have been too if I had the $400 bucks to spend for the labor- but I'm glad I didn't. There is something really satisfying about doing the work yourself and having it go so well.

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for, here are some before and after pics of the car:

Front Before

Front After

Rear Before

Rear After

Car This morning



So what's next on the agenda- I think it may be time for wheels and tires- stay tuned!

Oh and I thought this was funny- apparently I have no need to worry about my transmission- it's been "tested" ;)