13 replies to this topic

[Tomf]

Well after lowing my mini, iv realised that its sitting on the bumpstops at the front, now i dont really want to raise the mini back up as there is still a 2 finger gap at the front between the arch.

Will this casue any problems/damage? (like to much stress on ball joints)

If it will then obviously i will have to raise the mini, but what other options do i have?

[tuktuk]

i cut my bumpstops down when mine did that, dont know if others would reccomend it but it worked for me!

[Tomf]

lol yea thats what i was thinking of doing, but i dont want to if its going to put loads more pressure on say the ball joints and then cause them to fail...

If anyone knows for sure please let me know as i dont really want to rais the mini back up, but i dont want to cause any damage...

[Tomf]

BUMP

[Rosslin Racing]

if your top swivel joint is on full stop or bent over to the max then that will be a problem it could snap.!!

[Tomf]

Cheers, ill have a check tomorrow, if there is still a bit of movment n the ball joint will this be ok? or will i have to raise it up still?

[Rosslin Racing]

no you need some movement I think its about 3cm before full impact. try lowering the subframe.

[cradley-heathen]

Cheers, ill have a check tomorrow, if there is still a bit of movment n the ball joint will this be ok? or will i have to raise it up still?

measure the distance from a fixed point on your car with it on the ground, say the top edge of the wheel rim, to the edge of the wheel arch sxtension, then with the car jacked up, use your cone spring compressor to pull the spring up, then put the wheel back on and pull the wheel up to the point it sits at (according to your measasurements) then see how much further the wheel will move up from that point, you should have a good inch of suspension travel, aslong as you have this and you dont feel the resistance from the ball joint being at full tilt your ok.

hope that made sense???

[WiredbyWilson]

you say there is a 2 finger gap between the wheelarch and the wheel, is this and extra wheelarch you bolted on? dare i say you have bolted it on too high?

[Tomf]

No the two finders is to the actual wing. Ill have a play with it tomorrow if the weather holds out and rais it up, dont want to cause any terminal damage!

[Dan]

1: If your car is sitting on the bumpstops it will not pass an MOT, it is dangerous.

2: DO NOT cut down your bumptops, the limit of travel set by the bumpstop is the safe limit. As you suspect if it travels further it will overload the swivel pins and they may snap. Having said that, the limit of travel is not actually where the suspension first touches the stop but actually where the stop becomes solid, this is because they are a fairly soft rubber. Mini Spares sell a harder bumpstop made from poly which is actually shorter but due to being harder stops the travel in more or less the same place. Cutting a standard stop has a different effect because the rubber is still quite soft and so still needs to compress the same amount before stopping travel, if it's shorter to start with it will allow a lot more travel. The poly stops might help you out a lot. You should also check that there aren't spacers above your bumpstops. If the car is an MPi it will have spacers above the bumpstops to cope with the extra weight of the car and stop the car hitting the stops so hard (which will over compress them and so allow excess travel) and improve the ride at full bump. Since there is clearance between the arch and the wheel with the car touching the stops, which there usually isn't on a Mini I would imagine the spacers are there. They are quite thick and will be obvious if you look.

Tuktuk, I really think you should do something about your cut down stops before a wheel falls off your car.

[Tomf]

Thank you "holy one"

Just what i needed to know , ill get the susspension raised up when the rain stops

[Tomf]

Well the sun stopped for a little bit today, so i raised the hi-lows a bit, now when the car is settled there is about a 2mm gap between the bumpstops and top arm, will this be ok?

[Dan]

That's up to your MOT inspector but I doubt it will be acceptable.