14 replies to this topic

[MrMini]

Hi guys,

I want to get my car looking lower but have a severe lack of funds. Can it be done on a budget? I have heard you can shorten and cut down exsisting parts? What can be done and how would i go about it? Any advice would be awesome. I am currently on 12's with standard suspension and brakes all around. 8.4" disks up front.

Thanks,

Edited by MrMini, 29 July 2008 - 11:16 AM.

[Geehawk]

You can cut down the alloy suspension trumpets where the knuckle joints fit, to lower the car.

The ratio of removed length to lowering is 3:1 at the front and 5:1 at the rear. i.e. you will lower the car by 3 and 5 times what you remove.

Go carefully, and if you need to raise it again you can use washers as shims.

[phil_clubman]

Hi guys,

I want to get my car looking lower but have a severe lack of funds. Can it be done on a budget? I have heard you can shorten and cut down exsisting parts? What can be done and how would i go about it? Any advice would be awesome. I am currently on 12's with standard suspension and brakes all around. 8.4" disks up front.

Thanks,

ive heard that if you file 1/8th of an inch off your trumpet it'l lower ur car by an inch. not sure how true it is though or if its worth doing it that way. might be better seeing if anyone else has done it that way first or buying a budget set of lowered suspention.

phil

[MrMini]

Thanks for the reply. Is there a guide for this anywhere?

[Strontium Dog]

Haynes shows you how to get the trumpets out and all you need then is a hacksaw and a file to remove some of the narrow end of the trumpet. I would use my lathe personally as you want to keep the end you cut square. It is ok as said above to raise the hight with shims if you go to far!

You can make a tool for compressing the rubber doughnuts easily and there must be a guide for that somewhere on this site or on the Miniforum

[biggav]

Hi guys,

I want to get my car looking lower but have a severe lack of funds. Can it be done on a budget? I have heard you can shorten and cut down exsisting parts? What can be done and how would i go about it? Any advice would be awesome. I am currently on 12's with standard suspension and brakes all around. 8.4" disks up front.

Thanks,

Quite simply... Don't even bother.

when you lower the ride height, you need to also adjust the camber and castor of the wheel otherwise you will find you suffer poor handling bad tyre wear.. you can make the car pretty much undrivable.

Look on ebay (or on here) and you can get hi-low type adjustable suspension parts for peanuts. You should also consider adjustable tie rods, adjustable bottom arms, poly bushes, subframe mountings and uprated shock absorbers since the whole lot is easier to do at once... you then really should consider getting the geometry set up by a proffesional which again will cost money.

I spent about £1500 on mine ... but it sticks to the road like its on rails.

[Wil_h]

Hi guys,

I want to get my car looking lower but have a severe lack of funds. Can it be done on a budget? I have heard you can shorten and cut down exsisting parts? What can be done and how would i go about it? Any advice would be awesome. I am currently on 12's with standard suspension and brakes all around. 8.4" disks up front.

Thanks,

Quite simply... Don't even bother.

when you lower the ride height, you need to also adjust the camber and castor of the wheel otherwise you will find you suffer poor handling bad tyre wear.. you can make the car pretty much undrivable.

Look on ebay (or on here) and you can get hi-low type adjustable suspension parts for peanuts. You should also consider adjustable tie rods, adjustable bottom arms, poly bushes, subframe mountings and uprated shock absorbers since the whole lot is easier to do at once... you then really should consider getting the geometry set up by a proffesional which again will cost money.

I spent about £1500 on mine ... but it sticks to the road like its on rails.

Not so sure about this, if a few rules are followed then the handling will improve, these are important though.

1) keep the differance in height from front to rear the same (i'e' the rear should be highr than the front, typically 10 to 20mm)
2) be very careful shortening the cones to make sure they are the same side to side.
3) don't go too low, 5mm off the bump stop at the front minimum.

If you start putting all the other adjustable stuff on then you wil need to set the car up, but then what do you set it to?

If using hi-los then the most important thing to measure when fitted is the corner weights. It's all too easy to end up with the weight of the car across two corners.

I move house next week and will have the space to get my measuring kit out again. Anyone near York/Harrogate is more than welcome to pop round and I'll measure and adjust it for you (no charge).

[biggav]

It's all well and good if you know what you are doing... but if you need to ask the question how do i do it without spending any money... and you don't have decent tools and the gear to acuratly measure and alter geometry then i'd be advising against it.. unless you have another car you can use while themini is off the road

[bert998]

thats assuming the tracking, camber etc are right in the first place. Which on a mini is not particularly likely!!!

[Wil_h]

well all I can say is I did it to my mini when I was 18 and there were no such things as forums, and health and safety wasn't the pain in the arse it is today. Everyone is risk averse.

I did it with the minimum of tools and little knowledge on the subject. Sure I didn't get it 100%, but I learn't a lot and now know even more. If I'd let some one else do it I'd be non the wiser, and how do I know they'd have done it right.

And if the suspension isn't right in the first place and you can't tell, you're not going to notice the changes that lowering will make. Lowering the car to it's minimum will not in any case make the car dangerous. In some respects cutting the cones is a safer bet than using hi-los as it stops the temptation to fiddle, which is how you get into the problems with having all the weight across two corners of the car.

Trimming the cones is a classic mod that has been done on minis by enthusiasts for 50 years, why advise people not to do it now? Re-setting the geometry after slightly lowering is not necessary as long as all other parts are kept standard and the rules I posted above are followed.

[bert998]

exactly, i say go for it. to be honest, i'd rather be running on cut trumpets for six months and save up for set of genuine hi'los than buy that pap off ebay/at shows. The quality of the alloy is pants and will seize up almost immediately.

[MrMini]

Thanks for the replies. I have loads of great tools and lots of enthusiasm. (Just not loads of cash!)

I asked the initial question because obviously this subject is not covered in the haynes manual. The car is not my everyday car and has been off the road for about a year now. Its just something to keep me occupied really. I think i will give it a go!

Cheers,

[Geehawk]

Get yourself a copy of "how to modify your mini" by David Vizard. It explains it all, and much much more in there

Loads of copies on Ebay.
http://shop.ebay.co....odify your mini

[mini_turbo_pete]

just remember if you drop the rear to level the car off you should really buy some adjustable tie bars to reset your castor angle