I am always amazed by the chain of events that leads to discovery. This past weekend, I was getting my MINI ready for winter. We don’t get a lot of snow here in Maryland, but when you car is only a few inches off of the ground, it doesn’t take much to slow you down. I figured the splitter would act like a dive plane in the snow. With that in mind, I decided to take off the splitter, close the brake duct holes, reinstall the fog lights, and trim a inch off of the bottom of airdam to gain some more clearance.

I had the car up on jack stands with the front wheels off. I remember looking down into the center bore of the camber plate (photo above) on the driver’s side, thinking it didn’t look quite right. I compared it to the other side and noticed the gap was about twice as large. I figured there must be some movement in the receiver, and since I had been working on the hub, maybe the downward pressure had made it droop. Then, as I reinstalled the wheel, and was pushing down to tighten the lugs, I heard a “whump”. The bearing had dropped out of the receiver. Even I know enough about suspensions to think, “not good….”

Sure enough, the urethane bushing had failed. The bearing was still attached to the top of the strut, but the strut was no longer attached to the receiver. From the machining that appears to have taken place, it looks like it has been loose for a while.

I talked to the manufacturer and they are going to replace the camber plates. That’s good news, and the car is still drivable, but I have to be careful to avoid large potholes. Once I line up the bearing, and lower the car to the ground, the weight of the car along with the compression of the spring keeps it seated, even when I jack the car up again. I can make it fail, but I have to put a lot of pressure on the hub to drop it out again.

So this presents an opportunity: If I’m going to have to have someone reassemble the struts, I might as well replace the shocks. (Quiet: Rationalization in progress.) I’m not yet good enough to really take advantage of coil-overs. Plus at $1200-$2500 I can’t afford them anyway. I’m thinking about 3 options:

1. Koni Sport. The yellow Konis are adjustable. The fronts can be easily changed through the center bore of the camber plate. The rears are a little harder to use since you have to remove the shock to adjust them. I’ve heard good things from people who set the rears to the mid setting, then adjust the fronts to suit conditions. Soft for daily driving or in the rain. Hard for autocross/track. Designed to work with lowering springs.
2. Koni FSD. FSD stands for frequency selective damping. That’s a fancy way of saying that the have a softer rebound rate for a quick (high frequency) compression such as seams on the highway or a pothole; and a hard rebound rate for slow (low frequency) compression such as on a smooth track. Sort of a cake/eating thing. They are not adjustable, but they compensate for the two primary goals of the daily driver/occasional racer.
3. MINI JCW. The JCW suspension is designed to work with shorter springs which should help with the harshness of using stock struts on lowering springs. They aren’t adjustable and they don’t offer two distinct damping rates, but they’re OEM.

I’m leaning toward the Koni Adjustables. If I can dial out the harshness of my current suspension, then maybe people won’t worry about their fillings when they ride with me. The ability to make adjustments gives me something else to play with (or blame) next season. That’s a bonus.