Joey's Cooper Thread; Suspension Thoughts

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Joey D
I got a good chance to stand back and look at my car today and I'm really happy with how the scuttles pulled the whole design together. I just need to darken the windows now and I'll be good. The only problem is in Michigan it's illegal to have tinted front windows and cops are a pain about it so I could only tint the rear three windows. Any thoughts on that?
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I half-seriously thinking Mini for my next car. Or actually for my wife's next car! :lol: Though she'll want an auto-trans.
(And I know your car is an auto. But I desire a manual).

As for the tint. My little pickup is tinted in the back and on the sides.
It's a pretty conservative tint, but with it on all the windows, it looks pretty dark from the sides.

It did a good job of keeping the truly bright sun out (my eyes are pretty light sensitive), and I NEVER got hassled by the police.

Though the film on one window of the truck is scratched up now. (of course it is nearly 15 years old). So, after you tint. Be nice to it.
The scratching on my old truck developed after I gave it to my son.
 
Gil
I half-seriously thinking Mini for my next car. Or actually for my wife's next car! :lol: Though she'll want an auto-trans.
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Do it!

And I'm thinking about doing a 50% on the car, I can't imagine I'd get hassled for that. I'm going to ask around though and see what other people run and see if they have any problems.
 
Keef
I personally think the regular Coopers have a much cleaner design than the JCW. It's on of the best designed cars on the road in my opinion. Having the S details without the body kits and whatnot looks great.
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I agree with you Keef. The current JCW is a bit "over designed", whereas the normal Cooper is much cleaner. Especially one like Joey's, where the naff OEM wheels have been replaced for something that's both more sporty and more classy.

My favourite Cooper was actually the first-gen new MINI with the John Cooper Works pack. Not the Cooper S - the regular, non-supercharged Cooper (which is a nicer design without the big gaping vent in the bonnet) fitted with the Works accessories they were developing at the time. Can't find a picture of it at the moment but it was a fantastic looking car.
 
Summer Rubber

Ok so I go through a lot of tires, but I drive a lot and I'm probably more aggressive then I care to admit. Anyway the Goodyear Eagle GT's were getting pretty worn, like to the point where they were down right awful to drive through any kind of weather. They were never great tires from the start but with 20% life on them they were crap. So I was in need of new tires.

I was going to get some high performance all-seasons since I drive a lot but figured what the hell and got summer tires instead. I ended up popping for the Dunlop Direzza DZ101, my buddy has them on his Neon and autocrosses with them two or three times a month. He seems to like them. I also got a good deal on them at Discount Tire so it made sense to get them. The only issue I had was I went from a 205/50/16 to a 205/55/16 so they looking freakin meaty under the car...which maybe really isn't that big of an issue. The car also sits up a little higher, but once again that isn't really a bad thing.

I took them for a spin after I got them one. First thing I noticed was they don't sound like a cement mixer. The second thing I noticed was that the car no longer tracked weird on a straight, flat road. The bigger sidewall made them more comfortable too. I didn't take it out in the highway since it was 5:00 and rush hour around here sucks. Tomorrow I'm probably heading to Kari's which means a blast down I-75 to I-696.

The handling is going to be better I know but I also know they need to be broken in before getting their peak gripping performance.

Oh and I think they look cool, I'm a sucker for cool tread patterns.

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They look like they fit better then the Eagle GT's too which is always a plus.

Also I figure if I completely hate them, which I might, they'll only last me one season and I'll get something new in the spring.
 
No, I live in Michigan and I'm on track to do 30,000 miles this year. Lowering springs would destroy my suspension, mainly my struts. Guys on North American Motoring get about 18,000 miles on struts with lowering springs. We can all do the math on that one.
 
Joey D
No, I live in Michigan and I'm on track to do 30,000 miles this year. Lowering springs would destroy my suspension, mainly my struts. Guys on North American Motoring get about 18,000 miles on struts with lowering springs. We can all do the math on that one.
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An extra $500 on struts that won't blow from the springs to make your car look a lot better?

Sounds like a plan to me. 👍
 
Cheap, non-adjustable Koni's are $600, lowering springs are $300. It would probably be $300-$500 to get them installed (guess) because there is no way I have the knowledge to do something like that correctly. Then I have to deal with it during the winter. That all sounds like a huge hassle for a car I daily drive around 30,000 miles a year.

If I drove 7,000 miles a year, lived in a state where the roads didn't suck and had another car the Cooper would have been lowered ages ago. I had too many issues with the Blazer when it was lowered and that was all done properly. I had the right springs, spindles, and shocks too.

If I'm going to do anything to the suspension it's going to be to replace the sway bars because they suck and I keep breaking them. Also I'm going to get bushing that aren't made of cheese.
 
Joey D
No, I live in Michigan and I'm on track to do 30,000 miles this year. Lowering springs would destroy my suspension, mainly my struts. Guys on North American Motoring get about 18,000 miles on struts with lowering springs. We can all do the math on that one.
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Why are they running lowering springs on stock struts?

Joey D
Cheap, non-adjustable Koni's are $600, lowering springs are $300. It would probably be $300-$500 to get them installed (guess) because there is no way I have the knowledge to do something like that correctly.
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I'll do it for you if you make it worth my while.
 
Ask them why they are doing it, I don't know.

And if I were to do it I'd take it to Detroit Tuned and have them do it since they are a MINI tuning shop.
 
Joey D
Ask them why they are doing it, I don't know.

And if I were to do it I'd take it to Detroit Tuned and have them do it since they are a MINI tuning shop.
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It just makes no sense to me, that's all. The struts aren't meant to work with stiffer springs so them blowing is normal. Even 18k miles seems HIGH to me. I'm used to people complaining about blowing their stock struts within 5-6k miles of lowering. Then they complain about blown axles when they're dropped 3".
Taking it to a tuning shop, especially one that specializes in one car, will cost you a lot of cash. Removing struts is pretty much identical on all fwd mcpherson setups.
 
I freely admit I'm inept when it comes to working on my car, I don't have the knowledge to do so nor the tools. I can do basic stuff sure but ripping the suspension out seems above my know how.

And I'd rather take it to a tuning shop then some corner mechanic. At least the tuning shop focuses in one type of car so those guy know what they are doing...or at least I hope.
 
At least your new tires don't look awkwardly small on your car. The Contis I got look awkwardly small in my wheel wells.

At least they handle well and everything though. That's what matters, right?
 
They look too meaty but whatever. I'll get used to it. I think the 205/50/16 was the best size but it also threw my speedo way off, these make it with in 1mph of what the GPS says, I'll take that.

I'll see how they handle in a couple days. The real test will be tomorrow though, we are due for a monsoon and hopefully these will perform well in the rain. If they don't I just have to live with them for the summer because I'm almost certain I'll cook em this season since I managed to cook a set of all-seasons pretty quick.
 
Most summer tires perform quite a lot better in the rain than any all-season tire, provided it's relatively warm. They probably wouldn't be the greatest in a 40 degree monsoon.
 
Supposed to be 60 and rain tomorrow so I should be fine, anything is better then what I had.
 
Any reason you didn't go for the DWs? I heard you were looking pretty closely at those.

How'd you go through all-seasons in just one summer? I believe these DWs are the second set of new tires I've gotten for the GTI in all of the 50k I've owned it for, and the tires that were on it to begin with were the originals AFAIK.
 
Retro is 10" Minilites with ultra-wide rubbers... but no way are you getting those on that car... :lol:

dave_sz
It just makes no sense to me, that's all. The struts aren't meant to work with stiffer springs so them blowing is normal. Even 18k miles seems HIGH to me. I'm used to people complaining about blowing their stock struts within 5-6k miles of lowering. Then they complain about blown axles when they're dropped 3".
Taking it to a tuning shop, especially one that specializes in one car, will cost you a lot of cash. Removing struts is pretty much identical on all fwd mcpherson setups.
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How long before your dampers blow depends on how bad your roads are and how firmly damped the stock pieces are. Some cars have pretty good dampers from the factory... the MINI is one of them... so I'm not surprised they last a relatively long time when paired with aftermarket springs.
 
Philly
Any reason you didn't go for the DWs? I heard you were looking pretty closely at those.

How'd you go through all-seasons in just one summer? I believe these DWs are the second set of new tires I've gotten for the GTI in all of the 50k I've owned it for, and the tires that were on it to begin with were the originals AFAIK.
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The Dunlops were cheap and I got a good deal on them, they were $200 less then the DW's. I didn't feel like spending a bunch of money on tires since I do blow through them quickly.

I guess I drive hard which is why I blew through them. There was still probably 20% life on them but they didn't feel safe. Plus I drive a lot.
 
I generally drive pretty hard too but I guess a lot of my miles are on the highway so I don't get too much wear from that. But I'm sure the Michigan lefts are destroying my tires a lot faster than I'm used to. Those things are fun.
 
Saw a spotless mini same colour car as yours today with those foglights too. It looked great, you really need to wax your car the metallic paintwork will look gorgeous.
 
It's been raining for a week so my car is pretty awful. I'll get around to waxing it once the weather breaks a bit.
 
One More Time

OK so let me try this again, I still wanted LED eyelid lights for the Cooper and after talking with a guy on North American Motoring he directed me to a seller on eBay from California. These lights were light $6 and they came in amber like I wanted them too. On to the pictures then!

Before:
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After:
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Headlamps on:
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With Fogs:
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Just Fogs:
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Just Eyelids:
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Other then making my car look like a GM product I really don't mind them. I wanted yellow but apparently they don't make yellow LED bulbs that won't cause a bulb out warning.
 
A warning that tells you a bulb is out, as in not working.
 
Craziest thing I've ever heard! :lol:
 
Most new cars have a bulb out warning on them, my car is just annoying with it. And if you put LED lights in that do have the proper resistance then you get a bulb out warning everytime you start the car.
 
They should fit the things to more cars judging by how many people I see on a daily basis with blown bulbs.
 
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