20 replies to this topic

[bubbacluby]

Wanting peoples opinions on Coil Springs replacing the rubber donuts in a mini

My brother had some in his 10inch wheel 850 and he went through about 2 front subframes, smashing the welds around the top of the towers before he went back to donuts.

I have been told he had a poor quality English springs that would have kept binding up and this caused the towers to break.

I have a mate who reckons the Japanese made springs are awesome and he has all his rubber donut cars on springs. I bought a set of Japanese MST springs from him that are supposed to be the bees knees.

I was going to put these into a Japanese Spec 1999 Rover, but If I am going to break subframes I dont want to use them as replacing a Jap SPI mini with Aircon subframe is a whole lot more involved than changing the subframe of an 850.

Wanting to know peoples experiences with them

Thanks Brenton

[dyshipfakta]

Personally I can't see how they can work. They are far too short to be any use and any spring unless rock solid will just bottom out or bind up. Rather stay with what I know works despite their flaws

[Orange-Phantom]

There are a lot of threads on these forums about this if you do a quick search,

 

The general gist is that if you are running on a race track or billiard smooth roads then springs result in a smoother ride, as soon as the roads get slightly rougher then they are a lot worse.

 

Put it this way, I've got Japanese Mini Delta springs on mine and I'm going to put it back to the standard rubber suspension.  After driving a couple of minis over here that had new properly setup rubber suspension the difference was quite amazing!  Much much better on the rubber!

 

Springs are trying to fix something that was never broken and it usually results in a less than optimum ride as a result of fitting them.

[bubbacluby]

There are a lot of threads on these forums about this if you do a quick search,

 

 I'm going to put it back to the standard rubber suspension.  After driving a couple of minis over here that had new properly setup rubber suspension the difference was quite amazing!  Much much better on the rubber!

 Ok I will do a search Thankyou.

Is that Standard rubber Cones or Moulton Smootha Ride?

[Orange-Phantom]

 

There are a lot of threads on these forums about this if you do a quick search,

 

 I'm going to put it back to the standard rubber suspension.  After driving a couple of minis over here that had new properly setup rubber suspension the difference was quite amazing!  Much much better on the rubber!

 Ok I will do a search Thankyou.

Is that Standard rubber Cones or Moulton Smootha Ride?

 

The one's I've driven over here were standard rubber cones, and a Cooper S race car with the Red Dot suspension.  I'm going to put the Red Dot on mine as that was the ride that I preferred.

[Cooperman]

The people who sell these spring kits are latching onto the fact that on race Minis, where the regulations allow, it can be an advantage to fit coil springs. This is because a race track is very, very smooth and very little suspension travel is needed. A coil spring can this have a high initial rate which reduces body roll and helps with turn-in at corners. 

On the road such a spring would be useless as a road has bumps in it.

As has been posted many times, the Mini MUST HAVE true rising-rate springs and the very best way to achieve this with the already limited suspension travel available, is with the original rubber cone springs. You cannot improve on the ideal springs. The Moulton SmoothaRide springs are for those wanting a softer ride at moderate speeds and who are willing to accept more body-roll in corners. Really ideal for those older owners who don't want or need the original dynamic ride & handling for which our little cars are renowned.  

[ukcooper]

love mine 13mpi but made sure ive set them up to how I think is propa decent shockers is a must

 

[Cooperman]

A question no-one has ever answered, including the companies which sell these coil kits, is how the spring rates compare with the original rubber cone springs. Particularly a graph of load against deflection of trumpet platform.

That I would love to see.

[nicklouse]

I think Spider has done some comparisons. But not with the Minitastic ones and they seem to be gone now.

But even the info Chris has is on the spring units as a single entity and does include the suspension designs natural rate. And then there is the angle that the spring works through. (Coils in the space of the rubber or coils in place of the shock).

But nothing I have seen yet shows that the rubber springs can be bettered.

I will say replace a dead rubber spring with any Spring and it will feel better.

[Magneto]

Good point, when they're done they get hard as rocks!

I have a set of ProTech coilovers on my current car and I had the black springs on my last one, I much prefer the black ones like in UK Cooper's post.......

[Cooperman]

There is total logic to using coil springs on a race Mini for the reasons already explained.
However, there is no logic in respect of using them on a road car. A road Mini must have proper rising rate springs which must not coil bind at full suspension travel.
Some say coils give a softer ride. But the superb rubber cone springs will give a soft ride so long as the dampers are adjustable and set very soft. If you doubt this take the dampers off and drive the car down the road (slowly!). That's a soft ride!
If a soft ride is wanted buy a different classic car. A Mini is not meant to be a soft ride.
From an engineering standpoint it is hard to see how a coil spring can even replicate a rubber cone spring, let alone improve on it for road use.
No doubt those trying to get richer by selling them will have some sort of reason why they are worth buying.

[Orange-Phantom]

What Cooperman said! 

[Dusky]

I had them in my mini. The soft springs make the mini feel like a Citroen 2cv ( don't know if they ever sold in the UK under this name ).
It's great if you have a hernia, but you lose quite a bit of response. I fitted new rubber cones and had the sporty feeling again.
If you have back problems or anything like that , they're a good option to keep the car. Same as fitting things like power steering.

[Cooperman]

Perhaps it's me, but I can't understand why anyone would buy a classic Mini, then try to make the suspension feel soft. The Mini is designed to have springs with the rate given by the O.E. rubber cone springs.

If a soft ride is wanted there are many modern or classic cars which will be soft. You can buy a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow 1 for the price of a fully restored Cooper. My wife had one and it sure had soft suspension  .

Can anyone explain how a coil-sprung Mini for road use can ever be any sort of improvement over the correct rubber springs?

[Dusky]

Simple, someone like my dad. He loves minis and raced a few of them, now has had back surgery and couldn't drive a hard mini even if he wanted to. :)
The long springs are really really soft, but you can't go very fast with them, i fitted mine after a small accident wich (luckily) cured