Quote:
Originally Posted by flinchy
What issues did you have? I've heard various stories, but always resolved in the end
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1. Front helper springs that were no help (were fully compressed and became spacers) and just caused unacceptably tight tyre/lower spring seat clearance and no further (lowering) adjustability. So, they had to be removed which meant the whole front suspension had to be removed, disassembled, re-assembled and re-fitted. I wasn't expecting helpers and Josh advised that they had started fitting them as standard when built O/S. No good with the 200mm springs they specified for my car.
2. Rear springs have the height adjust screw at the bottom, unlike most aftermarket where it's at the top. Josh said this was done because it was too difficult to adjust otherwise. However, the flat base of the adjuster was sitting on the lower suspension arm hole flange that the spring normally seats around. I wasn't happy with that, so the springs had to come out and a doughnut type spacer manufactured for a seat. I really think it would be better to have the adjuster at the top with a thrust sheet/bearing on the spring to allow slip when adjusting. The Teins on my MX-5 have thrust washers - work great.
3. Rear springs started making "sproing" noises after a few hundred km over low speed bumps and had to be R & R again to fit a urethane spacer/packing in the upper mounts because the MCA spring is a smaller diameter than the BMW original and could move around in there.
All the above fixed with no arguments under warranty but at some inconvenience to me as MCA are on Brisbane's north side and I'm on the south side. I got quite familiar with the train timetable.
I was rather surprised and disappointed that the issues were not picked up during fitting as they were pretty obvious.
However, I'm very happy with the performance of the set-up - now with a good wheel alignment. Just got back from a run up through Mt Nebo and it is almost as good through the twisties as the MX-5 - which is saying something because the Bimmer was an understeering/ploughing/diving/bump crashing pig beforehand.