Irish Mini Owners Club

Hi lads just a quick question . What are hilows and whats the advantage of having them.... have seen a couple of cars advertised with them etc and was wonderin what they were and were they expensive to buy thanks a mill.

Before you consider, what sort of wheels are you running? If they are larger size with smaller profile, its really not worth it. If you are running smaller wheels with larger profiles, they are highly recommended. Supposed to completely change the handling of the car.

cheers I dont actually have a mini yet!! but all going well I will have one soon... one that im considering having a look at advertised that it has hilows and was just wonderin what it was thanks

They allow you to adjust the ride height of the car. Lower gives the car a lower centre of gravity - but lowered, adjustable suspension dampers are needed if you want to lower the car to a point where you'd really notice a difference in handling. Otherwise the standard dampers would bottom out and the you couldn't stiffen up to car to avoid body roll.

Hi-lo's are adjustable trumpets that allow you to change the ride height of the car, they are a direct replacement for the standard factory trumpet. The original design has been around for a long time and is adjusted by means of a hexagonal key, the newer copies are adjusted by means of a large nut.

Many cars will have these fitted, but as to whether they are all adjusted correctly , well that's another story.

They were originaly designed for racing so that drivers could carry out corner weighting, this is done to balance out/distribute the weight of the vehicle over each corner eveningly. On a road car they are just cosmetic and there to lower the ride height.

Cool thanks for the replies . Is it expensive to have them adjusted to the right setting and does it make the ride really hard ? I've driven a few of my friends jap cars that were lowered and my god i couldn straighten me back for a week after it haha .

Hi-lo's have no effect of the harshness of the ride, they only control the ride height.

In a Mini suspension the ride is determined by the cone spring. It's state will effect the "bounceness" of the car. The shocks are there to control the rebound of the cone spring and act solely as dampers.



They cost nothing to adjust, it's just a few spanners or a key that's needed, getting them right just takes time.