Inside Line: Meyle

Sven Nielsen, Technical Director from MEYLE, says the following difficulties may arise with the MINI:

1. Worn out control arm bushings

Problem:

Control arm bushings are exposed to strong forces during acceleration, braking and cornering. Bad roads or weather conditions can also contribute towards them becoming worn and less effective. Steering play may arise and an accurate lateral guidance is no longer possible. Worn control arm bushings will in turn place increased stress on other suspension components and can cause wear throughout the suspension. This may lead to lower levels of safety and costly repairs to the chassis.

MEYLE is offering improved control arm bushings to fit MINI models. These chassis components have been redesigned due to their exposure to high levels of stress.

However, Hydro-filled mounts are the latest trend in OE engineering, they often fail to live up to expectations as they are susceptible to leaking and hence early failure. Therefore, the expert team at MEYLE uses only full-rubber mounts to increase the reliability of MEYLE-HD spare parts. In addition, MEYLE in-house engineers precisely attune the damping performance of MEYLE-mounts to the characteristics of the OE system, thereby ensuring sustained driving comfort. With MEYLE-HD full-rubber mounts MEYLE offer a fail-safe alternative to hydro-filled mounts and a solution that delivers what it promises.

Thanks to full-rubber mounts the control arm bushing for MINI last much longer than the original design and comes with a four year guarantee.

2. Stabiliser links often worn out

Problem:

Intense strain and high surface pressure wear and stress on the ball joint. This causes a premature failure of the ball joint and generates noise at the front axle.

MEYLE in-house engineers increased the diameter of the ball head of the ball joint to 22 mm, in addition to using wear-resistant synthetic ball sockets with high-tech grease. The reduction of the surface pressure ensures a significantly longer lifetime.

Our engineers are passionate about improving our MEYLE-HD stabilizer links, constantly seeking new ways of refining all components. To make installation and removal procedures easier for our customers; more and more MEYLE-HD stabilizer links are designed with a wrench attachment at the ball pin. A distinctive advantage when fitting, in particular over those original designs which lack this value-adding feature.

Owing to the larger ball head the ball surface on MEYLE-HD stabilizer links has been increased by 50%. This way we have managed to significantly improve the part‘s load carrying capacity along with its service life. The blue clip-on plastic socket adds additional strength to the MEYLE-HD part.

3. Worn out brake discs

Problem:

Worn out brake discs affect the braking behavior of the vehicle. Rust may play a major role in this case.

The MEYLE solution is a brake disk covered with a specially developed multi-layer zinc coating. The MEYLE PD coating simply provides better anti-corrosion protection.

• MEYLE subjected their MEYLE PD brake disc to a ten day comparative test with a conventional brake disc from the aftermarket and an original disc which was also coated. The salt spray test designed to simulate the influences of corrosion was carried out in the quality laboratory at MEYLE in Hamburg.
• Compared to the conventional brake disc which showed intense rusting over the entire surface area after 240 hours, the MEYLE PD brake disc displayed only a small amount of white rusting and isolated patches of rust on the surface and on the bores of the inner surface. The coated original brake disc also showed severe rusting close to the bores, increased rusting at the edges
  and also white rusting.

• The highlight: unlike uncoated discs which must have the grease removed before fitting, MEYLE PD brake discs save the workshops time, as they are ready to be assembled.
• Cross-grinding guarantees the bedding-in process.
• Furthermore, MEYLE offers support through an additional service feature. This includes instructions on how to replace brake discs and brake pads.
• MEYLE brake pads feature damping shims fitted to the reverse side of pad’s support plate. These shims are designed to decouple vibration and prevent brake squeal.

• 315 521 0007/PD (for MINI CLUBMAN R55, MINI R56, MINI Cabriolé R 57, MINI Coupé R58)
• 315 523 3028/PD (for MINI CLUBMAN R55, MINI R56, MINI Cabriolé R 57, MINI Coupé R58)
• 315 521 0382/PD (for MINI CLUBMAN R55, MINI R56, MINI Cabriolé R 57, MINI Coupé R58)

Also available for MINI COUNTRYMAN R60 PD brake discs with MEYLE-No. 315 521 0017/PD and 315 521 0018/PD