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Hey GP owners... I was just curious - when buying any of the JCW 18" wheels available via dealers, you are apparently supposed to also buy the steering angle stop and have it installed.
For those of you who don't know, the steering angle stop basically prevents you from turning your wheels quite as much (i.e. full lock). The idea is that it will prevent the tires from rubbing against the tire well.
I'm just curious - did the GP come with the stop as well? Those of you who had owned a previous 1st Gen MINI would probably know for sure, because when the stop is installed, it's much harder to make tight U-turns, and they often become 3-point turns instead.
If you know the GP did come with the stop, have you had it removed? It seems many people with JCW wheels didn't bother installing the stop, and haven't had any rubbing problems...
The turning radius of the GP seems to be similar to that of my previous 2003 MCS. At least I did not notice a different when I went from the 03 MCS to 06 GP. Without jacking up the car, I looked through the wheel and around the front suspension and do not see any type of stop but I really need to jack the car up to see well. Would the stop be on the front suspension such as a bolt that hits the pivoting hub carrier or is it something added to the steering gear assembly?
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2006 MCS JCW GP #1405: Adj Front Camber Plates, 19mm Rear Sway Bar, MM Front Lower Brace, Milltek Cat-Back, TCE 13" Front/11.75" Rear BBK, 15mm Spacers, Wheel Studs, JCM Modified Intake, MM Filter, Gauges
I don't know exactly what it looks like, but MotoringFile did post the install instructions for the R56 steering angle stop... and there's some diagrams of the parts there. I imagine it's very similar on R53s, including the GP:
Take a look at the PDF that is linked at the bottom of the main article (above the comments).
However, the part numbers for the R56 and R53 steering stops are not the same. The R56 one referenced in the PDF is 32106777974 and the R53 one I found on RealOEM is 32110303293.
It appears that the steering stop is part of the steering gear assembly. It is a spacer that limits the travel of the steering arm. The only way to see it is to remove the boot on the steering arm. I would guess that it is installed on the GP. I have added wheel spacers and I suspect that I could remove it to decrease the turning radius and not have any rubbing. However, it appears to be a little bit of a pain because it will require a wheel alignment after disconnecting the steering arm to remove the spacer.
Has anyone removed the spacer? What was the improvement?
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2006 MCS JCW GP #1405: Adj Front Camber Plates, 19mm Rear Sway Bar, MM Front Lower Brace, Milltek Cat-Back, TCE 13" Front/11.75" Rear BBK, 15mm Spacers, Wheel Studs, JCM Modified Intake, MM Filter, Gauges
The GP does have the spacers between the tie-rods and the rack & pinion. However I also have GP wheels on my 03 Cooper S without the spacers and even with their 52mm offset I haven't had a problem with the tires rubbing in the wheel wells.
Bringing an old thread back to life.
Today I removed the steering stops from my GP.
They are 5.3mm thick spacers that limit the steering rack travel.
Removing the steering stops decresed the turning diameter by 3 feet.
I went from a 34 foot diameter to a 31 foot diameter.
It was a much bigger improvement than I expected and I am happy I spent the time to removed the steering stops.
I have no rubbing issues/concerns because I have 15mm spacers on the wheels.
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2006 MCS JCW GP #1405: Adj Front Camber Plates, 19mm Rear Sway Bar, MM Front Lower Brace, Milltek Cat-Back, TCE 13" Front/11.75" Rear BBK, 15mm Spacers, Wheel Studs, JCM Modified Intake, MM Filter, Gauges
Yep i heard about this and here in Singapore , there are alot of U-Turns , and i hate u-turning the gp , makes me look like like i m turning a truck though .
