Hey guys and gals. I just recently rescued a 2003 mcs with 76*** miles on the clock. It is in pretty good condition but needs a few things taken care of. My first order of operations is to replace the groaning strut plates that have been plaguing me. I have heard that the ireland engineering plates are a good choice for the price and quality. I was planning to get those. Should i wait to do an alignment till i replace the strut plates? Also, does anyone recommend a place to take the mini for an alignment? More precisely, a place in or around the denver area? Thanks for the help y'all

 

If you're going to put significant miles on before changing the plates, then at least
set the toe-in on the front so you don't wear out the front tires quickly.
You'll have to adjust it again after putting in the IE fixed plates, or every time
you change camber if you get adjustable plates.

Any place that does alignments well should be able to do the MINI. Keep in mind
you can't adjust camber or caster without adjustable camber plates but you can
adjust front toe. On the rear of a 2003, you can't adjust camber without adjustable
rear control arms (at least two), and the alignment place might not know that you
can adjust rear toe by moving the rear trailing arm after loosening its 3 mounting bolts
unless they've done it before.

 

If you have your alignment done before you replace the camber plates you'll be doing it again after the plates are installed. Wait until the IE plates are on. Adding negative camber will make your MINI go toe-in, don't skip the alignment.

No idea where in Denver for an alignment. Hope someone will chime in with an answer for you.

 

Thanks for the responses. I figured that, like everything on this mini, the alignment would be somewhat complicated. At least, compared to mpst other vehicles. Ive never heard of a rotating strut plate to begin with, haha. Is there a sticky or a good write up on the install of the IE fixed plates? I plan to stay with factory ride height and dont plan to do many suspension mods to the car. Thats what the jeep is for