Had to get 2 new tires yesterday. One of them had a slow leak. Spent many, many currencies so here I am at work today!

While they were doing an alignment, the mechanic said the right rear passenger side was at -3. He said that each time they tried to adjust it, it would only go more negative and that -3 was the best achievable result. Whereas the left rear driver side is at -1.89 I believe, within spec.

Anyone ever have that issue?

 

I don't know if I can help but I have a relatable story. Because my MINI dealer is 2 hours away, I had a local tire chain store that I trust(ed) put on 4 new Bridgestone Drivegaurd RF tires that I bought from Tirerack. Thinking an alignment was in order, I had the shop do it, and $75 seemed like a good deal. After driving the car for a week I happened to look at the rear of the car square on from a distance and noticed a pretty severe negative camber. Since I had service scheduled at the MINI dealer a few weeks later, I decided to let it go until then. MINI dealer had to redo the alignment at $150, but I knew it wasn't right. Their report showed me how badly out of wack all 4 wheels were. They had to re-thread a tierod end where it looked like "someone" had maybe used a pipe wrench on it. They were able to get all 4 back into speck, although that one wheel was not quite as in speck as the others. Now, I'm no mechanic and don't pretend to be. I have to be able to trust someone with these things. I stewed about this for a week or so before I went back the the local tire shop to talk to them about it. Manager was very nice and pulled the report from the alignment they did. It showed eveything in spec. He offered to put it on the lift and check things out whenever I had time to bring it in. Didn't have an answer as to the stripped tierod end. I really don't want them to do any more work on my MINI. But I would like to think that just about any shop could be trusted to do an alignment. I mean these cars aren't that exotic, right. I've trusted this shop to do tires, alignments, brakes and oil changes for 10 years. Now I don't want them to do any work on any of my family's cars.

 

I also took the MINI to a tire place to have 2 new tires put on, but they reaffirmed what I thought all along. When i brought the car home for the very first time and parked it in the garage, I thought the camber seemed kind of weird. The more I looked at it, the more I thought it was just the body lines and my eyes playing tricks on me. Everytime I saw a MINI on the road, I would look at its back end. Everytime I did, it looked just like mine so I thought that maybe that was normal. Well, now I don't think so. The garage mentioned that maybe my control arm is bent. Its quite possible, because the rear brake on that side makes a slight grinding noise when I brake. I just wonder if this is a common MINI problem. If not, the people who had the car before me are POS'S and shouldn't be anywhere near a MINI or a manual transmission(3rd gear grinds also).

 

Normal rear camber is designed to be within -2.3 to -1.8. If you've got one outside those parameters then something else is out of whack as in bent or broken. Once you get things straightened out, get in the habit of rotating tires every 5K miles. It will greatly enhance their endurance. Best advice is get it into a reliable BMW/MINI independent shop, NOT a dealership. Indie shop locator to follow:
http://www.minirepairshops.com/

 

Hopefully when I take it to the MINI place its a similar situation like yours Rich Rodichok, and they will be able to do a proper alignment. If not, then I'm glad I got an extended warranty.

 

Called the MINI place for an alignment check, got placed on the standard 2 week waiting list. Sounds like the alignment itself is indeed the issue, as there is a special MINI Alignment Tool® That is used. Can't say I'm surprised.