Hey, I'm going to order some Koni FSD's and use my stock springs from the 06 Cooper S. I do not want to lower it. I am going to also put r90 rims on and use 215/17/45 Michelin PSS tires. What camber plates would work well with this setup for the street.

 

Good morning,for the street you might try Ireland Engineering fixed camber
plates had them on my car for 9 yrs no issues

 

I agree with IE Fixed Camber Plates for the street. However they will raise the front slightly (1/8" or so) because the plate is thicker.

 

Do the Ireland engineering plates have a wider footprint than the stock plates so they are preventative against mushrooming also?

 

The IE fixed camber plates are pretty beefy. I've had mine on my car for 8 years or so. No mushrooming. IMO well worth it. Remember to get an alignment when you are done with the install.

 

Since your not lowering the car the fixed camber plates will work fine.

And yes they prevent mushrooming as they are about 3/16 thick rather than just the stamped steel of the stock ones.

http://www.waymotorworks.com/ireland...e-r50-r53.html

 

Ok cool, thanks for help so those are the ones I'm going to get then, more cost effective than the race ones anyways, especially if I'm not change the ride height.

 

The IE fixed plates are great. The finish is terrible like all IE products, but I still recommend the plates.

- Andrew

 

What are the thoughts on IE adjustable camber plates with the FSDs? The FSDs have already been ordered. I will be running stock springs and it is street driven with no plans of tracking the car. I MIGHT lower the car in a few years at which time I would go to a coil over and different springs of course. Do the adjustable plates cause any problems with the FSDs? I thought I read that the adjustment can't go past 2 degrees with stock springs. Being street driven do I need to go past that?

 

The FSD will be good for the street and stock springs. If just street driven I would suggest the IE Fixed Plates instead of adjustable plates because the adjustable will have a harsher ride. With the fixed plates you should end up with about -1.5 to -1.75 deg which is plenty for the street. Add a 19mm rear sway bar to the front camber plates to obtain a nice balance.

 

Thanks for the info! What makes the adjustable plates ride harsher than the fixed? It would seem that they are both just a mounting point but one can be moved.

 

Most of the adjustable ones have polyurethane instead of rubber for the bearing support,
which is harder and thus, harsher.

 

Just understand that if you lower the car in the future, front camber is now out of your control. Fixed camber plates are a bit short-sighted, IMO.

 

Front camber changes very little with lowering so there should not be an issue with fixed plates on the front.
Lowering greatly changes the rear camber and usually requires adjustable control arms to get camber to a reasonable amount. Of course the need for adjustable control arms this depends on the amount you lower and if you have an 05/06 with OEM camber adjustability.

 

That's all true, but it does in fact change in the front. Especially with all the people "slamming" their cars these days. For someone interested in having complete control over their car, I still say that fixed plates are less than ideal.

 

The ST XTA Coilovers also have the camber plates on the front with them, so that another option.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/ES2730623/

 

Yes, adjustable plates are much better for complete control of the front camber, especially
if you have a dual purpose car (track, ATX, daily driver). Everything is a compromise, however,
and for some people, a fixed camber mount is right for them. I considered it when I put Koni
Sports and a rear bar in last month, but wanted just a little less camber than the IE fixed plates,
and I didn't want to go for an adjustable plate, so I stayed with a stock shock mount for my daily driver.


Also, I think that people who slam their cars are a bit short sighted and get what they deserve.

 

Just wanted to chime in as I fixed a snapped bolt on my IE fixed plate this past weekend...

If you go with the Craven shock tower defenders you have to cut the bolts that are welded to the IE camber plates. The Craven defenders use a two bolt mounting system per stud and I found that the IE studs were too long to work with the combination bolt. I suspect that the play cause the bolt the snap/shear.

Anyways, I took a cutting wheel on my dremel and took 1/3" off each bolt and everything mounted up fine.

This is only an issue with the Craven defenders as the strut mount/camber plate bolts don't pass through like other anti-mushrooming plates.

 

Howdy. I came across this thread while looking around the site. I used IE fixed camber plates on my R50 and have installed them on 3 other MINI's over the last 7 months. So far, every single one of them has come back complaining of snapping/popping sounds on mild bumps. We went through the installation meticulously and once we started taking these things off the cars, we noticed that every single one of them had sloppy bearings. A close inspection of the bearings revealed what we suspected.......Made in China! Don't get me wrong, the rest of the assembly is great! Very sturdy, but the most important wear part is a cheap piece of junk. Needless to say, we contacted the vendor, and even IE, no one will give us the time of day. We managed to get a person at IE who said that "we may have gotten a bad batch of bearings" but offered no resolution for 800 bucks worth of sloppy camber plates. A quick internet search showed that we are not alone in our problem with these fixed camber plates.