just became the new owner of 05 cooper S. Reb out of Lake Havasu. Az.
Love the car, but having issues with steering, accelerating abruptly car darts to left, then to right when decelerating, is this an alignment problem, it has new run flat tires on it. is there a fix for this, or is this normal. thanks Rebel

 

congrats on your new ride! Wow I've had my 05 for nearly 7 years and have never seen it torque steer like that. Does the MINI have an aftermarket suspension on it? If they did suspension work and never did an alignment that may be part of the problem, but perhaps there are other suspension components that need to be replaced. I do believe i have read on this forum that others have had control arm failures and other suspension pieces that need to be replaced.

Look for the sticky on the new R53 owners forums and it may list some of them.

Hope this helps.

~p

 

if it is torque steering might want to look at after market parts for this issue ... its not an "issue" like the water pump or time chain on the older 2nd gen... these cars have a lot of power for the size therefore it has some torque steering when acceloating .

 

Are your control arm bushing ok? Maybe one side is out. Mine needed to be replaced at about 35K miles. Here's a video of what it looks like in a BMW:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Pw3V8pMeI