im not sure if my car's out of alignment since i havent bumped anything
but seems like the slightest incline of the road makes my car track to the right.

almost 99% of the time my steering wheel is cocked slightly 11 oclock.

is this typical on your cooper or cooper-s?

 

Most roads have a crown, a slight rounding of the surface, to help draining. I always found that on most roads, especially in the right lane, my car will pull the the right. And this is on multiple cars where I have my alignment checked at least once a year.

AlexR

 

>>im not sure if my car's out of alignment since i havent bumped anything
>>but seems like the slightest incline of the road makes my car track to the right.
>>
>>almost 99% of the time my steering wheel is cocked slightly 11 oclock.
>>
>>is this typical on your cooper or cooper-s?
No. not really. Try different roads.

Did you have lowered springs or suspension work done-sometimes you get excessive negative camber in the rear? Check the wear on your tires and check the tire pressure. If any signs of trouble you can do an alignment. If the car has very few miles on it you can get the dealer to do the alignment but once you have driven the car for awhile then how you drive and roads can knock things out of alignment pretty quick.

On a car like the MINI, an alignment once a year is not unreasonable unless tire wear is perfect and you have doing really great.

 

In addition to the earlier comment about crowned roads, I've found that low tire pressure (as when it gets cold about this time of year) contributes to this.

HTH, Jeff

 

thanks for the input. :smile: yah, the crown is what seems to be contributing
to my tracking issue.

My car is actually bone stock other than my winter wheel set/tires. I check
tire pressure once a week and the last time i checked was 2 days ago so
I think the pressure is even on all 4. It was the same way with my R90's
that it would track right when the road is slightly slanted by the crown.

i guess its just the mini's characteristics. I'll have the alignment checked
when i reach my first oil change, i guess (in about 5k)