yep i was breking real hard one day in a straight line and my mini got all squrrily on me and it felt like the rear end wanted to come around is this because of the new rear compitition bar on the back and the little amount of toe out i have i think it might be but i have to be shure, any thoughts!!!

thanks chris

 

What have you done to your Mini

 

its all the darn pot holes, screws up the allignment

 

I have to agree-- What have you done !!! The one thing that I have been most impressed about this car since day one was it NON-squirlliness if that even a word. Small cars, especially front wheel drive cars are known for wanting to rip you hands off teh handle during extreame breaking.. but the mini is so over-engineered in this place, that even my engineering/mechaincal minded buddies are surprised. My honda I had before the mini used to shaky really bad when braking hard. but with the mini I think I coudl let go of the wheel and it would brake in a straight line. or for that matter what ever line I chose. I dunno what you did, but damn you did it well.

 

are you sure that's not just the feel of the ABS kicking in? i had a guy in a big-honkin truck cut me off and i was right next to one of those big curb dividers in the middle of the street. it felt like my wheels were scraping on the curb, but when i got out to look all was well. it was just the ABS in my case.

 

Since MINI has ABS and also equipped with both front and rear disc brake, the car should be able to stay straight during hard braking. I remembered when ABS was relatively new years ago, many car sales demonstrate the brake by making a sudden hard braking with hands off the steering while the car still traveling in a straight line. Hence, it might not be normal for your car to do what you've described. What have you done to the suspension, brake, wheels, and tires?

 

oh no its defenetley steering i almost wrecked it was insane really i couldent keep it strait it wanted to go left then right real scary on the highway

 

im thinking difference in pad pressure i fugured the mini had ebd but i could be wrong, my front due to potholes has a small toe out so im thinking its causing me to track and stuff so this could be the problem.

 

What's the condition and pressure of your tires?


Any cracks in the rotors or rims?

Double check your rear bar installlation.

That shouldn't happen.

 

I get that if I'm on severely rutted roads. The mini gets lost in the ruts out here

 

I also heard of a guy who took his mini through car washes that pull you through. It had bent a rear control arm a bit from being dragged on the metal bar that keeps the tire on the track. Haven't done that have you?

 

im running with h-sport controll arms!

 

I have two years and 32k miles on my MCS and I have felt the rear end get "light" and start to move under heavy braking many times. All stock suspension. It is not "scary", it just feels like weight transfer and the rear end losing traction. If this happens going downhill on a canyon run with some loose gravel then !!!

 

well have two semi trucks on either side and its scary!! but the reason is the swaying even with hands on the wheel it was like i was fighting with the rear end and keeping it behind me!! now the tires are new but again the car tracks like a @*($ and i think thats cause of the toe out so i am thinking its amplafies by hard breaking

 

My MINI has always be very predictable under heavy breaking, even when I mash the breaks, trigger the anti-lock, and do silly things with it. Sounds like something you should have checked by a competent machanic.

 

With all this "heavy breaking" going on, one has to wonder if something is actually broken. My Mini is fine under heavy braking.

Regards,
Red

 

Christian...have you tried a controlled brake test? Like in a parking lot from different speeds beginning at around 20,40,60 etc? That sounds scary


Sid

 

well it would be hard to simulate cause of the speed but ill try i wont however attept to go the speed that i was traveling!

 

I've had this feeling before in the MINI at the end of a straight. It's gone now, and I don't know which of my mods fixed it. I think it can be caused by the rear alignment (toe?) and/or too much rear brake bias. Let us know how you fix it.

 

i think your right, i have toe out, in the rear and front! its that way from hitting pothols and such but ill fix soon, when my rear camber is aligned perfecley i have a full hafe inch of toe out when im negative 3* im perfect but massive camber so we found a happier medium so i ordered new upper controll arms in hopes to controll the problem!!!

 

Does it track straight other times? Like on hard starts do you get a lot of torque steer?

--Jeff

 

I think it could be the rear toe. I had too much rear toe out on mine for a while last summer. The main symptom was that executing quick lane changes on the highway almost made the rear come around.

I now run very little toe out in the rear. It doesn't take much rear toe out to make the car twitchy in transitions.

 

Let's see. I heard new bar, H-Sport control arms and toe out (which I assume means an aggressive alignment with rear toe out in excess of 0 degrees). As I have a bar, the same lower control arms and a very aggressive alignment and my braking is very stable I think you have a problem.

My guess is that someone did something wrong back there and the rear is steering on you. If so it will also do this under hard cornering and potentially take you off the road.

I don't think that the bar would cause this but you never know. Are you sure that the rear subframe is aligned properly and tight?

If the alignment guys didn't tighten the bolts which allow adjustment of the rear toe this would definitely allow the rear to steer and cause the problems you described. My money is on this one.

I don't believe that the control arms (lower only?) would cause a problem unless something there is very wrong like a very loose bolt, bad bushing or very different camber between the sides.

You have some careful checking to do. Please don't drive it until you fix it. We don't want to lose you. :smile:

 

not sure what this means: "when my rear camber is aligned perfecley i have a full hafe inch of toe out when im negative 3* im perfect but massive camber"

but if you have 1/2" toe-out at any point in the suspension travel and/or at any camber setting, that is a problem. setting toe at 1/8" out is typical for autox and should be set back to 1/16" in for the road or track.

If the toe changes with suspension compression (assuming nothing is loose), you have what is called "bump steer" a nasty thing. It is determined by the geometry of the trailing arm and linkages and cnnot be corrected by camber or toe settings. Fortunately, the Mini does not have it (front or rear), so if yours does, you have some funky components

 

Just wondering what setting you have the rear bar set at?