Hey,

I drive 70% city and 30 % highway. My car(2016 MCS) has 26+K on it and I believe the previous owner replaced Run Flat tires with standard ones. Summer of last year, MINI replaced lower control arms and did an alignment. Later same year, they needed to replace front struts because upper strut mount didn't have enough lube in them and made noise when cold. The car was pulling a bit to the left, so I asked them to check an alignment to make sure all is good and one of their good techs said it was a bit off, so he adjusted it properly and showed me before/after images. That was back in Nov 2019. I don't have any steering wheel pulls after that last alignment was performed.

For some reason, the outer edge seems to be wearing more than center or inner part of the rear tires. I am still playing with tire pressure because recommended tire pressure(39F and 39R) is too much for the Hankook Ventus v2 Convept2 tire. Any ideas what could be causing this or if this is normal for MINI?


Right Rear

Left rear

 

Those wear marks on the tires would make me think the toe alignment if off. I would have the alignment checked by an independent shop, not the dealer. Try to find a shop that does race cars and tell them you’d like a precision alignment. Make sure to get a print out, and check that all the numbers are even from side to side.

 

Thanks I will ask other places too. Could these wear marks be caused by going into some highway ramps with speed? I may do that sometimes

 

That would do it, also! With that bit of information, I change my initial comments.

 

I will test to see if I can refrain myself from doing enthusiastic maneuvers for a month or so and see if tire condition doesn't degrade.

I am trying to find the best tire pressure for my current tires. Example: 2020 MCS F55 shows recommended tire pressure as 38F and 35R. On my 2016 MCS F55 it is shown as 39F and 39R. I don't understand why the difference and I even read the manual and the sticker info match. The reason behind this is that on wet surface if I make a left turn at around 15MPH, my car can skid towards right. Then thought, maybe 39 PSI is too much and it was. I once noticed that my car didn't lose grip and performed well in the rain...checked tire pressure and all 4 tires were 37 PSI. My assumption is that I can have summer cold PSI at front 36 or 37 and rear as 35. The rear of the car is light and if pressure is 39, that might not grip well. The downside is that when it is hot outside, the PSI is already few points over cold pressure.