I am looking for a service manual for the 2002. Are any available? I've autocrossed Miatas for the last 12 years and am also interested in alignment specs for both street and racing, along with how to make the adjustments either myself or at the shop. Thanks for any help or for pointing me in the right direction. Is it true that both the standard and the S are both classed in H Stock?

 

As of 2002, the COOPER is classified in H Stock while the COOPER S is classified in D Stock. From year to year these classifications may change based on the seasonal results and the car's ability to compete with similarly classed vehicles. For more information on vechicle Solo II vehicle classification and rules please visit Here....

Re: Service Manuals....
Not yet.....
This topic was discussed a while ago.... You should be able to find info by doing a search in the forums area.
If you can't find it.... let me know. I'll help.
hope this helps.
By the way.... Welcome to the site.
SW

PS. Check out this thread.... If you have any ideas for a team/group... please send them to feedback@northamericanmotoring.com

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm not computer literate so I had to wait for my wife to get me back to this site, but she showed me the step by step instructions andI think I'm now good to go. I couldn't believe that SCCA in Denver had classed both in H stock, but that's what I was told. Thanks for your clarification. I ran the Buckeye Miata club event last week (autocross) , and was very pleased. As you can imagine with street tires I was running competitive with C stock street tires classed cars with the stock alignment and the DSC turned off. My tire pressures were 40 front and 36 rear, any additional front and I was skating too much, with less I had more tire roll than I was comfortable with. The car was very flat and stable-much more secure and responsive than I had expected it to be.

Mine is an electric blue with the sport suspension (17" white rims with Dunlop 9000). This is my daily driver, so at about 700 miles per week I now have just over 5200 miles. Let me know if you've raced yours yet and what results. Thanks, Steve in Columbus, Ohio. ( Please let me know if you got this, so I can figure out how to use this machine!)

 

I have run my MCS at two SCCA autocross events so far. What a hoot! In the first event I had just passed the break in period and had not pushed the car before then. I was all over the place, killing cones everywhere but I had fun. In the second event I took it a little more seriously and got better with every run. I was the fastest DS entered in the event but I entered a street tire class and was out handycapped by cars in other classes. Next time I will run DS with cars that have race tires and I hope I will do well. I have been running a 1971 Lotus Super 7 in AP but there isn't any competition in that class. It is interesting to hear about tire pressure I had run 36lbs. front and rear, I will try a little more in the front next time.

 

We have autocrossed our Cooper twice in HS with the stock 16 in. Dunlop tires. It is doing very well but can't keep up with a nationally ranked driver in our region driving a Hyundai on Kumho tires and custom Koni shocks. Have run pressures at 37 and 38 cold all around, dropped to 40 hot(from 42), not perfect but getting close. I'm going to wait until after the Nationals in Sept. to see if SCCA is likely to bump it up to GS before I make any changes. May want to try a non-stock class and make some wheel, intake, exhaust changes, we have the SS+ suspension. :smile:

 

In the past, I have raced SCCA Showroom Stock and Solo II. At least in road racing, we were required to have a factory shop/service maual with us to prove our cars specs and parts compliance.

How are the current MC racers dealing with this?
Have you been able to obtain factory service manuals?
This would be the first car that I've owned that I did not have a factory manual for!
I need one for my July build MCS.

 

The shop manual is a sticky one and I have no answer there...

As for alignment.... in the rear there are 3 bolts that attach the trailing arm to the car .. forward of the rear wheels... (there are even little cut outs and doors in the plastic to access the bolts)

once you loosen the 3 bolts you can grab the tire and change the toe settings... I have gone for as much toe out in the rear as I can get to help get the car to rotate on the auto-x course... I leave it that way on the street too with no tire wear issues so far... (note if you drive hard on the street or hard in the rain you may want to mark the factory settings in paint and go back and forth) ... I race on track so that is not an issue for me.... The rear is a do it your self job for sure!!

up front I would set the car up with just a touch of toe out (less than 1/8th" total) or 0 toe... I am trying 0 toe up front now.... still playing with the front...... I do my own front adjustment too but the front is much more sensitive than the rear (esp for tire wear) so a proper tire shop may be a better bet....

Stock there is no meaningfull camber adjustment so no worries there (more negative camber would help but to get it would mean leaving the stock class)

Tire pressures depend greatly on what kind of tires you run... do a search on tire pressure and your tire type and you should find all the info you need....

BTW I have seen no indication that the base cooper is moving out of H-Stock...

 

i have the manual on CD

 

The MINI manuals can be found on:
http://www.minitechinfo.com/

Everything you ever wanted to know about MINI is available to the public at
http://www.minitechinfo.com/ On this site you have everything that a
dealer has, including all of the service manuals, tech manuals , and service
bulletins,..however there is a charge. But for the $20 day charge you can
download everything.

If you go to a national event this is a must have.

Mason

 

If you can download the pdf's for $20, how can the charge $30/mo.? Are you sure you can save the files on your computer for the $20 charge?

Thanks

 

>>The MINI manuals can be found on:
>>http://www.minitechinfo.com/
>>
>>Everything you ever wanted to know about MINI is available to the public at
>>http://www.minitechinfo.com/ On this site you have everything that a
>>dealer has, including all of the service manuals, tech manuals , and service
>>bulletins,..however there is a charge. But for the $20 day charge you can
>>download everything.
>>
>>If you go to a national event this is a must have.
>>
>>Mason
>>
>>

What sort of nonesense is this? :evil: I go to this minitechinfo.com site and the fool thing says that I can only access it if I have a WINDOWS computer? Not even a screen that gives me more info or a contact to call to figure out whether or not it's worth my time to trudge over to a Microserf paperweight to try to access it. Geeze.

Sounds interesting...but questionably legal. I wonder if BMW knows about this...

 

Not sure yet but I'll be trying this out next week so that we have what would qualify as a service manual for the TEAM MCO car. I'll let you know how it goes...hope it isn't a $20 waste....

Mark

 

>>What sort of nonesense is this? :evil: I go to this minitechinfo.com site and the fool thing says that I can only access it if I have a WINDOWS computer? Not even a screen that gives me more info or a contact to call to figure out whether or not it's worth my time to trudge over to a Microserf paperweight to try to access it. Geeze.

 

I did the 24 hour subscription and was disappointed. The only thing I could download as a pdf was the document "Introduction to the MINI." While this has interesting information (and is arguably worth $20), it is more of an overview of the MINI from a technical standpoint.

I was also able to download Service Bulletins as html (though the JPEG figures were a problem).

The Repair Manual, Electrical Diagram, Special tool list, Torque specifications, and Hourly rates have a different interface. After being unable to get anything, I found I had to disable my firewall (it uses its own port) and other security. Then you get access a page at a time through a clumsy interface. You can't save, only print. Useless.

FWIW, there is a special tool for rear toe alignment. Part no. 32 4 200 -- it looks like an offset socket. Loosen two of the three bolts on the trailing arm mount and put this tool on the third to adjust.

Since I believe in intellectual property, don't bother asking me for copies.....

 

Alignment specifications for 2002 R53 MINI Cooper S with 17" wheels

For each left and right front
Specified Range
Camber -0.9 to -0.1 degree
Castor 4.3 to 5.3 degree
Toe 0.13 to 0.18 degree
Turning Angle Diff. -1.77 to -0.77 degree

For front end
Specified Range
Cross Camber -0.5 to 0.5 degree
Cross Castor -0.5 to 0.5 degree
Total toe 0.25 to 0.35 degree


For each left and right rear
Specified Range
Camber -2.0 to -1.0 degree
Toe 0.13 to 0.27 degree

For rear end
Specified Range
Cross Camber -0.5 to 0.5 degree
Total Toe 0.27 to 0.53 degree
Thrust angle -0.17 to 0.17 degree

Got this from my alignment for a stock MCS based on factory settings.