I had my 2005 MCS in for alignment yesterday. When it was all done, the guy behind the counter showed me the printout from their computerized alignment machine. I noticed at the top that it said "2005 MINI Cooper R50, sport suspension plus, 17" wheels."

I said, hey, wait a minute, my car is a MINI Cooper S. He said not to worry, the specs were the same.

So, first question: Are the alignment specs the same for the Cooper R50 and the Cooper S R53?

He also said that the rear camber on one side was outside of spec (-0.9), and that there was no way of adjusting this, unless there were some shims or something that were a dealer-only item that he didn't have. But when I came home and did a little checking on the 'Net, I read that MINI added a small adjusting screw somewhere for rear camber on the 05s.

Second question: Where is the screw for adjusting rear camber on 2005 MINIs? (a pic would be greatly appreciated, if possible!)
Second question, part b: My MINI is a very early 2005 (Oct 04 build). Is it possible that the earliest '05s don't have this screw?

Third question: The guy behind the counter said that -0.9 (I assume this is degrees?) is only slightly less than the minimum -1.0, and I really didn't need to worry about it. Do I?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Alighment specs are the same for r50/r53

If your car was an early 05 car, 11/04 and back, you don't have the camber adjustment in the rear.

 

Great - thanks for the info!

Now what about that last part - is -0.9 something to be concerned about? Or is it "close enough for jazz"?

 

Really depends on how you drive the car, more camber equals more grip in the corners. Less camber equals less grip, better wear. I've had requests to lower the camber on purpose to extend tire live. I believe that the minimum specs are 1.25 degrees on your car, so your not that far off anyway.

Chad

 

"Not that far off" - thanks, that's what I was hoping to hear.

My Bentley manual (which stops at 2004, so I wasn't sure) says -1°32' ± 30'. So that sounds to me like the minimum is -1°02', which in decimal would be about -1.03°, right?

I don't know anything about alignment, so I wasn't sure if -0.9 is "not that far off" or "whoa, there, boy - get it fixed!"

Thanks for you help, Chadtoolio - I really appreciate it!

 

No mention was made of what the camber measurement was on the other side. A disparity between the two sides of less than a few tenths of a degree would not make a difference but half a degree would. Also, rear camber is only part of the alignment picture; please share the toe values front and rear plus the front and other rear camber settings so we can get a better basis for qualifying whether -0.9 is OK.

 

Sounds like you are OK.

Best to give us the full specs of what they gave you.
Camber range in the rear is fairly wide. If one side is -0.9 and the other is -1.0 then it's close enough and will be ok but if one is -1.5 then that isn't as good. Still drivable and I doubt it's that much off.

If you want to make rear camber adjustable you need to add lower rear adjustable control arms. There isn't anything wrong with -0.9 degrees in the rear. I set mine to -0.7 degrees both sides after adding H-sport springs using lower rear control arms and it drove well. Later I changed it to something more negative for autocross and track.