OK, went to get my oil changed and tires rotated. The place that did the rotation called me back to show how far out my camber was on both front and rear. The guy told me he can do the normal alignment but the camber needed help or the tires would continue to wear on the inside tires.

SO, I jumped on M7 and ordered my H-Sport Lower Camber link rods for the rear and my H-Sport Camber plates for stock suspension.

Any suggestions on what settings I should start with? I drive street but love the curves and take them at a good pace. Areas such as off ramps or on ramps to interstate are the most fun.

 

Has your car been crashed before? Because minis come stock with far too little neg camber up front, and good rear neg camber. Your tires should definately not be wearing on the inside.....

But apart from that, front camber plates are definately the first suspension mod i'd get for a MCS. And rear arms are usually only necessary when lowering the car as lowering causes too much rear neg camber.

If you want a geometry setup that is good for handling but won't comprimise tire wear, stick with -1.5 neg camber up front, and -1 or so in the rear. For a more aggressive setup that still won't comprimise too much in tire wear, go with -2 deg up front and -1.25 or -1.5 in the rear (if you corner aggressively on a regular basis, i'd actually go as far as -2.2 front camber and -1.5 in the rear, as this will actually help your tire wear). Please post a reply if you don't understand anything in particular or have any further questions....

 

Thanks for the reply and also the settings to shoot for. First the car has not been crashed.

my next questions would be will it hurt to put the camber bars on the rear without lowering?

thanks,

 

It won't hurt anything to put camber plates or adjustable rear control arms on a non-lowered MINI. Being able to carefully dial in exact alignment settings is always a good thing.

Scott
90SM

 

Definately not. As Scott said. In fact i've got camber plates are rear arms in right now, and my MCS isn't lowered.

 

Are these the ones you guys are talking about? What do they do and where are these placed? Sorry for my ignorance. Hotchkis states thats its good for cars lowered with coilovers, but I just have springs. Any advice? Thanks!

 

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camber plates come with the top spring perch. You specify what springs you have when you order them. If you want a good primer on camber and the like, check out www.carbibles.com and read up on suspensions there. We have Mac Strut up front, with 0 to -0.5 degrees negative camber stock. This number isn't really adjustable with stock suspension componants, and would result in pretty good wear if most of your driving is slow or on freeways. It sucks for performance handling. The rears are a trailing arm/multi-link design that has pretty good camber gain so works well in the turns.

FWIW, camber plates WERE my very first mod, and I"ve doubled the useable life of tires by going to about -2 degrees camber in front, and about -1 in the rear. But I live in hills with LOTS of turns. You really need to set camber based on driving style and location.

Matt

 

OEM MINI does not allow for camber adjustment. It would concern me if an expert told me that my camber was "far out", both front and rear, and I had never had an accident or modified the suspension so as to allow adjustment (camber plates, control arms, etc.). To me it would indicate that something is really wrong with the car.

How sure are you about this mechanic's credentials? Before I did anything else, I might want to get a second opinion unless "the guy" was someone I REALLY knew well AND had a lot of confidence in -- I might even go to a dealer (definitely, if the car was still in warranty).

As a side note, toe is critical to tire wear, and could be a contributing -- or even the primary -- factor.

Bottom line is, if I heard that, I would want to straighten out the root cause of the out-of-whack alignment BEFORE I went adding ANY mods to the suspension. That is not to say I wouldn't do the mods anyway , but if possible, not until AFTER the existing suspension was sorted out.