I'm having some issues with my 2005 Mini Cooper S, and was hoping to do some diagnosis myself before handing it over to a dealership/mechanic.

Here are the symptoms...can anyone tell me what could be causing them?

• Car pulls to the left under acceleration
• Front left tire is wearing unevenly - the tread is wearing out on the outside faster than the inside
• The alignment appear to be OK - the car tracks straight on the highway
• As far as I can tell, the front strut mounts are not cracked

The car has about 41,000 miles on it and is bone stock. It is running 17" web spoke wheels with Pirelli eufori@ runflats. I only recently bought it off its first owner, and while I don't have much historical data on the car, I do know it was never tracked or abused. FWIW, I used to own a 2003 MCS and never experienced the infamous left pull that I have seen mentioned here so often.

 

I just bought an '05 MCS with 20K miles. Does the same thing, though the pull is very slight and the tires do seem to be wearing evenly. A local mechanic suggested that this is common with FWD cars - to pull to one side or the other a bit more. Not sure if that's technically correct, but as the issue is slight in my case I didn't give it a second thought.

I did see a post on here or on Mini2 at some point that suggested that the issue was something other than what you posted. Search for posts wherein a father criticizes a dealer who told his daughter that pulling to the left was a safety feature. Was a post made/responded to in the last week or so. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

jussnb: Check your strut towers...sounds like classic signs of mushrooming.

nhs156: When one of my tires is low, it typically pulls to that side. Could be THAT simple. My rear right tire looses air more quickly than the others...when it starts pulling to the right, slightly, my TPMS light will come on soon after, and I'll check that tire and it will typically be ~10 psi low.

 

Yes check your strut towers for mushrooming

And check your control arm bushings they are prob worn out, if so time for some powerflex bushings.

 

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

I bumped my tire pressure up to 38 psi and took the car for a quick spin. The pull is barely noticeable at slower speeds, but still very pronounced at highway speeds. It still pulls, although it feels just slightly better with more air in the tires.

Also, one thing I forgot to mention: It almost feels as though the front end of the car lifts to the left when I accelerate, and then settles back down to the right when I take my foot off the gas. Not sure if that confirms any of your suspicions re: mushrooming, etc., or gives you more info to work with, but any additional feedback is greatly appreciated.

WayMotorWorks: Thanks for the suggestion. I'll be PMing you shortly...

 

Could be LCA bushings...my front end tended to wander before I threw my powerflex LCA bushings on.

 

Have someone look at the struts. A left pull is abnormal and increased tire pressure will not give a warning- only low pressure. I replaced struts on all 4 before the pulling disappeared.

 

Thanks to everyone for the additional feedback.

I'm going to take this one step at a time in hopes of getting to the bottom of the problem.

My first step is going to be replacing the front strut mounts and installing some sort of strut tower reinforcement. I was eventually planning to install lowering springs, so if those pieces don't solve the problem, I'll move on to replacing the struts, springs and control arm bushings - but I'd like to see if I can diagnose and fix the actual problem before I just start replacing everything.

 

The LCA bushings on the R53 are known to fail...that's why Way suggested the Powerflex bushings. I also threw on some new OEM sway bar bushings while I was at it (the sway bar needs to be disconnected to replace LCA bushings and the OEM sway bar bushings are only $18 for the pair so I figured, why not). On mine, I wasn't really sure if they had gone, and I was already placing an order for the WMW pulley package so I just pulled the trigger and added those. They managed to take away ALL of the slop in the front end... as well as what felt like an improperly balanced tire that was showing up as a slight shimmy through the steering wheel.