So I got my mini in July and have to replace my summer and winter rubber. Thing is my 18s have worn so strange and badly that I need to know what to do befor I install new rubber and wreck them aswell. So here is the wear and the size. I'm guessing he out wrong on and I'd need spacers now on to get them out from the struts

Thanks

 

Any suspension mods? What car?

It's possible that's from rubbing on the spring perch but hard to say without knowing whether that tire was on the front or back.The wear pattern is definitely odd though.

 

More information is needed to offer responsible advice. What mods to the suspension, how many miles on those tires on their current corners, driving habits (track, daily driver, freeway etc.), last time the alignment was checked.
Regardless of all that, one thing to help get maximum utility is to rotate them AT LEAST every 5,000 miles.

 

The car is an 06 jcw. I don't know the life of the tires as I've only had it for 2 months. There are no mods to the suspension aside from what jcw does to make in not the same as a base S. the front tires are the worse. Rears have the groove a little. I haven't rotated them since I bought it but now they are all off of the car and the ugly 17s are on for now

 

For it to wear that much on the side of the tire, the camber would have to be way off or it's rubbing on the suspension in some way. I would certainly start with having the alignment checked.

 

What size tire is that and what size rim?

The wear is on the inner tread edge, worse in the front? Can you post a picture of the rear wear?

If you have stock suspension then the front wear is not from excessive negative camber, it must be hitting inner suspension parts, if you remove the wheel you can see where the rubbing is happening as the rubbed area will show.

Put your MINI on a lift and check for rubbing.

A small 3mm spacer many do the trick or you may need something thicker for more clearance.

If you are not using OEM MINI 18" wheels then the wheel offset or tire size may have reduced clearance, especially if wider than about 8".

 

My fronts did exactly same wear....(JCW Suspension R53 )My strut towers were a tad mushroomed causing negative camber increase. I pounded them flat with a piece of 2x4 as a buffer for mallet while front jacked up off the floor. Used a set of M7 strut tower plates with piece of 2x4 ontop of that then hammered them some more to get them perfectly flat and square.

Then had MINI of Warwick do the alignment....

Worked wonders for handling and tire wear

 

205/40R18 jcw rims. The wear is worse front then rear. Rear does have some but not to this extent.

 

That tire wear is really odd. It has to be rubbing somewhere...

 

Perhaps the previous owner installed fixed camber plates on the front and you are running way more negative camber than stock. It's easy enough to check just look at the top of the strut and see if it is perfectly centered in the opening or if it is offset toward the centerline. Perfectly centered would equal stock.

 

There is no way that is camber wear. The tire has to be rubbing on something.

 

You are right, that isn't camber related. I first looked at these pictures while on my smart phone and didn't see the detail of the wear.

 

That pattern of wear is from rubbing on something. Well unless you are running -90 degrees of camber.

 

It isn't from rubbing.....and actually yes....it is due to poor alignment.

MINI's and even some BMW's, if you have more and 1 degree of neg camber this is very common trait of wear for inside corners. Usually seen to be more drastic up front than rear and typically with owners who rack up highway travelling than city driving.

Here is an example from a MINI with upper front strut tower slight mushrooming which resulted in appx 1+ deg negative camber on set of Kumo Exsta's 215/40/17 appx 7 months wear.

 

Yup, thats camber wear... my buddies 540i (lowered) did this to each set of rear tires he got.

This is why when people say they run -2.5 degrees of camber and "have no tire wear issues" I just have to roll my eyes.. -2.5 degrees will *eat the crap* out of tires on any car.. no matter how you rotate them.. Add in a "touch" of toe angle and that happens to them.

(This comes from years of owning several modded cars.. and doing my own alignments at work on our Hunter R611 rack.. -2.5 is a huuuuge amount of camber..)

I'm not saying the car wont handle amazing... it will.. but it comes at a price.

 

-3 on the mini and 1/16 toe out in front
-2 on the STI w zero toe
-2 on both VWs
-2.5 on the prelude
? on the Cadillac

Never had any tire wear issues. I've been through 4 sets of tires on the STI and 4 sets on the mini in the past few years but that's from auto-x mostly. Perhaps I wear tires out before odd camber wear can develop. I usually don't get more than a season out of a set of summers.

That's interesting that the OP could have camber wear like that. I've not seen that before.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using NAMotoring

 

If I told my customers they would get a "summer" out of a set of tires.. they would leave me without a job.. Its one thing to track a car and burn tires... its another to get a stock car and expect tires to last 30-40K miles... which, is what most of the driving public does.

Here are two examples of stock setups..
r56

FRONT
Caster not adjustable min 4.28 max 5.28
Camber min -0.92 max -0.08
Toe min 0.22 max 0.38

REAR
Camber min -2.03 max -1.03
Toe min 0.27 max 0.53
Thrust angle 0.17
====
MKV VW GTI

Front, US:
Camber: -30′ +/- 30′
Toe Out (at left and right lock): 1deg 38′
Caster: 7deg 34′

Rear,
Camber: 1deg 20′
...

I still stand by my original post...

 

In one of my earlier posts, I stated it was probably camber as well. I wish the OP would chime in and let us know what he found out..