I bought an 03 r53 s with the jcw kit from a guy about a month ago. It has 50000 miles. He lowered it without a camber kit (I know never buy a lowered car like that) but it was too good to pass up. I have the stock springs, they will be installed soon. The front right wheel (It feels like that wheel at least) has a SEVERE wobble. Mostly felt at low speed, the car acts like im going over a speed bump on the passenger side. Its BAD. It only manifested a few days ago, and got worse after someone ran me off the road and I spun out. Thank god I was able to keep from going sideways, the idiot sped off, probly would have fled if i crashed. Anyways, I have not removed the front passenger wheel, only the rear passenger wheel to replace the wheel speed sensor. My brother thinks I mounted that rear wheel wrong, but the wobble is coming from the front of the car. Its as if there is an uneven spot on the tire, you can feel the wobble getting more frequent as you get up to speed. At low speeds, (under 10 mph) its BAD. I mean BAAAD. The steering wheel jerks to the right as well, and does so when the car makes that weird wobble. Pulls to the right too. If I go to a parking lot and drive without my hands on the wheel, the car pulls, wobbles and you can see the steering wheel moving back and forth, right to left, with the wobble felt at the front. Because of the terrible lowering job, the outside of the front tires have 0 tread, and the middle of the tires look untouched. I figured that was what was causing it, but the tires have been that way for a while now and it only recently started wobbling like this, although it got much worse over these few days, causing me to leave the car in the garage til the problem is fixed. I've read that a lot of things can cause this problem, but I am stumped. Should I try rotating the passenger side wheels to see if the wobble transfers/gets better? I have the sport 17s. I've read that the problem could be a bad cv joint, wheel bearing, spacer ring, etc. but I feel like these wouldn't just start randomly one day. (I parked the car, it was fine, got in the next day and bam wobble.) started as a slight shaking in the steering wheel and then turned into what I described above. Sorry for the long post, i will check the passenger wheels when I return home from school and post back with my findings. Any help is GREATLY appreciated. I'm in the Pinellas area of Florida btw in case any forum members are local and might want to check this out. (I'd provide beer, food, whatever for any help.) I'm paying my way through school, and only have a couple hundred bucks to my name, so a shop is not an option until I get my refund.

 

At a minimum check all your wheel bolt torques. Be sure none of the bolts are cross threaded.

 

As you state there could be many things causing the problem. I do not think lowering the car is one of the reasons. Lowering a Mini causes the camber to change (go more negative) in the rear but has little affect on the front. here are some thoughts.

If your car has aftermarket wheels, maybe the wheels were installed without a hub spacer ring or maybe it was a plastic ring that has been damaged. Without a proper ring to center the wheel, the wheel might have shifted on the hub causing it to be off-centered.

Your alignment might be way off. If the outside edge of the tire is wore it could be the camber is too positive (not adjustable unless aftermarket plates were added) or the toe could be way off causing the tire to scrap across the ground. Maybe even a combination of camber and toe being off.

Your lower control arm bushings might be worn out. You can give the tire a hard kick (from the front) to see if it moves a lot.

The rubber top strut mount might have failed. The rubber mount can tear/rip which allows the top of the strut/shock to move around in an uncontrolled manner. You can see the rubber mount from the engine compartment.

 

Ok, so I checked it out. Wheels were mounted fine. Something very strange...the front tires are worn on the inside AND outside, but not the middle?? Isn't that impossible unless my camber randomly changed? Tire preassure is correct at 33 psi on all tires. My car has had the driver side strut mount torn since I got it, I have a replacement going in this weekend. The car drove flawlessly when I bought it so I feel like this problem is something else. Heres the thing, I rear ended my brother. Some ******* dove into the road and I didn't brake hard enough. I wasn't even that close to my brother, but I was distracted at the wrong moment by my dad in the seat next to me. Stupid I know, my insurance did a bad job fixing the car, but I made sure they got it right and when I picked up the car, again it drove flawlessly. No major frame damage, (radiator core support failed and was replaced). The damage never even made it past the front half of the engine bay. I tried to make the wheels move by kicking them on the ground and wiggling them while on jack stands, they were totally solid. According to my insurance, they never did an alignment, and never took the wheels off, but something had to be done to change my camber. quikmni I know you feel lowering has nothing to do with it, but my car is SLAMMED. It doesn't look like I have adjustible camber plates, but I do have the m7 plates to prevent mushrooming. I have not touched the car or changed anything from the previous owner except a couple of sensors, the fluids, gas cap, spark plug wires, and the rear mini emblem. This weekend, my brother is going to help me reinstall the stock springs and replace both strut mounts. He told me that if the tire is worn on the inside and outside that it means either at some point in the past or the present time the car had positive camber, which according to him is bad. Also quikmni, you say the rear wheels should have camber and not the front, well my car is the exact opposite. The rear tires have great tread all the way around, the fronts only in the middle. The edges on the outside and inside are almost bald.

 

Aslo I have factory 17 inch wheels from mini, 2 sets actually. Chrome on the car now, soon to be swapped with the other set of black ones. Both are the same rims, just different colors. The lowering springs are Eibachs

 

Once you replace the torn upper strut mount see if the wobble is gone. If that enormous rubber bushing is torn I can imagine that you'd see some abnormal driving characteristics, especially if your alignment is off and/or have other worn out pieces like the lower control arm bushings.

Start with the simple stupid stuff first. With the front wheels off of the ground, spin that wheel. Can you actually see it wobbling or hear anything unusual?

 

If the wobble is bad, something is bent/broken....
Inspect it....look st stuff...grab stuff...wiggle stuff....
And look at the rim/tire too.....
Getting a pro to look at it might be worth the $$ too....
Cheaper than another wreck.....
Even a failed tie rod end.....look!!

 

You could have a broken belt in the tire. Jack up the the front and rotate each tire slowly. Look for any bulges or flat spots. If there is camber or toe wear on the inside and outside of the tire they were probably flipped.

 

Looking into this with my brother tomorrow, will post an update with findings.

 

How about a bent wheel?