I'm confused and need some help,
I always thought the purpose of the rear adjustable control arm was to give you more negative camber, after installing my PSS9, I ended with 2.5 deg. neg. camber and now I'm told I need about 1.3 to 1.6 deg. neg. I have a 2005 MCS and have some adjustment available but my question is do you guy buy the adjustable ones in order to give you less neg. camber? I always thought it was the opposite, what am I missing here?
BTW, my PSS9 are set at the highest position possible according to their specification and do have 2.5 neg.

 

Yes that's what they are for. I hope mine get here soon. 2.5 is way too much in the rear.

 

So if I get this right, we need to add neg. camber in the front but the opposite for the rear, you need the adjustment to have less negative.
Actually I was surprised to see that after lowering the car 3/4" all around, I had got that much rear neg. camber and only -0.5 deg. in the front.
So I bought the front camber plate from Helix today and hopefully I have enough adjustment in the stock rear control arm on my 05 otherwise I'll need to order again.
Thanks for the reply.

 

You'll probably need the rear control arms. Lowering a MINI doesn't seem to add much negative camber in the front, but the rear is affected significantly and if you're already at -2.5 in the back I don't think there is enough adjustment in the factory lower arms to bring it back to spec. FWIW I am installing M7 springs this week and went ahead and purchased one set of adjustable rear (lower) arms to bring it back in line.

 

Thanks, I guess I better hurry up and find out if I can correct it because my order is on hold because they won't have the break pads till Monday, so I can still add the rear arm is needed.

 

See also: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=71381

Cheers,

Charlie

 

A car's inherent or designed-in camber curve defines how much camber is gained for every inch of travel. Most cars posses a more aggressive rear camber curve. This helps to keep the back end a little more stable.

Up front...

The limitation of a Mac strut, by the way, is that it does not gain camber as the car leans. Rather, negative camber is diminished as the car leans - camber becomes positive on the outside wheel. This is why Mac struts require more static negative camber than unequal length control arms or SLA suspensions - Short and Long Arm suspension. Here, the upper arm's arc is smaller. As the car leans, camber becomes more negative. Less static negative camber means potentially better stright line braking, less tire wear, less camber thrust etc. My old 99 Si has this setup.

 

A set of bars will be a easy install and will take care of your negative issues once and for all. You will also be replacing those stock arms which are very weak and prone to bending .

 

What are you talking about,... bending...??? Noooo....

 

Greg: that is *cool* crazy! Did the wheel go back to original position, or stay there? I can't believe it since it would appear that the lower control arm bent or broke. If so, the driver's facial expression might be just about to change radically...

cheers,

 

Now that is a Kodak moment . Nice find. The rear arms both upper and lower are usually the first to go due to any unusual events at the back of the car . I have seen some made unusuable from a bad pothole .

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=72152

 

On a second note here, I just finished making my own control arms for the race car. Very happy with the results. Came in over a half a pound lighter (each) then my old Altas. Stronger too ... (that's also over two pounds lighter then factory, each)
That's about three more pounds of the car..

 

WOW!!!, you guys got me convinced, I have an order with Helix that I can still add to, but I see Helix has more than one kind, which one should I order?
Also do you replace only the lower one or top and lower?

 

With a cabrio, chances are you don't plan to track your car much but perhaps some AX. You can probably just do what a lot of us do and go with only the lower adjustable control arms to control camber. Rear toe shouldn't change a whole lot, and fine tuning the rear toe (track setup) should be the only real reason to add the upper arms.

I went with the Megan rear control arms. My car is a daily driver that I AX 1-2x/month and a couple of HPDEs/season. I'd heard that the Alta (same as Helix) can be a little harsh on the ride and were more appropriate for a race setup. The pillow ball ends on the Megans that don't require regular lubrication appealed to me and I believe the stiffness I want without the jarring ride should be another benefit. I'll know better tomorrow night when I install the M7 springs and the Megan arms.

 

Where did you get the Megan arm?

 

Personally I would stay away from any control arm that was designed like the Megan with the adjustment in the middle of the bar. It's a poor design.

The choice here is whether to go with solid (hiem joints) ends or soft (rubber or poly bushings) ends. If you are just street driving then the Poly bushings may be the way to go, though Hiems really don't change the ride, they just transfer more road noise, but they may wear faster.
Stay with a design where the control arm is a solid bar with 'end' links, not one that is split in the middle. I believe Alex has both the solid and soft styles.

Also, toe can be changed on a Mini at the trailing arm bushing, so most likely both upper and lowers are not needed. If you only get the lowers then stay with rubber to match the action of the factory uppers.

Note, the term "pillow *****" seems to be used by Megan, but there are no 'pillow *****' being used that I see.

 

Onasled,

Where you bean?

I think if there is sufficient 'thread interlocking' with the Megans, strength should not be a concern. In fact, a truss is typically wider/bigger/stronger in the middle and this added strength can be achieved in many ways. This design may in fact be stronger, but may not leverage weight savings to achieve greater strength. In the end, these may be stronger...or weaker (dunno), but definately appear to be easier to adjust.

 

I like the Ireland one - had them on for about a month now. No issues at all. As to alignment, because the Mini is nose heavy and needs more cornering help up front to turn the weight, you need about .4-.6 degree more neg camber in front than in the rear (INHO). So unless you have some serius neg up front, then -2.5 in the rear is way to much and you will probaly have massive understeer mid corner in a long fast corner. Also, to much neg camber anywhere will make your braking a bit squirly as the contact patch in a staight line is not oval, but somwhat traingular with more grip on the inside edge. This can make for lost grip and weird pulls.
Wes

 

ie, camber thrust.

 

After being called out as a "Moron" here on NAM by Randy Webb, I had to just step back a while from this place....

Michael, I'm sure you have seen some pictures here in NAM at some point of the commonly twisted up factory control arms. Where are they twisted? ... about in the middle. It's not all a push-pull on these bars but ther is also quite a bit twist bend motion.
'Thread interlocking' is OK for push pull, but is weak in twist. Just think back and try and remember if you have in fact ever seen such a design on a race prepped car, or race designed car. I don't believe I have ever seen it.

 

What! Moron I'll call you later.

I almost wrote, "But I've never seen this set-up on a race car"...I was being open to a new design. I understand the tension aspect of a rod for sure. The shear load along a rod's axis is a bit more complex with the introduction three pieces and threads. I've no idea.

And, no, I don't have stock in Megan as some have asked

 

I think I will go with the Helix bar, they do have heim joints though, hopefully I won't live to regret this but the price is right and the bar is solid with the adjustments at each end of the bar, the best part is the price, $179/pair.
The H-Sport is $240 and have the adjustment close to the middle.

 

ZRWON
Check out Ireland. http://www.bmw2002.com/ They are properly desinged and are available with poly or heim joints. I have the street/track poly ars and am very happy.
Wes

 

I agree with this. I'd rather see Zrwon go with poly rather then hiems if he plans on only doing lowers and is not tracking the car more then 3 times a year.