That was my mistake. Must've happened during my late-night research for 2004 MINI Cooper S alignment specs that I made the mixup. This tire deg is giving me insomnia. Thanks for that.

 

Can anyone help me make sense of these alignment reports? I've taken care of the mushrooming and added CravenSpeed STDs along with the SoloWerks coilover install, rechecked to make sure everything is tight. All upper/lower and inner/outer bushings have been replaced. No visibly broken or damaged components.

I'm unsure as to why only the passenger side would be troublesome for the tech to diagnose, c'mon NAM... I need a bone here.


Alignment when I arrived... Wasn't the best drive, that's for sure.

The tech's final attempt after admitting defeat from the front passenger side.

 

The cross caster makes it sound to me like something is either bent or worn in the front end (assuming the measurements are correct). Does it drive straight on a crowned road?

How lowered are you? That’s an awful lot of rear camber.

 

I don’t know, everything looks OK to me… Castor isn’t adjustable, so it is whatever you get. Camber has some slight adjustment, but not much. Your camber is within 0.1° so acceptable. The only value that looks out is rear camber, which means lower rear adjustable arms are needed for your setup.

 

Cross caster? You seem to have hit the nail on the head referring crowned roads...The coilovers are lowering the car 2" all around. At first the front was only lowered 1.5", after lowering another ½ in the problem has become potentiated. Driving on a crowned/uneven road the car SWIMS! Big time. Almost to the point of causing swerving. I'm going to raise the car and install some Maxx-G adjustable sway bar links as the current MOOG units are just garbage (thin and bushings are lightweight). They've already started to cause a clunk noise coming from the front right wheel when going over bumps or any deviation. The clunk has been there for a while, yet the tram lining and swimming has just developed in the past 2 weeks.

 

Well, I was expecting that it would drift to the left on a flat road. The behavior you're describing sounds like more than just an alignment issue to me.

 

Most definitely pulling hard to the right. I drove the R53 to work and had to drive on a noticeably crowned road. Needless to say, I had to hold the steering wheel at the 11 o'clock position to keep it straight.

I've had the absolute worst luck with tires and alignments. Living in South Carolina AND the 18" wheels are a horrible mix.



Current rear end camber. Don't have pics of the thread at the moment. I would estimate well over 50% and wearing even.

Front tires as they sit at the moment. Wow, baldness, and oh that highly uneven tread wear... It's a reoccurring issue. Since buying the car I've had front tire wear issues at ridiculous rates. Yet their camber is nowhere near as visible as the rear tires.

I love how the 18's look and get a ton of compliments.

But the issues are making me consider downsizing to a 16-inch rim...

Edit: I meant to mention also that after raising the car back up an inch the clunk is gone and the tram-lining is less severe... so there's that too. Still going to install the adjustable end links (Whiteline), they're quite a bit more heavy-duty.