A little back ground, my 2013 was rear ended in 2015 and pushed into the car in front. Minor hood damage, (looked like a softball), but rear was a little more. New rear hatch, new bumper (broke the old one), new bumper cover, new under bumper pieces and new cat back exhaust as that was bent up. Bumper cover pushed into left rear wheel. Didn't get into either quarter.


Her insurance paid for repair, at the shop of my choosing, using all Mini Parts.


Fast forward to June of this year, I found the left rear tire was very worn out on the inside with 2 different sections through the belts.


2 new RF on the front, moved existing 65k tires from front to rear. Last week TPS went off and found that I had the same wear again on the left rear. Have about 72K on it now.


Replaced rear tires, non RF and took it in for alignments. First shop said it was way out and didn't have "Special tool". They did give me a print out as follows.


left rear
camber -2.2
toe .60


Right Rear
camber -2.5
toe .03

Took to second shop, they aligned it as follows, but couldn't get rear in spec. They felt it had damage to the rear.


Left rear
camber -1.7
toe .46


right rear
Camber -2.7
toe .13


I called the body shop to see if they had their specs on when the car was repaired. Found out they didn't align it as there was no "tires" replaced.


Called insurance and dropped it off today to have it checked. Shop says that it is out of alignment, but since the chamber was so close side to side they didn't think it was accident related. He also felt that although they could get the toe into spec, I would need to add "aftermarket camber rods" to get the camber corrected. Cost would be $200 for alignment plus parts and labor to install chamber rods.


Insurance has agreed to send out an adjuster to look at it and make a determination if this is accident related or not.


Need your guys opinions on this.

 

have them check the height carefully might go some where to verify before adjuster. camber and toe change as height is adjusted there is a rear sub frame may need centering it would cost a few dollars to get a proper measure but I would do it independently. you should be able to get it within specs without additional adjustment or there was some damage somewhere. I wouldnt trust the place that didnt do an alignment or advise you to get one.......

 

may not be related but i wanted add an observation...in my commute, most if not all mini coopers i see specifically countrymans, the cambers are off and you can see the wheels tilted in!!! my 2009 clubman S has a slight camber. i also saw few base models with this "issue".

 

As the suspension gets worn it will sag which will throw off settings. Not knowing how the car was hit I'd think that a straight on hit to the rear would have to be pretty hard for damage to reach the suspension components.. Now if it was mainly on 1 side of the rear corner that may be a different story but would have included more body panels to be replaced etc etc...

 

The frames are straightened at the factory these are light cars by design and there are zones meant to crumple,,, any accident other than a ding needs to be checked. What I suspect is one of the rear mount points is now out/up even 1/4 inch is huge and the subframe probably is off by an 1/8+ these can be fixed but the shop didnt bother to check, normal wear should be alignable or the worn parts would be apparent if its so far out and cant be gotten back by the normal adjustments.

 

So looks like I am sol on the claim for the accident and on my own. The shop didn't do an alignment originally as they didn't think it was needed. the rear toe is back but the camber is I believe at -.20 which is a little out still. Have to find a reliable shop or make a trip up to the mini dealer in the bay area.

 

Per the most recent MINI (dealer) alignment sheet for a 2012, the rear camber should be -1.17 deg on the left and -1.35 deg on the right with a range of +/- 0.33 deg ...
rear toe should be 0.18 deg both sides, +/- 0.04 deg

Hope this helps

 

Find a good Tire or performance Shop with good alignment techs ask if they set up track cars or other performance set ups you may have to ask around a bit . Make sure they measure the heights and record them, they may or may not ask a bit more for a job thats going to take a bit longer but thats a good indication youve found the right place. If they find that something is out and cant be aligned ask them to take some pictures take the invoice that explains the work and go back to the insurer the work should be warranted and if the shop sent you out again so far off then you can reasonably ask for another shop. find a body shop that you want before hand. Its not ok to be sent out like this if you asked for a stock alignment. PS cant hurt to bring some good will doughnuts for the techs and bring the car washed and cleaned although its not required and shouldnt matter. the dealer would be ok but im not sure how much alignment work they do in the body shop or if they send them out.

 

Thank you all for the input. Going to look for a rep shop in my area. Insurance has denied any responsibility so I will either need to get some additional documentation and get it fixed.

 

you should ask at your mini dealer, mine dealer does 4 wheel alignments and they do put weight in the car to simulate the driver ... you are sure to get factory specs and if the dealer cannot get to factory specs due to bad repair work it should be hard for the insurance to deny the problem exists