I'm still somewhat new to autocrossing.

Will adjusting the alignment help?

If so, how should it be adjusted? What if I want a semi-autocross and semi-street setup?

 

The alignment can help a lot, especially if you've never had it looked at. My 05 from the factory was toed -in on one side and toed-out on the other.

Good compromise for street and auto-X:

1/16 toe-out on front each side. You have no camber or caster adjustments for the front so what you have is what you have to live with.

Take as much camber out of the rear as the car will allow. Hopefully below -1.0 each side.

And zero toe.

TomA

 

How hard is it to find an alignment shop willing or able to set up your car for autox? I imagine most of their work is from people who just want their car to go straight when they let go of the steering wheel.

 

Find a local tuning shop... One of the best places would be an International Association of Independent BMW Service Professionals Member shop, who will be more than happy to setup your car up to your specifications...

I agree - a bit of toe out in the front and the least amount of camber you can get in the rear will help!

 

I've never had a problem, except from a dealer. I've used Tire Kingdom, Big Ten tires and Goodyear. Just tell them what you want... and yes you know these are not factory settings. They will let you know before they start if they have a problem with that. But don't ask them for advice. Most only know what the machine tells them and you can make it easier if you are familiar with what bolts to turn. For instance, a Hunter machine will say you need a special tool to adjust rear camber. The 05's however have an eccentric bolt held in place by a 16mm bolt. Loosen the 16 mm bolt and you can turn the cam-bolt with pliers. If you jack the car up you can do it in a few minutes yourself and turn the cam-bolt with your hand. It's that easy. But you wouldn't know what the reading is and how different one side is from the other. Just ask and tell them you auto-x. Again, I've never had a problem.

 

After reading the GRM article, and looking at my alignment specs, and talking with my alignment shop again, it seems my 06 mcs can not get less than -1.4 camber on each side in the rear. The article says go for under -1.0 and my alignment guy is like, "its not possible, ask them how they are doing it, because we get 2 minis in here a week and they are all about -1.4 and -1.5 at best." SO, the question: How exactly is less negative camber in the rear achieved? (remaining in stock of course..) Those adjustable bolts in the rear have gone as far as they will go, supposedly.
(Note: I was in the car during the alignment.)

 

Jodi: I think I am at -.6 each side in the rear, so I find this hard to believe. My guess is that your alignment guy is going from knowledge of the 02-04 Mini's where the rear camber was not adustable. With this, all they would be trying to do is get all the assembly tolerances out. The 05-06's have an eccentric bolt that once they are free, you turn them around to gain or lose camber, then tighten it up again.

Jake

 

Jodi, can you bring the article with you on Saturday. Somehow I missed
that issue. I can't believe they are suggesting less negative (more positive)
camber in the rear. Perhaps they are suggesting that in order to get a stock
car (no camber plates in the front or adjustable control arms in the rear) to
rotate better.

P.S. while there is some camber adjustment in the rear for Jan 2005 and later cars, it
is rather minimal as one of our local guys discovered when he went to GTE to
have his car set up for STX.

 

Pete, I'll bring it for ya sunday.
Jake, Thanks for the reply, its weird, he even showed me where the eccentric bolt was and where he moved it to and so on... Btw, is that -.06 with a person in the car or empty?

 

I took mine in to firestone last week after the San Diego tour and found out I lost all of my .6 degrees of negative camber each side up front somehow. Also I was told the very same thing about the rear. Currently the rears have about 1.5 degrees each side without a person in the car and they said that was as little as they could get with very close to no toe. They also said they couldn't get any toe out in the rear. I talked to Craig about it and he said the best he could get on his car last year was about 1.2 degrees each side so I have no idea how Jake is able to get .6. Maybe I'll need to get under the car and move the bolt all the way over myself. Ideally I'd like 0 camber rear with about .05 toe out each side, if only it was possible.

 

I don't know what to tell you, man. I just went up and checked the sheets and I have -.5 on the left and -.6 on the right in the rear. That was without a person in the car as far as I know - I wasn't there when they did it. I will mention that I haven't felt good leaving an alignment shop anyway, and I have had sheets that tell me the front is zero toe only to measure it later to be toed in significantly (not the last place I went - wouldn't matter anyway - I set the toe with longacre toe plates). I should be getting it aligned in the not too distant future at a trusted place, so I can report back then.

Jake

 

Also, keep in mind, the more weight you have in the rear, the more negative camber you'll have. So, Matt, with your hitch, Miltek and possible some gas(?), that would give you a little bit more negative. Mine was -.8 and -1.2 last year, I ended up evening them up at -1.2.

Jake, yours seems really good. there seems to be a rather large variance between Mini's.

One thing that could be done is order several suspension parts, or find used parts and go with the optimal ones that give you the specs you need and send the bad parts back.

 

Mine was on the alignment rack yesterday. I'm having the same problem. Negative camber in the rear is .7 on one side, and 1.2 on the other. Same problem with rear toe out, can't get enough there either. The best we can do is 0toe on one side and 1/16" on the other, which is what I was wanting on each side. Oh well, I told them to set it at its maximums, I'll try it out, and see what I think. I may end up taking it back to make them even on each side on both the camber and the toe. I just wanted to see if it did anything wierd first.

And I had a guy that knows what he's doing that did it. Some of you National Autoxers may know him Ron Williams, trophied in an ES MR2 last year, and has trophied in everything he's driven in the last 10years. He knows car setup, and how to drive it.