I have started a search for a new Cooper S. I had never driven one until yesterday and they are as zippy and fun as I expected. The one I drove pulled hard to the right. under steady driving and under braking it would really dive right. The salesman attributed it to the "rough roads" but then again he told that the tire pressure monitoring button was for "traction control". I informed him of the meaning of the DSC acronym and ignored everything else he had to say from there on in.

I probably won't buy that car, but it made me wonder if the car is prone to tramlining or following road grooves and imperfections. This car only pulled right and if it were tramlining it would go with the road in either direction. The tires were Pirelli Euforio run flats and they looked to be stock width and size.

 

I haven't noticed tramlining much in almost 4 years of motoring. The most I did get was when I switched from stock 16" wheels to lighter 17" wheels with runflats.
If it's a constant pull to the right, it's most likely an underinflated front right tire. Next guess is an underinflated right rear, then possibly some kind of suspension issue.
But no, it's not normal for a MINI to consistantly pull to the right.

 

I have an '04 MCS with 17" Goodyear runflats that tramlines when the road is in bad shape. A number of streets in Chicago will make the car pull one way or the other far worse than any flat I have ever had. Usually, you can see that the street is heavily rutted, however, there have been times where I thought something was wrong with the car. When the road is in good shape, the car tracks just fine.

 

not the car...

There are some other threads going on. FWIW, the GY GS3Ds don't do it.

Matt

ps, any car will do it with the right (or is that the wrong) tread pattern.

 

My MCS track straight ahead at all times, even at highway speeds. There is definatly an alignment of tire problem with the car your drove.

Go try a different car.

 

The pirelli runflats tramline horribly. Sometimes it's almost startling. Get rid of those runflats!!!

 

is that the water grooves that so many tires have that go all around the tire really contribute to this (especiaally with grooved road surfaces).

Isn't everything a trade off?

Matt

 

I would have to agree. Is this a new or used Mini?

Assume you went to Mini of St. Louis, we are always on Clayton roads, I-170, and I-64. We have never noticed anything out of the ordinary.

If it was a new Mini it does not mean it is perfect. I took delivery of an F250 and when I drove it home it pulled very hard to right. I tried different roads with no change. With 100miles on her we took it back to the dealer and machine showed the alignment within limits. They swapped the tires front to back.....the pull was gone. It was a bad front tire and Firestone had to replace both of them.

If it is new the setting could be off, a tire could be bad...nothing that could not be fixed.

If it was a demo, take that with a grain of salt....it is just that....a demo. All day long you have people (some being dumb asses) beating the crAAp out of those Minis. And who is to say it did not take a pothole half the size of the Mini.

I might be wrong, but the tire pressure monitor has nothing to do with DSC.....it is like saying the super charger helps cool the engine.

Do not give up on the Mini....it is hands down the best car we have ever owned.

 

I have the Pirelli rf's and they're the best rf I've had and they're the 3rd set/MINI I've had. Tramlining not noticeable though I straddle the ruts when I can. The ride is considerably softer than the Dunlops. I guess it depends on the individual set/experience, so I wouldn't damn the whole lot.

 

Thanks all for the advice, I figured it would be around the lines of what you said. The car is a '02 MCS and it was at the Dean Team dealership in Ballwin. Let's just say it didn't fill me with confidence in their knowledge, but I have pretty low expectations from car salesmen.
In any case, it's moot as I'm set on a '02 MCS from Milwaukee posted on this board. I pick it up on Thursday. No RF garbage on the car.

 

First the Dean Team sells VWs not Minis so I can understanding their lack of Mini system knowledge. (what color was it....I know they had a red MCS with black and white checkers on their lot for a really long time...we stopped to look at it and she was ridden hard and put away wet)

'02, I would have to say it is alignment issue and probably not the tires.

I know the RF is a hot topic.....just do not get a flat on the east-side.

Best of luck with your new Mini and make sure to join the club.....GREAT bunch of foks that are really willing to help.

 

That was the one. It looked pretty worn done

We'll probably do that, we already know you guys from the BMW / Audi events. My wife has been driving my 325is, and now we each have a track car. Plus anyone who is a Rangers fan can't be too bad.

 

thanks Prima

Now with JD working in the front office I am going to have to watch the "blue note" a little more closely.

Going to miss the voice of the Rangers......IMHO the best to ever work the game. He knows hockey and I hope he does well.

I seen a picture of your new MCS in the for sale section.....nice looking ride. Let us know when you get it this way we can try and get a few together to help you get used to driving it.

Talk later.
Rick

 

We pick it up Thursday. First track day may be the PCA DE in Ocotber. The car is really for my wife, but I may just have to "test drive it" so she knows what it's like. She will be out of town for that weekend.

The reality is we were going down the MINI road after Ron Flier let Casey drive his car at GIR last July and she loved it. The only thing we were waiting was for me to find a job, which I just did.

 

I remember seeing the look on her face once she got off the track in Ron's car. I knew you guys would have one before long! :-)
Glad to have you on board! I hope you'll join the club and bring your new MINI to some events.
I can't make the PCA DE because of business. :-( Do you know the date for the KC BMW DE at Heartland Park? I might be able to do that one.

Aaron

 

These are the last two DE's I know of. Some of us are making plans or strongly considering going to the Putnam Park event the following week. My wife is anxious to test the MINI and may go for that weekend too.

• October 20 & 22 Heartland Park (KC PCA Driving School)
• October 28-29 KY PCA at Putnam Park. http://kypca.org/

 

As a loyal Blues fan who hates the Rangers more than most teams (though nowhere near in the class of the Dead Wings), I have to disagree with this.

At least you're a hockey fan though... /tip of the cap.

stlMINI NHL game event this year. Let's plan that!

 

Sorry, we're East Coasters originally. I could have said something about the Hartford Whalers (Failers), but I figured I'd let it go.

Yes, we're hockey fans. Got the habit in college. Some of the best games I've ever seen, frankly. A MINI night at the Blues would be great. We can get block seating through the box office. I've arranged this with the Blues before for the BMW club. You block a number of seats and you have until a given date (roughly 1 month before the game, as I recall) and you pay for the seats you are going to have and they release the rest. I recommend making arrangements as soon as possible to give people enough time to cimmit to the night. Who's the social chairman?

 

Fair enough....I've had two sets of them and both have tramlined. Other Aussies have reported the same...

when I was running Toyo Proxes T-1R - there was no tramlining and the handling of the car improved significantly....recently I swapped back (tyre dealers here won't mount normal tyres on rf rims - a new legal issue...so now i'm hunting for new rims too...$$) and was surprised and how bad they were....

 

First, while I am a complete MINIac, automobiles (and the terminology) are so not my playground. With that in mind, please be patient with me; of course, you can also skip my rather novel-length explanation and go right to the question at the bottom of the post if you are interested in sharing your experience or opinion.

Here goes... On Monday, I was happily wasting my time and money at Walmart, when my post-shopping euphoria was destroyed by a little light on Micia's dash upon start-up. At first, I was relieved that my first warning light turned out to be the Flat Tire Monitor; how hard could that be to deal with, right? I just need to drive slowly to the dealership the next morning and let them take care of it. Oh, how wrong I was...

Before I get more than 10 feet, another warning light comes on. After pulling into a remote parking spot, I grabbed Micia's handy-dandy Owner's Manual and discovered that the rather ominous triangle with an exclamation was the DSC; which, according to my reading, would still allow me to make the short 4-mile concrete trek home, relax with a few levels of Ratchet Deadlocked, sleep an hour or two, and then drive to Momentum in the morning.

Oh, how little I knew that this was only the start of the drama.... By the time I got home, I knew that there was no way that Micia could safely make it from Friendswood to Houston; normally, a really fun but short drive along the Beltway, but not so great when she began pulling like a barn-sour horse soon after the light came on. So, I called up MINI Roadside Assistance for a piggy back and then waited for Momentum to call me.

Since I hadn't experienced any other problems previously, I wasn't figuring on being told that I would have to replace all 4 tires and that it was going to cost me a whopping $2800.00 (give or take a hundred). Granted, I expected the run-flats to be costly, but OUCH! Moreover, their explanation didn't fill me full of warmth and light. Apparently, there was a problem with the DSC that, even though there was no indicators, was making Micia think that the tires were aligned when they were really pointing in the wrong direction. Apparently, this isn't something they look for during the first service visit nor is it covered under warranty, so....

Is this a problem other people have experienced? Can anyone give me an explanation that makes sense to a non-automophile? Why wouldn't the DSC be covered under warranty? Due to being broke and not wanting to replace another set of run-flats, I am going with 17" performance tires (and the spare), but I would still appreciate some more information on the issue.

Anyhoo... Thanks for any reply you may make and, if you made it through the whole post, for your patience.

 

huh? your car should still be under warranty, DSC included. that's WAY too much for 4 new rubbers. go to a tire dealer and get your tires squared away, then go back to the dealer and don't take that BS aout the DSC.

 

they gave you a crappy factory allignement, and that chewed up your fancy tires.... And then they quote what I call "left nut" pricing for the rubber.... The rest of their expanation makes no sense at all. The DSC system gets it's info from the ABS sensors, and they just indicate speed of the wheel, nothing about it's allignement. The fact that the system can think that sigtely different speed between wheels is OK is so people with different wear or tire pressure etc can drive without the ABS thinking the car is about to slide....

You may have them if they really did admit that it was the factory alignement that was off, because alignement isn't a warranty item, but a screwed up one could be classed as a defect.... But then there's another thread up here somewhere where a new owner went through the same thing as you, and the dealer went 50% on the tires and alignement. Everyone was shocked that they'd agreed to pay anything....

Mini should cover this, but there is a large chance they wont..... And never buy a tire from a dealer, no matter what type. Look at the prices at Tire Rack or the like and see how much mark up the dealer gets on rubber. It's obscene.

Matt

 

Ditto!! Tramlining stopped after switching to the Avon Tech M500s
Jim

 

that if your alignment is OK, tramlining is pretty much a function of tread pattern. It's not the car, it's the tire.

Matt

 

another vote for the runflats causing tramlining. They are terrible tires. My new MCS tramlines as did my MC before I ditched the runflats. Once the runflats are gone, the tramlining disappears. Of course so does that razor-sharp turn-in, which is not altogether a bad thing !