Am having an issue with the rear negative camber on the vehicle
My rear inside part of the tires are wearing excessivly
This is on an 09 stock Clubman S
Contacting Mini they stated that nothing can be done, suspension is non adjustable and to rotate tires every 5000-7500 miles
Are there any other solutions out there

 

Did they tell you what your negative camber setting was?

 

The spec indicates that up to -2.1 deg. is acceptable

 

There is *some* adjustability of rear camber using eccentric bolts. Not a lot, but some.

Inside rear wear is exacerbated by (1) the sidewall stiffness of the runflats, where the inside area of tread carries most of the weight, (2) overly low tire pressures which can amplify the effects of "running on the sidewalls", (3) conservative cornering, which tends to keep the car on it's inner "tiptoes" vs. spreading the tire out and evening wear through cornering forces, and (4) loading of the vehicle which increases rear negative camber.

My runflats wore MUCH worse on the inside rear than my non-runflats have.

If you want to drive conservatively and keep the runflats, you can add adjustable lower rear control arms to reduce camber below specs. This will improve rear tire wear but at the cost of reducing rear cornering grip at the limit (increasing likelihood of oversteer in a panic turn).

 

-2.1 is quite a bit and I know it is within spec. I think the spec is -1.4 to -2.1. I set mine to -1.8 but will drop it down to -1.4 the next time I do an alignment because I want less negative camber.

Was it Keeler Mini in Latham, NY you talked with? Talk with Kyle there. He is really the best mechanic at that facility. Perhaps he has some suggestions. He is also a Clubman owner.

 

What I noticed is that my studded snows (195/55-16) didn't seem to wear but my summers (205/45-17) do

 

Yes MINI's always tend to have too much rear camber. I actually know of some lawsuits against MINI for them wearing out the rear tires prematurely. I'd stick to your guns about it not being normal. I know that some of the people involved in the lawsuits came out ahead at the end.
Or you can just get some adjustable rear control arms take out some camber and have to toe set and you should be better that way too.

 

Are either runflats? I'm assuming your summers are? That, plus the added stiffness of the 45-17 size, will be a lot of the difference.

I'd recommend having your rear camber adjusted to minimum - should be able to get to a good bit less than -2.1... unless it has been lowered on springs...

 

Yes it was Keeler, That's where we bought the Clubman
Thanks for the tip on Kyle

 

I bought mine there as well.

We have a new Albany based Mini club called mpg (mini performance group). Perhaps you may want to join us for some of our events.

 

Don't you just love it when the dealers lie to you? If they won't set the camber to where you want it, bring it to an independent alignment shop. $100 will save you a lot of tire wear and improve handling.

 

I know this will probably start a big debate, and many will tell me I'm completely wrong (and quite often I am ), but camber doesn't wear the outside edges on tires, it is usually toe-in/out that wears the outside edge.
If I had a camera I'd show you pictures of 4 tires from my 7 (RWD, I know) that have been worn to the point that you can barely see the tread, and they are evenly worn across the entire tread area. I have -2.5 camber and 0 toe-in on all 4 corners and changed tires for autocrossing, so they were all "normal" highway miles on these tires. If you are wearing out the inside edge, check toe-out settings. Factory alignment settings are to keep the average joe/Jane from getting into trouble by overdriving the car, usually they set the car for understear so the average person will lift off the throttle, less toe-in will fee up the rear and make the rear turn (autocrossers call it making the rear rotate better). More toe-in will make the rear more stable (understear) and wear the outside edge more, while toe-out will make it less stable (overstear) and wear the inside edge more, of course whether it understears or overstears (drivers perspective) will also depend on your settings up front. when I do get around to having mine aligned I'm thinking about 1/32nd to 1/16th toe-out up front, 0 toe in the rear, and all the negative camber I can get from factory pieces. But remember this is only my opinion, it was free and worth every penny you paid for it.

 

I totally agree with Blimey about the affect that reducing the camber will cause.

if you drive very conservatively then sure have it reduced but if you ever get on it you will notice how bad it can get if reduced to much.

Mine was only adjustable from -1.7 to -2.2 left side and -1.8 to -2.0 on right side with factory arms. i had it adjusted to the same thing on both sides at -1.8 and a full alignment completed on those number and the cornering went all to hell. adjusted it back up to -2.0 on both sides and cornering is much better. I am actually thinking of replacing the stock arms with aftermarket and and increasing it a little farther, maybe -2.2,to get the handling in corners a little better.

And yes the inside of my OEM runflats is slightly more worn than the outside but only very very slightly. But then again all my BMWs have had this problem. They all like negative camber to handle well.

 

We definatly drive mountain roads and none of them are straight so I might want to stick to the higher negative camber.
Since Mini in their infinite wisdom does not recommend you rotate tires at all at what intervals has anyone been rotating them?
My thoughts were at 6000 mi.
Thanks

 

GrnMtnMini,

If handling is what you are looking for, I think getting some front camber will reap bigger rewards for you. I think you will feel a smaller difference in the rear camber changes from for example, -2.2 to -1.8 or even -1.6. It is quite hard to get rotation (from oversteer) in a Mini unless you do something bad, in haste or deliberate. You can do what you think is the best for you, but I do not think you need any more than -2.0 in rear camber.

Unfortunately for us owners, Mini has great financial wisdom on tire rotations because maintenance is on them.

Tire rotation is good. On street cars, I generally do mine every 8K if they can be rotated.