I just had some Ireland fixed camber plates installed up front, and these guys are supposed to add -1.25 deg. to whatever's there already... however, I just got an alignment (about 3 weeks after the install), and the machine spec'd the fronts at about -1.2 / -1.5 deg. L/R. Now I'm not that surprised at the 0.3 deg. difference (which seems to be common with MINIs), but more that my left side has less camber than the plates are supposed to add! I thought there was supposed to be -0.5 deg in the front at stock, so I'm a little confused...

To clarify my setup, I'm running JCW springs (matched to my VIN) all around, along with Koni FSD struts. I've got the 18" JCW wheels with 215/35R18 rubber on 'em. My rear camber was adjusted to -1.7 deg L/R (the smallest they could set it to), which is close to the -1.6 deg of stock (as far as I've been told)...

Does this sound normal? The car rides great, and I doesn't seem to be riding extra high or anything.... but I'd like to make sure the Left camber setting = to less than the plates' addition makes sense...

Thanks.

 

Your car more than like add some left to right difference from the factory - mine does and it's about the same difference you note.

 

Also, I think you'll find that IE advertizes the fixed plates as achieving -1.25deg *in total*. Really you should start at 0deg camber, not the stock -.5deg plus additional neg camber. It's not like the IE plates are -.75deg which when added to the stock camber make -1.25deg. It's that when you put them in, you can set the camber to -1.25deg.

PS, I also noticed when installing my COs that there is some play when installing the camber plates to the shock tower (the IE bolts are quite a lot smaller than the holes in the towers) hence you can actually get some camber "play" just depending on how you set and torque down those 3 nuts on the towers.

 

Thanks for the comments. As I said earlier, I'm not that worried about having a slight difference between the L/R sides... it was more the fact that the L side was -1.2, which is less than the -1.25 that the camber plates were supposed to add. Based on your comments, I'm guessing that I'm right where I should be with the minimal lowering of the JCW springs.

I was thinking that with the front camber plates I'd be close to -2.0, and that I'd have some issues with tire wear... but as my rear has more negative camber than the front, it may not be as much an issue as I was expecting. Probably a good thing, as I'm not tracking the car or anything at this point, but just aggressive street driving (when safe and possible)...

 

What you described has been posted before. Search for similar results using fixed plates.

Fixed plates- set camber to something more negative than stock (-0.5 degrees) but right and left don't match and you cannot adjust. Your actual results will vary with your suspension setup (not that much with the wheels used).

For those that do performance driving often a good solution is to look at adjustable camber plates. Now you can set and reset to any camber setting (within a range up to about -2.3 degrees) and match right and left very closely. This allows for better balance in cornering on the track or at higher speeds.

 

Nope, they advertise as adding -1.25 degrees.
HERE

I haven't gotten my alignment checked yet, but I DO agree that, just looking at them, the IE bolts appear a bit smaller than std, but not by much

 

I wasn't trying to raise any concerns regarding bolt size. In fact the OEM are 13mm and so are the IE. What I meant was that in installing my COs 3 times in a short period of time, I noticed that the plates ended up in *slightly* different places each time (revealed by the setting of my STB). I would not get an alignment until the camber plates were in their final position (meaning everything better be to your satisfaction before getting the alignment, because undoing anything will/could mess it up!)

 

No concerns raised dude
At the monthly Rocket City MINI dinner Monday night we took a look at the IE plates and noticed that A: The IE bolts are longer than the std ones (Good for a STB ) and B: It looked (to me) like the IE bolts were just a bit smaller in diameter than the std ones. (But close enough that I'd have to measure to be sure)

As for making sure everything's in the right position before the alignment, I shouldn't have to worry about that too much with the fixed plates and just TSW springs on std dampers... right?

Thx again

 

No, we're talking RCHs here. It's just that it *might* be enough to explain a 0.1deg difference in camber R to L with fixed plates, that's all.

cheers,

 

You might want to consider accuracy of alignment machine. You could even see different readings just by getting 2 back to back alignments done without moving the car off the rack.

 

Could a shroomed tower throw things off? Running the JCW springs and 18s, you very well could be shrooming.

 

yes.

 

As for the accuracy of the machine, it's a computerized alignment machine at Steve's Auto Clinic in L.A. (a reputable shop for work on MINIs). It's possible it's being inaccurate, but there's not much I can do to check that (without paying for another alignment at another shop).

As for mushrooming, I'm pretty sure my towers are fine. I installed M7 SRPs the first day I picked up my MINI, and haven't noticed any shrooming... and they looked fine during the camber plate install.

 

blammo
Here are a couple of semi accurate checks that you may be able to do yourself.

#1 With your MINI on a level surface chech your ride height left vs right. Body parts are inherently inaccurate for this so I have found the best place to do this is from the top of the strut towers. Put a block of wood on top of the tower (I use a small piece of 2x4) and then put a straight edge (such as a ruler) on top of the block to extend over the fender and measure distance to the ground. This dimension should be fairly equal side to side and will tell you if your struts are sitting flush within the knuckle.

#2 Check to see if the I.E. plates moved the center of the strut bearing equal amounts left to right.
Location of the bearing will change camber approx one degree per 1/3 inch. If you have a vernier caliper you can measure from the center of your strut tower hole to the center of the bearing and be pretty sure if the dimension is the same left and right that the I.E. plates are the same. Note that this will not confirm any disparity that you may have had with your stock plates.

#3 Quick check of disparity left to right.
Again be sure that your MINI is on as level a surface as possible as an unequal surface will effect your results. For this test you can use a carpenter square or a two foot level. Place the square or level on the ground and against the bottom of the tire ( be sure your tire pressure is the same left to right) and measure the distance to the top of the rim. If you have some disparity it will show up as an unequal measurement left to right. The greater the measurement the more negative camber.

Lastly I agree with the above statement that alignment machines can give you different results. It is not normally the machine but the operator using them. For instance if they jack up one side of the car and don't roll it out to settle the suspension you will have inaccurate data. It is always best to be able to sit in your car during an alignment if possible or have like weight set in the drivers area. I also pay attention to having the same amount of fuel (1/2 tank) during the alignment. Because of the rear trailing arm suspension the rear will change a greater amount than the front with a different weight in the car.

I hope that some of this will help to ease your mind.
Steve

 

I suggest you check for shrooming like Koogzah said. A lot of people don't even know they have it. If you do, bang 'em down and get the M7 plates or STB. These work great with the Fixed Camber Plates. The fixed plates bolts are longer and so they have at least 2 to 3 threads exposed after tightening the nuts down. Talk about a nice sandwich.

 

My results are similar to yours after the IE fixed plates: -1.1 -1.4, L/R. I posted the idea that the IE plates are intended to create -1.25 deg camber rather than add to the existing -0.5 camber, but several people argued strenuously against this. BTW, I had the mushrooming fixed at the same time the plates were installed. Overall, it seems that some people get around -2 deg camber with the fixed plates, and another population only sees ~1.25 average.