A while back someone on here told me that you could slightly adjust the front camber, on an R56. Can't find the thread, nor do I remember who it was (i think it was a fellow AZ guy....?)

Anyway, I was looking at mine today, and can't see how it would be adjustable at all. Anyone care to enlighten me?

 

From what I understand, you can't with the R56, but it was possible to get to -1.0 on the R53.

 

you can, easily. Just loosen the three bolts at the strut tower and the small screw holding everything in place, and if you shove everything towards the center of the engine bay you will increase negative camber.

 

yes, littletimmy is right, danny/minicorsa did it to mine the first week i got my car

 

Yes, but remove the little bolt completly and leave it off. You'll get more - camber that way. Helps to jack up the front end when moving the strut.

 

Does anyone have a picture of the part that one removes off of the 2008 in order to increase the negative front camber to the max? I crawled all around my car and I'm still not seeing which one to remove.

A picture would be most helpful. Thanks

 

Open the hood and look at the strut tower, next to one of the three mounting nuts, you will see a locating pin or screw that needs to be removed. Once that is out, you can loosen the three nuts and shove it inward.

 

ok i'll check it out later... thank you. I'm assuming "shoving it forward" is not something you want to just do and leave alone. Wouldn't you still need an alignment afterwards to make sure your settings are at least even?

 

Reverse the chassis codes and change the amount of camber to -0.5 and you're right.

The R56 has slightly slotted front strut towers, the R53 does not.

 

You can expect some additional toe out after increasing camber. Alignment might not be a bad idea.

 

As of today, you're correct. But when the original post was posted, I don't think those slots were there--I think thats been a more recent development.

 

I was the original poster...and yes it had slotted towers. My car is an 08 though, dunno about the 07's.

 

Well I hope my oct 07 build has these. I guess I can take a look underneath to see if they are slotted. If they are, I will probably wait to move them in when I am ready for an allignment

 

My July 07 build R56 has the slotted tower.

 

Awesome there is hope for mine haha...I wish I could go move them over now, but I would be **** about needing a realignment and don't want to spend money on it yet when I don't need it haha

 

My Jan '07 build R56 had slotted strut towers, as does my July '08 build. I would assume nothing was changed between then.


--->amazingrando: When you add front camber you add toe-in. This is because the steering tie-rods are mounted aft of the axle.

 

Really? Me being the newbie here and you the veteran, I'm inclined to believe you, but now I'm confused as the toe settings for both the front and rear were excessively positive when I had my aligment done and made to be still slightly positive. The end results being slightly toed out. From what I understood about the alignment, readings in the positive are related to toe out and anything negative would be toe in.

 

I wish I had a good answer to your alignment sheet. I'm 100% positive that when you lower the R53 you'll gain toe-in, and the R56 is sooo similar I'd expect the same. It's tough to know what the alignment rack means by + or - toe. My gut tells me that + toe is toe-in. I'd call the shop and ask what it means to be sure.

 

I'm guessing I misunderstood, that's all. My aligment tech is actually the events director for the PDX mini club, he did my PSRS install and he know's how to align a mini, so I trust his work. But thanks for the clarification Ryan.

 

yeah + is toe in and - is toe out....
so from what i know, which could be wrong, on our cars we want the toe slightly out in the rear....
and for better turns/handling out in the front too since its fwd?

 

So can camber be brought back to spec from a H&R drop without adding anything additional??

 

The tyre shop I used were able to bring all alignment back to stock on my MINI with H&R springs installed. All done on some fancy laser alignment thingy!

 

Do all R56 Cooper S builds have the negative camber adjustment. Where is the pin located exactly. Can someone post instructions more specifically on how to add negative camber with this method. Can the Strut Tower Defenders still be used after changing this. There is a black circular cap in the middle of the strut tower does this have to be removed

 

I have a pic somewhere....

But just undo one of the three bolts on the strut tower and it will be obvious how they are slotted. Undo all of them and slide the strut inward....with the car in the air of course.

 

I had my car aligned today

Front camber .7 negative
Front Toe 0.0

Rear Camber 1.1
Rear Toe .07 toe in

I did see the slotted towers and pin. The problem was the Cravenspeed Strut Tower Defenders fit perfectly around the crest of the strut tower. There was no way to move the strut in on the slots because the STD would not allow it.

Questions: Is it safe to assume my front camber would go to 1.1-1.2 if I were to remove the plates and slide it over. Is that much front camber going to wear the tires for daily driving. Is there any way to just gain 3 tenths or does it need to slide all the way over to stay in place. Secondly, I was thinking of milling out the center so I could move them over a little and then bolt them down once the camber was set. Are these plates at all necessary on an R56. I live in the LA area and there are some huge potholes. It would seem if I milled them out a little they would still be effective