I have spent the last couple hours searching the forums for reasons my Caster would be off.. and to no avail. This is my first post in this thread, so be gentle if the answer is obvious.

About 2 months ago my car started tracking quite a bit at low speeds, and would tend to follow the grooves in the road a bit more than usual. I've had my car (02 MCS) for a couple years, and have done a few auto-x's with it. It's mostly a fun car, as I don't really drive it all that often.

I have a friend with a shop, so I took it there to see if I could dignose the funky steering. With the front end off the ground, I could grab a hold of the wheel and wiggle it back and forth. We diagnosed this problem to shot Control Arm Bushings (imagine that). The next weekend we tore everything apart, replaced the clutch and replaced the control arm bushings with the Madness Poly's.

The car ran great, but still had the tracking issues at low speeds (especially on non-flat roads). Just to make sure I didn't have allignment issues, I took it in for an alignment at my local Les Schwab. The guy said my camber was a little off, but nothing significant (probably left over from before the bushings were replaced), but reported that my Caster settings were WAY off. It currently sits at .6 degrees on BOTH sides, which is about 4 degrees off each side. Because they are even, the car doesnt drift left to right... but it still tends to be unstable.

My question is this:
- Is it possible that the Caster issue is unrelated to the unstable steering / tracking?
- Is it possible that the guy at Schwab was an idiot, and measured the caster wrong?
- Is it possible to installed the Control Arm Bushings incorrectly? My setup looks just like the 5 other posts that showed the install procedures.
- Besides the control arm bushings, what could I need replaced?

As far as I can tell, there is no mushrooming of the strut towers... and the problem existed before I changed the bushings, so I can't imagine they are related.

I'm stumped. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

Wow, this is different..

Not sure if I can help much over the web.. But the first thing that comes to my mind would be for you to share some pics of your front suspension..
- Showing the new control arm bushings. I just put these in as well..
- Showing the top of the shock mounts from inside the engine bay (camber plates).
- Check the rubber around the upper shock mounts for tearing - if factory style.

It is hard to imagine that every thing is "fine" an the caster is that far off. The only other idea would be to have a MINI dealer check it out.. but hey might blame the poly bushings as an "easy out" from further inspection.. Not sure..

Share some pics.. I will try to help with what I can "remotely"..

 

Did the poly bushings have an offset to allow caster to change? Some on the market can be rotated in place to give more or less caster.

 

Nope, they were pretty straight forward

http://www.mini-madness.com/index.as...ROD&ProdID=323

I'll take some pics when I get back to Portland on Friday. I'm so clueless at this point.

 

What was the suspension guy using as a base line for the caster setting?

Is the .6 a plus or minus from "stock"?

If they are the same side to side you shouldn't have any problems.

 

Base is always measured from vertical. so it's .6 degrees forward of verticle, when it should be 4.5

While I don't have "problems" per se, because there is no Caster in my front end, there is 0 stability in the steering. The car feels like it has a mind of it's own.

 

Forward........? I thought it should be behind the verticle axis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle

So the stock caster angle is 4.5 degrees from verticle to the rear?

If you actually have .6 degrees behind verticle then I would suggest you have used the wrong bushings, maybe too small.

 

Sorry, I meant the top of the strut is forward of the axis...

"[FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica][FONT=Times New Roman]Most cars are not particularly sensitive to caster settings. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure that the caster is the same on both sides of the car to avoid the tendency to pull to one side. While greater caster angles serve to improve straight-line stability, they also cause an increase in steering effort. Three to five degrees of positive caster is the typical range of settings, with lower angles being used on heavier vehicles to keep the steering effort reasonable."[/FONT][/FONT]

I am mostly trying to figure out why it's so far off

 

Youi definitely have a control arm bushing problem.