hey i have been using h sport springs for the past 4 years; i have koni fsd's on my car as well. i have been plagued with many tire wear issues. i want to know if there are progressive springs i can use which will not lower my car... and does this seem like a reasonable solution to my woes?

 

The springs have nothing to do with your tire wear. What you need is a competent alignment.

 

hi ryefile,

thanks for responding. i have had numerous alignments, high tech lazer to regular, and they all seem to be an eventual problem. i finally had camber plates installed to try and deal with the issue of uneven tire wear. i am sorry now that i changed any of my suspension. to be clear, i really like the handling of the h-sport springs and the koni's were great but i have gone through so many sets of tires and every one has had severe uneven tire wear. i also have the h-sport rear anti-sway bar and ireland engineering rear control arms. is this mixing and matching a problem?

if you have some sound advice i would really appreciate it. thank you.
julia

 

Ryephile is right and it "sounds" like you have the right parts. Few Q's. What camber plates are you running? Are you using Runflats? How many miles are you getting out of a set of tires? How many miles on the system? Do you rotate tires every 5K or less? If you weigh more than 200 pounds do you sit in the car for the alignment?

 

hi thanks i need help sorting this out.

answers to your queries:

spc camber plates
about 20,000 miles on these tires, 16" bf goodrich g-force super sport a/s (i needed them for some winter driving in isolated areas of montana and wyoming. i was using 17" and switched back to 16" hoping it would help solve the issue.
03 s with 137,000 miles on it.
i weigh less than 140lbs
i live in los angeles where the roads are terrible. i have my tires balanced and rotated every 5,000 miles, i check tire pressure every week etc.

 

it sounds like you are doing everything right. Do you have any numbers from the last alignment you can share?

 

Can you describe the uneven wear you are getting?

 

a few more details:
about 100,000 miles on the h-sport springs and 37,000 on the koni fsd's.

the tire wear is on the inside of the tires creating a 'knife edge' wear pattern. this is consistent with each set of tires; the camber plates made an improvement with handling but have not dealt with uneven tire wear. i will look for numbers...

 

Make sure your tie rods and LCA bushings and ball joints are in good shape.

Inside tire wear usually points to too much toe out or excessive neg camber or a combination. Strut bearing wear can cause tire wear too but since you added adjustable plates...

Not sure the H-Sport springs and Koni FSDs belong together...I don't think the FSDs can be installed with a lowering spring, and, the H-Sport front rate, from memory, is lighter than stock. So you have perhaps an ill matched spring and damper and both are on the lighter scale of damping. Which may mean you are getting a lot more wheel motion than you think...but I have zero experience with either the FSDs or H-Sport.

In any event, the mini's suspension acts progressively no matter the type of springs installed; the bumpstops are multi-cellular pieces that have a progressive spring rate and are always in contact with the dampers.

 

What are your exact alignment settings? Always get a printout with your alignments. It can be the best alignment machine in the world, but you need good settings.

Inner tire wear means too much negative camber, but excessive or quick wear means too much toe.

 

Meb is correct.

Further comment - I chased alignment problems for years. Turned out most of the shops I tried couldn't get the alignment correct either b/c of lack of talent, interest or equipment that wasn't properly calibrated to begin with. Worn bushings also played a role but the biggest thing was just sloppy alignments from "good" enthusiast oriented alignment shops.

 

Maybe a -.5 negative camber may be better for you. Sounds like you are not driving hard enough for negative camber provided by camber plates. Steve's Auto Clinic in North Hills (the valley) has a lot of experience with MINIs. A less aggressive alignment is probably in line, a more conservative alignment will make your tires straight like this: ] [ instead of this: / \
Also the Nitto Neo Gen tires are designed for cars with negative camber that are fairly cheap too.

 

steve is my mechanic (north hills) and today we determined that my shocks are bad. he performed the last alignment and swears by his work...

having said that, it seems that i have to deal with koni directly. this makes no sense to me as i purchased them from steve and his shop installed them. i am extremely frustrated. i am confused and furious that i am not being taken care of...

many enthusiasts are using h-sport with koni fsd's and i have not heard that they are having problems. anyone out there?

if what you say re 'progressive' springs is true then why do so many drivers replace their stock springs with progressive springs?

 

So shocks are bad?

What is your camber set at?

Seems like a very conservative camber setting would solve uneven tire wear. Negative camber does improve performance, but the trade off is uneven tire wear. If you "straighten" (less [negative] camber) your wheels you will have even tire wear and maybe better launches, but far less cornering performance capability.

But still trying to understand bad shocks contributing to uneven wear?

Is it that you get alignment, then the "bad shocks" lower even more or "settle" drastically, giving it more negative camber????

Did you tell Steve that you DID NOT want a "performance oriented" alignment, but rather a near 0 (zero) camber setting?

After 4 years the H-Sport spring have to had "settled", stick with stock springs.

 

Koni specifically says to only use stock springs with the FSD shocks and recommends the adjustables for use with lowering springs.

Koni has a lifetime warranty on the shocks to the original owner so try and get them warrantied.

On another note, the JCW springs are progressive and are close to stock ride height (10mm lower than stock sport suspension).

 

well the news from alex at tire rack is that koni did have that specification re: stock springs but that is no longer a problem. h-sport are just fine with the koni's. i obviously have a defective set of shocks and am waiting to hear back from koni...

thanks for you thoughts.

 

So they are bad shocks because of "uneven tire wear"??
Any more details?

What are your alignment & camber settings?