Ok so about two years ago I lowered my mini, a friend gave me everything i needed (or so I thought) for a little over $100. He races and is sponcered, he got some new ones so i got the old. I now am hearing a squeaky sound when I hit bumps in the road. I am 99% sure I have blew my front driver strut. Also when I do hit bumps or pot holes it sounds very very bad like I am hitting it very hard. Is that normal for a lowerd car. I am also getting uneven ware on my rear tires. I know I could buy a adjustable rear controll arm to fix that. My main question is when replacing my blown strut, can I buy a stock mini strut or will I need to buy a after market strut. The hard thumps also concern me, could that mean my springs are also shot. Would it be worth buying the adjustable control arm and new front struts. Or just buying all new stock struts and springs and going back to stock?

 

It is sad indeed when one seeks to strut one's stuff, and winds up stuffing one's struts instead.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

I'm not positive about the strut, because I do t know what was pulled and replaced when you lowered the car. If it was simply replacing the coils on to your stock struts, then yes, but if you pulled your stock parts for a complete suspension package, you may have to ID the parts you have on and get their replacement parts. I doubt the springs are shot, but that raises the question are they adjustable? You might want to check to see if they are still locked in or if the adjuster backed out.

When you lowered your car did you also lower the profile of your tires? A really low profile tire going over pot holes and the such can add lots if crash-bang-thunk noises (the shallow side wall does not absorb the bumps as gently as taller side walls do)

The rear, yes... Uneven wear can be minimized by a four wheel alignment after lowering, however this is limited to the adjustability of your suspension. And you can still maximize your tire life with regular rotation (front to rear).

 

Please provide more information about your car (year, model) and what suspension items were changed on your car so we can help. Were coil-overs or just springs installed? Were shocks installed? Were front camber plates installed? What brands?
One of the key things to help with rear tire wear after lowering is to adjust the rear toe to zero and reduce the camber as much as possible (if 2005/2006 with adj camber).

 

OK so it is a 2005 mini s, we put new springs and struts on that was it. I have put on adjustable camber plates on so the front is good now. I was also looking at buying a adjustable rear control arm. I saw there was a option to buy a upper and lower one. From what I have read I only need the lower one. Any insight on this will be a help, THANKS

 

Your 2005 has adjustable rear camber. Depending on how much you lowered the car you might be able to adjust the camber to an acceptable amount with the stock adjusting bolt. Also you should adjust the rear toe to zero to reduce tire wear.

A set of lower adjustable control arm is all you need if you need more camber adjustment than the stock adjuster gives you.

 

Yea I need more camber adjustment, the shop I went to said they maxed out the adjustment bolt

 

you just need adjustable lower camber arms.

 

Does any one happen to know what camber I need so I stop getting uneven wear on my rear tires. I just purchased adjustable rear control arms. Now just to put them on and get an alignment.

 

One of the keys to reducing tire wear, especially with negative camber, is getting the toe correctly adjusted. I run 0 toe on the rear with -1.5 camber and not too bad of wear (but still wear but better than my front with -2.0 camber). If the toe gets very off of zero I get bad wear because the tire scrapes along the inside edge.
I would think -1.0 camber with zero toe would be good for less tire wear.