I just picked up a mini and it looks like the owner whacked the right rear wheel pretty good. You can see the bubble on the tire there.. maybe it was a big pothole because the rim inside and out doesnt appear to be damaged. Its misaligned, mainly with toe an camber.





I'm going for an alignment today but was wondering.. it looks pretty bad to me. Can this be adjusted out? If not, what is likely bent, and what will this cost? Maybe I should go aftermarket to save cash? This is a street car, not track so I just want the normal alignment specs (which I cant seem to find anywhere).

 

looks like you have a bent wheel. You will want rear camber at approx -1.5 and zero toe for a street car in my experience. Cost around here to true a wheel and refinish is $125. Good luck with the new car, have fun!

 

When they get it on the alignment rack, the tech should be able to see what, if anything, is bent. If they are a decent shop, the cost should be minimal for diagnosis.

 

Yes. That does look the PO wracked that wheel pretty good there. Just ignoring the possibility that the wheel is bent and look at what might be damaged on the suspension stand point.

My bet is that both upper and lower control arm links are badly bent. They are quite weak but that can be a good thing in your case as with luck, they sacrificed themselves to save the more expensive suspension parts, and chassis/subframe damage. I am quite sure based on the photos you cannot align the car without either replacing them, or straighten them out. The way BMW construct these arms, they look almost like they are designed with this in mind.

Going to a good alignment shop and they should be able to tell you what are damaged.

 

Make sure before any tech gets anywhere near your suspension on the alignment rack that they know how to adjust camber and toe on these cars. You need the correct sockets and there is a lot of adjustments built into the design. IF, they still can't get the camber right - you can consider a pair of adjustable rear arms from Way or others. A good technician with talent goes much further than you having to write big checks. Make sure to ask for print outs of the current alignment specs BEFORE you agree to any repairs. Many times I have seen tech replace a bunch of rear suspension parts and the alignment is still wacked - they just don't know the nuances of the mini suspension.
Please post up what you are finding before you spend a lot of money!

 

Here is what the stock control arms look - the two stamped and spot welded steel arms in the photo (ignore the green arrow and the horizontal steel bar the bolt attached to is the lower arm):


You should be able to pick up used ones for very little money as a lot of owners swapped out the lower one with adjustable ones. You can also do the same by taking the lower one from the other side for used as the upper one on the damaged side. For adjustable one, Hotchkis is well regarded for cost and quality.

 

wow my rear a arms look totally different.. I have a , maybe thats why.. see this pic..




You can see that there is bad wear on the tires. I think the previous owner fixed the back bumper, and maybe the a arms and drove on it like that for a few thousand miles or something. They dont look totally new, but they dont look bent either, which is surprising because they are just a U shaped channel and seem like a weak point..


This part was the only obviously bent part - hard to tell from the pic but the bolt at the bottom - around that one has lifted from being flat.


So the aftermarket arms may give me enough movement to get it back in line? I'm a little worried because it also looks like the wheel is not only toed back about .5", but pushed in about .5". The clearance from the tire to the fender liner is like 1/8".. it rubbed in a couple places.

The car is at a respected body shop now being looked at. I'll know tomorrow if they can get it perfect..

 

please save some cash for rear tires. The thought of you driving on corded tires makes me nervous!! Anything you find on Craigslist will be safer than what's in the pic! Good luck- glad you are getting a professional to look at it.

 

I already bought tires! I was scared just getting it to the shop... drove like 15 mph haha. I cant believe someone would drive a car with tires in that condition. Both rears are actually worn through the second layer of cords.

I think I may have the wrong wishbones on there.. can anyone confirm that? EDIt.. looks like they are just aftermarket.. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-febi-par...326768726~feb/ - so that confirms they have been replaced, at least the lower wishbones. So, presumably, they were obviously bent as well.

 

I cannot make out clearly the last photo, except to notice the shifted bolt/nut. It is obvious to my devious mind suspecting that the PO attempted to correct the badly misaligned rear wheel unsuccessfully.

Yah, you have JCW parts. I am never a big fan of JCW on the new Mini's. It is all about branding and extra gravy for BMW. Those control arms do not look much better than the standard issued arms on the S. In fact, it looks to me some smart engineer figure out how to save even a few spot weld and to make the arm in one stamped steel piece by folding it. Like I say, in your situation, if I were you I would pray that the control arms are the weak links as otherwise the likely damage done to the trailing arm, or/and the subframe is costly to fix.

 

it may be helpful to run a car fax report (post purchase for you, but helpful). That may shed some light onto its previous repairs. BMW customer care ( on the phone) can confirm that all outstanding notices and recalls have been satisfied. Call them with the VIN and see what they say!
thank goodness you are not driving on those tires anymore!

 

Now that you mentioned it. I am under the impression the JCW arms are precious cast aluminum. In my devious mind, I suspect the PO tried to fix the alignment with as little cash outlay as possible - hence the cut rate U-folded aftermarket arms.

I hope I am wrong as I am always on guard on people who cheat.

 

It has a clean carfax, so my guess is that the owner or local mechanic fixed it.. Ya the standard s arms look a lot beefier. I think the arms are correct, but the lower ones are aftermarket, which means that after the accident, they were replaced. The marks on the top bracket was my mechanic trying to get it aligned a bit better because noticed the bolts there shifted. It got a little better after we made that adjustment, but we noticed it was bent a little, so I'll replace it ($97).

I hope the trailing arm is ok because its like $336, but I'm not sure what else under there would really affect the alignment much, so I'll probably replace that too. The sub-frame looked perfect, and the left side seems perfect which its also attached to.

Welp, we'll find out tomorrow whats up I hope.

This is all such a bummer because the engine and interior are perfect on this car! It has a few exterior things to sort out, but I knew that going in and planned for it.

 

Its quite possible that you will not need to replace the trailing arm. What are the specs on the alignment rack? Does he have the tools to correctly adjust the toe? ECS sells the socket and the new funky fastner.

 

My mechanic didnt charge me to take a look at the car, and we didnt do the alignment because it was so obviously out of spec just by looking at it. I'll have one done when the wheel gets more into shape! I watched my mechanic adjust and tighten the bolt without a tool, didnt look to hard to me?! I guess its finicky if you dont have the tool.. but I dont really want to shell out the $60 for it.

I'll get the printouts.. What should the specs be for a? I searched today to no avail.

 

All 1st gen arms, JCW equipped or not, were steel with the exception of the '06 GP which have cast aluminum trailing arms and are almost identical to 2nd gen trailing arms. 2nd gen aluminum trailing arm conversions are a nice mod for a 1st gen MINI if you can get everything for a good price.

 

Don't really need the eccentric socket tool to adjust the rear toe,
but it does make it much easier to do, less hit and miss with each adjustment.

 

Tool not required, but boy it's so
much less struggle!!

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...today-659.html

 

I am surprised that your alignment guy/girl didn't at least do some simple measurements for you while he had the Mini up on the hoist. Based on how much the wheel is offset with respect to the wheel well, and that the PO had changed out the damaged control arms, the prognosis is likely not good. If I were the alignment guy/girl I would have taken some simple diagonal measurements at the key points of the subframe and the trailing arms. While the subframe may look fine I would check the trueness of the bracket where the trailing arm attached to as well as the upper and lower control arm inboard bracket. As he/her couldn't get it align something is badly knocked out of whack.

Whatever you end up needing, going to the scrapyard might save you a lot of money.

The most likely event was the PO lost control, spun the car and hit a curb.

 

pnw, all of your assessments are on key. When we had the car up the RR wheel is back about .5" from the left side. We did take some measurements and look around. The bracket was the only part that was obviously damaged. We are buying a new one and going to throw it on to see if that fixes it. Its possible the trailing arm is also bent, but its a lot more expensive, $400. But a used one is like $50! I kinda want a new one though so that if its still off I know for sure its not the replaced parts. I like to fix things right the first time, even if it costs more.

The body shop I went to for evaluation said that he would be very surprised if there was frame damage. Generally the arm or other parts would be badly mangled before the frame gave way. When we took the wheel off, we could clearly see that the base of the springs are almost touching the arm, so its pretty obvious what direction its awry.

 

Just an update to see what you guys think.. I replaced the trailing arm mount last night and it was clearly bent when comparing it to the new one. Most of the bend was happening at the base where the frame bolts attach. The rest appeared to be straight.

The changed moved the wheel forward about 1/4", which is good, and I think the camber changed about +1/8" out, which is good. The spring was actually very close to the trailing arm and I could see at one time (likely during the impact, the spring cup hit the arm and left a (now rusty) spot. That distance grew from about 5mm to 10mm away, which I think is pretty close to what the left side looked like. BUT, I still need to come forward about 1/4"-3/8" and out about 1/4".

I've ordered a new trailing arm to see if that helps, but if it doesnt get me back perfect, can you guys suggest what to look at next? I like the adjustable control arm idea, but I have to assume that they are new (and they look straight), so I suppose the only other thing to check is the rear subframe, maybe it was bent where the control arm attach?! I dont think (hope) the actual frame moved much because body lines etc are still ok.

Any thoughts?

 

When I first suggest the possibility of subframe damage, I have not check to see the details of the Mini rear suspension. I basically were referring to the possible damage areas:

1. trailing arm pivot point - which turns out to be bolted to the body with a 3-bolt bracket.
2. trailing arms - the PO evidently replaced
3. trailing arm inboard attachment points - subframe bracket
4. trailing arm itself

Good that the offset improved somewhat after you replaced the trailing arm pivot point bracket (1). I have no reservation that the trailing arm (2) itself is likely bent. We can just hope that the body mounting points for the trailing arm is not distorted. Lastly we can also hope the inboard bracket for the control arms are not distorted, as it is a part of the subframe.

I concur that the next thing to replace is the tailing arm. You should contact one of the Mini partout i-vendor to get a used one. I personally won't spent $300 for a piece of stamped steel thingy.

 

I bought on on ebay today, $195, not too bad .It looks new!

If it turns out the mounting points are bent, can I just whack them back into shape flat? I'm assuming they will be pulled down based on the impact and position of the tire.