I recently had H-Sport springs installed in my MCS, by a competent local MINI tech. I brought the MINI to MoP for its 10K oil change and to have an alignment done.

MoP says the left front camber is *way off* - the right front is spot on.

I know the springs are (were?) installed correctly. MoP is going to disassemble the left front strut to see if they can determine the cause. I can't imagine what the springs would have to do with the camber, anyway.

The car has never been wrecked - heck it's only three months old. No other mods to the front end other than the new springs.

Any thoughts as to what could possibly cause such a situation, given that the front end has no camber adjustment?


Tnx.

 

only idea is they had the machine not level on the side that was off. .. Then again it depends on what they mean by way off. I just have the alignment done on mine since i just put camber caster plates on it.. the the machine that was attached to the wheel wasnt lvl it would throw the camber reading off... If the car is sitting somewhat lvl .. and no mushrooming tower.. then it wouldn't matter if you had the spring in sideways. it would not throw the camber way off on an alignment machine

 

1. Left side suspension bolts were tightened while car was still in the air. (the bushings haven't settled yet). Measure the ride height. (center of each wheel to fenderwell.

2. Suspension bolt left out? Jack the left side off the ground and aggressivly wiggle everything to see if somethings loose.

3. Something stuck between the top shock mount and the inner fender?

4. Idiot at the alignment shop didn't have the rack setup right. (I doubt it, but you never know)

I guess my point is, if you jack the car off the ground and really look around and compare the left front to the right fronts, you will probably find the problem.

 

Posting the alignment specs that they found would help to give you a better answer. Otherwise I don't know any Minis that have equal camber on both fronts unless they have aftermarket camber plates to correct it.
Not sure what they think they will find here by removing the strut, but for bent strut itself. Keep us posted.
MOP is a great dealer and Gary is a great guy.

 

I agree with pretty much everything Greg said...

I had adjustable camber plates put in my car and the camber is now even side to side, but if you look at the plates you'll see that they are adjusted fairly differently.

If the camber is indeed way off, you can do a driveway verification of that pretty easily. Park on as level ground as you can find. Find a big, straight object with square corners - like a big sturdy cardboard box. Put the box on the ground and slide it up against the side of the front wheel. Measure how far away the top of the wheel is from the box. Repeat on the other side. That will at least give you a ballpark of how different the two sides are - but I wouldn't use those numbers for much more than a sanity check.

 

Thanks, everyone for the insight.

I didn't get the printout of the alignment - and I will ask to see if they kept a copy. Turns out that the left upper strut mount was bent - maybe from hitting a big bump - who knows . The roads in New England aren't the best - chuck holes as big as the Grand Canyon. MINI Peabody replaced the strut mount - under warranty good will and they say both sides are pretty close, now. The ride height is a bit higher on one side than the other, still. I wll also have to ask how much higher. Not sure why I didn't ge the info when I was there - got side-tracked, I guess.

So what gives? Is this a common occurence - with the strut mounts getting bent?

I have an M7 strut brace/shock tower reinforcement on order. I guess I should also pop for camber plates? Thoughts?

 

With some nice beefy camber plates, I think you'll get all the strut tower reinforcement you'll need. So, if you get camber plates you could probably skip the additional reinforcement plates.

 

I have the M7 strut brace on order, which uses the reinforcement plates as the mounting point for the strut bar. I will also seek out camber plates. Now I have to sort out which ones to get.

I never realized that the *needed* accessories for this car would cost me 2X the monthly payment . This MINI thing is definitely a slippery slope :impatient.

 

Ya gotta be strong...like me. ;-) No mods now. No mods ever. If anything gets a mod it's gonna be me. :-)

 

You have parts that are easily interchangable?