I just came back from having my 2003 Mini Cooper S aligned. I was disappointed to find out that the castor and camber for the front end cannot be adjusted (and both were out of spec).

Is this true that there is no castor and camber adjustment? If so, are there kits available?
~Lamont

 

Yes, you don't have much adjustment built into the stock MINI front suspension except for toe settings. Right and left can be different as well. Later year MINIs do have some front camber adjustment but not in your year.

Front fixed camber plates will allow for more negative camber but it's fixed so right and left can still be not the same although more negative than the 0.5 degrees which is common stock. Castor is not adjustable.

Front adjustable camber plates can allow for more negative camber and some do allow for castor adjustment. In general just camber adjustment is enough for most owners unless you are using your MINI for track duty.
Check with vendors but camber plates are about $500 a pair plus installation. You can use them with lowering springs or full coilovers. If you have stock suspension then it doesn't really make sense to have camber plates.

For your year the rear suspension is also not adjustable for alignment except for toe settings. Rear camber can be adjusted by adding lower adjustable control arms, you can leave the upper stock control arms. You don't want too much rear negative camber so go moderate.

Stock alignment is about-
Front camber -0.5 degrees
front toe is slight toe in
Rear camber is -1.0 to -1.6 degrees
Rear toe is slight toe in

Adding front camber plates allows for as much as -2.4 degrees but less so if you don't lower your suspension. If you have more negative camber in front then you can run rear camber about 1 degree less negative for better handling balance. Too much rear camber can increase understeer.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply. I am curious to get your additional thoughts. My alignment guy said that my camber is already on the outside limit (spec) of the negative range -- so it sounds like camber plates would not help.

I should also mention that I am not trying to change my alignment for racing or performance purposes -- I am really simply trying to correct the tire wear problem that I have had since first purchasing my MINI.

Thanks for taking the time for the detailed reply. If you have additional thoughts please feel free to share as I appreciate them!
~Lamont

 

It doesn't really matter that your front camber is so off if it is not too far gone.

It is very likely that it is still OK for street driving but not so close right to left.

Normal front camber is about -0.5 degrees so when you say far off negative that is nearly meaningless since you want more negative in front. I have run -2.4 degrees in front with good results. If you know your exact alignment numbers you can post them so I can comment but if you are say -0.8 degrees that is fine. Not likely you are that on both sides.

Front camber plates that are adjustable could easily make you have -1.0 degree on both right and left with no ill effects on street driving.

 

I just came from the alignment shop and was told the same thing as lamontcg. The shop said that they could not align without the instalation of a camber kit which they want to charge about $700.00 dollars to purchase and install. My numbers were:

Left side camber = -.6
Right side camber = -.8

do I really need a camber kit to align or are they trying to screw me?

 

No, That sounds fine.

Might want to make sure you have no mushrooming up top, since a hammer and board can correct it.