I have a 07 r56 cooper hardtop S I got about 2 years ago. I get a winding noise most noticeable that sounds like its the tires in the 30-40 mph range. I took it to goodyear and had it aligned and it didn't need much. I had it aligned about a year earlier. I did some spirited driving on the dragon this year. and a couple months later is when my tires started making this noise.

good year says the rear tires are chopped up on the inside and if rotated to the front it will cause vibration. heres some photos I took while I was replacing the front brakes. you can see the garage floor dust on the higher parts of the tire. like every other thread block is high/low.

the tires are 215/45 ZR 17". and the door jam sticker says original tires were 205/45 R 17". I bought the car with these tires. I've been putting in 38 psi as thats what the sticker says. oddly, goodyear says I had 45 psi in them. maybe cause my car was sitting out in the sun all day. but strange. I checked my digital gauge with two other digial gauges and they are all identical. I haven't rotated the tires either. and the front two have been replaced. I should have rotated them when I got the car. I've only put 14k miles on the car.

so, what can I do to get rid of this noise? and would it be unsafe if I put the rears on the front? I read something about getting the tires shaved? what caused the chopping?

 

regular rotation will prevent the wear and keep the tires quiet

for fwd and non-directional tires,

fronts move to opposite side rear and rears move straight forward to front

for fwd and directional tires, swap front and rear on same side of car

rotate every 4000-6000 miles

 

the tires are continental extremecontact dw. they aren't directional but there is a inside/outside to the tire cause goodyear mounted one on the rim the wrong way but I caught it before I left.

anyway, it looks like the rear tires aren't making complete contact with the ground because of the toe out and chopping of course. do you think i should move them to the front? and should I be using different psi since these tires aren't the original size?

 

i find the mini recommended peessure too low

i am running 42 psi front 37 psi rear on my all4 with michelin pilot super sports

above pressures set using tire pyrometer borrowed from a racing friend

i would definitely rotate them croosing thr fronts to opposite side rear and rears straight forward to front

 

see
http://www.tirewear.org/steps-on-how...-tire-cupping/
and
http://www.mnautox.com/forums/showth...What-causes-it

Check suspension for worn parts.

 

OP days only 14k miles on car ... i doubt worn suspension

could be alignment but i see the same wear pattern beginning at about 5k miles on my michelin pilot super sports, that is why i rotate every 4k miles

i had the alignment checked and it was within specs ...

i suspect rotation is more important with sticky summer tires like the OP's conti DW tires and my PSS tires

 

goodyear said the suspension looked ok, but I'll take that with a grain of salt. if the suspension was bad, wouldn't it just be one side? what are the odds of both sides going bad? both tires seem to have identical damage.

 

Might just be the camera angle, but it looks to my eye like you have positive camber - the tires lean out away from the car at the top. Generally you want 0 to slightly negative camber.

 

heres the info sheet I got from goodyear when I had the alignment done. I have a 2 year alignment program with them so when I heard the noise I took it in hoping an alignment would fix it.

I have the papers from the past two alignments as well. at the top of the paper where it says mini, I don't see the S. I wonder if these are the right specs for the S. or if they are using specs for the non S. how could I find out? it would only matter if the S and non have different alignment specs.

 

I dug out my Bentley manual, for the standard and sport suspension:

Rear axle:
Total Toe: 0 deg 24' +/- 12' = decimal 0.4 +/- 0.2
Camber: -1 deg 45' +/- 25' = decimal -1.75 +/- 0.4

The toe spec seems high to me, but according to the alignment numbers you're about right. The camber also seems high, I don't think I had anywhere near that with the stock suspension. When I installed my coilovers and had it aligned it was set to -2 front and rear which is easily noticed visually.

Anyways park it on a level surface and look at the angle of the rear wheels, if they appear to lean out at the tops then you need to have the camber checked. Maybe the guy running the alignment machine confused + and - LOL.

 

One tip...
The specs that MINI gives is with WEIGHTS IN THE CAR TO SIMULATE A DRIVER.....
Causes the suspension to compress a bit...
Many/most shops don't do this...
Yes...MINI's tend to use tires...short wheelbase, aggressive suspension, etc...
And both rear or all 4 struts/shocks might be bad just from age...the OEM Delphi automotive units are crap...mine were dead after about 4 years and 40,000 miles.....and yes, most of the MINI's suspension bushings are rubber...unlike urethane units, they age, crack and harder, regardless of use, but BMW/MINI went with rubber to give a "nicer" ride...bet they might be kinda dead by now too...

 

I got camber and toe confused earlier. anyway I looked at it all put back together and its got negative camber. some reason when the front was jacked up it looked like positive. I rotated front wheels straight back and rears to opposite. the front of the car makes a rumble sound now. its kinda worse than before. louder, at any speed too. I'm gonna call around and see if a tire place can shave off the rubber and make it even. as fast as the mini wears through front tires. if they can't shave it off, it may be worth it to deal with the sound cause it might not take long to go away.

 

I am on my second set of DW tires on my Clubman and they've both worn evenly. I do rotate them. I suspect you have worn suspension components.

 

Your alignment numbers look OK.

Negative camber front and rear is normal for all MINIs, you can ask for it to be set to minimal values if you care about tire wear. The less negative the camber the less you use your tires evenly on turns at speed.

Check all of your suspension parts:
Shocks for leaks,
Control arms for bends or worn bushings

If you have an 07 MCS and the shocks are original they might be worn out.

 

Sorry to revive an older thread but I'm having the exact same issue with my rear continental DW tires. What did you do to fix the tires?

 

rotate your tires more frequently. I rotated mine to the front and spent a few hours sanding the high spots down but couldn't get enough rubber off and it made hardly no difference in noise. you may be able to find a tire shop that has a machine to do it. I found one local, but it was like 50 per tire and ended up not wanting to spend the money. I rotated mine to the front and it was noisy for awhile but I think the sound has gone down as I don't notice it much anymore.

 

If you can catch the wear early a rotation can help. With DW you want to make sure they rotate to the other side of the vehicle.