2nd Gen R55 Clubman Most liked posts in thread: Alignment Problem

Thing is though, that shouldnt be necessary at all. I am sincerely lost as to why your suspension is so far off whack.

Photos maybe ? of the bolt holes, and then also the essentric bolts in the control arms ?

 

Adding IE camber plates is a good move. Be aware that they also add front toe in. Get an alignment so the toe can be corected.

 

What Chuck said....
My toe changed quite a bit with the IE fixed camber plates. Too much toe will really wear down the tire tread fast, more so than the camber being off. Get the tow fixed and I wouldn't worry about a 2 hour drive to an alignment shop that knows MINI's.

And I'd stay away from any place that can't even figure out who makes MINI's....

 

Keep in mind that MINI has a pretty wide range of "in spec" on alignments...
Front can be anywhere between -.5 to -1.0 and of course not match right to left..

If you know what specs you want it set at "most" any good alignment guy can do it.. They may charge alittle more for doing a "custom" alignment though.. I go where minimark suggested here locally to a Mock Tire Store and their guy is great..Will even let you set in the car while he is doing it so the specs are with your weight in it.. and less then $75 each time I've had it done.. At that price I don't mind playing around with my specs from time to time..

 

"In spec" sucks. :lol:

You could just tell the shop to zero your toe and not worry about camber (since it's where it should be with the IE plates).

- andrew

 

The subframe is attached with slotted holes. So loosen those, and pry the subframe, IMO thats where the issue is. On my first gen, it moved very easily w/ a strategically placed pry bar.

To adjust toe with the control arms, you will need BOTH upper and lowers. Just lowers will allow adjustment of camber, but not toe on their own.

 

Are they adjusting the forward most mount of the trailing arm to tune the toe ?

Wouldnt be the first shop not to do it the correct way...

 

Unless something's bent, there should be plenty of room to adjust the rear toe. I'd have to question the alignment shop on this one. Is this shop familiar with BMWs? They're set up the same way.

 

Ok, yeah they werent adjusting the right part of the car.

To adjust toe in the rear, you need to loosen the THREE bolts (per side) that hold on the front trailing arm bushing. That bushing has slotted holes, and is the correct way to do the alignment.

#7 Here:

 

Agree.

 

:cornut: A technical thread that I completely understand,GREAT! Man when y'all start talkin that computer talk,I'm lost.:lol:

Jasonopcorn:

 

I wonder if removing that part & slotting the bolt holes a bit more would do it.

 

Did you ever resolve this issue ? Could be good to know for future reference what was the cause.

 

If you had serious feathering problems, you had a toe issue. It might have been corrected later but my guess is your initial alignment was not so good. I always question when a tech says "in spec." I need to see a printout.

I am not very diligent about rotating my tires and I do not remember the last time I had feathering on my tires (for my previous 2 cars). I almost always run 0 toe front and rear though. And I generally do run a decent amount of camber.

- Andrew

 

What is the purpose of toe? Or maybe I should ask... what is the result of toe or 0 toe. don't mean to hijack.