Suspension Brakes Most liked posts in thread: Control Arms?

The R53's had problems with their stock 2-piece rear control arms buckling under heavy load [mainly from potholes, not so much on track], so later on MINI redesigned them to be 1-piece units that were both lighter and stronger. The only real reason to swap out the 1-piece stockers is to gain camber adjustment beyond the factory eccentric bolt, which shouldn't be a problem if you lower your car under 2".

HTH,
Ryan

 

In my experience, not so. I'm on TSW springs which are dropping me about an inch or a bit more in the rear (cabrio). With the OEM camber adjustment set to minimum, I was still at -2.2deg - a good bit more than the OEM adjustment and way more than the -1.5deg or so that I wanted. So I needed control arms. But I'm happy because my H-Sports are pretty, easy to adjust and strong.

 

... or R52's...

 

None taken.

 

In my experience the R56's are able to pull the rear camber in easier with the eccentric bolt than the R53's. My R56 is lowered 2.4" and I'm able to keep my camber at about -1.5 degrees with stock eccentric and arms.

 

Oooops.... my bad Ryan.... somehow missed that I was in a 2nd gen thread and the OP was asking about an R56... so we're both right. I'm just in the wrong place. :lol:

 

Fair enough! I do remember that the R53 control arms don't allow for as much correction with lowered setups. Perhaps the R53 control arms are a touch longer? I haven't measured them.

 

Might also be the adjuster slot on the trailing arm or something - I haven't compared that part of the 1st gen and 2nd gen arms side-by-side.

 

The JCW suspension for the R56 is an advertised 10mm lowering, which as you know is hardly as much as the car needs to look good.

I'm running KW V1 coilovers, which are fantastic for the sporting daily driver my R56 is.

 

I've found it pretty car dependent. Alot of the R56s we aligned wouldn't get anything less than 1.7