Today I talked with Scott @ Home and he suggested re-tightening the top strut nuts to the top strut plate. It had worked itself loose, just a little! So I re-torqued and added 8lb and it worked! A thousand thank yous to Scott and his company's collective knowledge. He also said that if it works loose again to remove the nut and put a dab of blue locktite on the threads and re-torque. Kudo's to Motoring Magic If someone remembers to ask in a few months, or the clunk comes back to remind me, I will update the result.
Blue Loctite 242 is a very good idea. The nyloc nuts can be reused sometimes & sometimes they will loosen. Glad you worked it out. I'm still a fan of IE fixed camber plates.
If those stock plates give me grief I will change them and IE fixed would be a good thing for the driving I do. I am getting to old to want to drift corners:biggrin5:
First, Happy it turned out to be something that simple-the FSD is a great product and you shouldnt have any further problems with that. As for the IE plates-MAN I have to tellyou all, I took mine OFF this week due to a long driving vacation scheduled with my son in July and the hope to not wear out a set of tires while not having access to my shop-BUT what a difference! I am not sure I can drive my car very long without them-unbelieveable how much better the car rides/drives with them on! been on there 6 years and it is weird having "stock" driving and alignment specs. The IE plates are another of my favorite bolt on products.
So you would go IE fixed and not adjustable or something like Vorshlag? The big problem here is having to drive 1+hour to get to a place that can align a car properly. Les Schwab is not cuttin' it!! Driving all the way around the Puget Sound to find a good aftermarket automotive sports car shop is a hassle. This County does not have a BMW, Mercedes, Lexis, Land Rover, Ferrari, Porsche, Lambro, or anything else that gets more exotic, dealership. Exotic here means a pimped out John Deere...
complete simple bolt on As my post above indicates, the IE fixed plates are fantastic imho. No carving, or anything else needed on 2nd gen cars, they are a simple bolt on. FIrst gen cars can require a minor flattening of the vertical support bump in the shock tower on 05/06 cars. You will need an alignment but a tire store alignment is fine, the only big adjustment thing that will change is toe, easily reset by anyone whoe can set the carup on an alignment machine. they will add .5 to.8 of negative camber to your car on each side and the ride and turn in is really improved-BUT-you must be aggressive about tire rotations! every 3000 miles if you want your tires to live.:wink:
That increase in negative camber eats tires?! Apparently so, but it must be worth it for your daily driver to do it. For trips it is not worth it?? I would think that long behind the wheel periods you would want a well behaved car and not the constant fight that OEM MINI can present. When you rotate do you just do the front to rear rotation? Thanks for all the input! Stephen
:cornut: To the best of my knowledge Toe, either 'in' or 'out' is much harder on tires than proper camber and caster is most guilty of causing 'twitchy' steering. Jason
I've driven 100k miles with camber plates on my daily driver. They do not noticeably accelerate tire wear, as long as toe is set properly and inflation is correct. Too much toe eats tires. So does under inflated runflats.
Front to rear & if the tires allow it cross them from side to side. Many tires are directional & won't let you flip sides.
IE Fixed camber plates were the best single mod to my MINI (along with the H-Sport rear adjustable control arms) .... That and definitely a good alignment, front and rear, by someone that knows what they are doing... I drove all the way to Detroit Tunes for Chad's alignment prowess and am glad I did.... You can certainly tell the difference from someone familiar with the proper alignment equipment and especially ones who work on MINI.... Versus... say some "dude" that works on John Deere's and anything else that rolls into the shop.... Don't be afraid to drive the distance for a proper alignment Unless you plan on tracking the MINI you don't need the Vorschlag... They are certainly built well.... And if you get the IE camber plates, go fixed and not the adjustable ones.... IMHO... EDIT: Got nothing against JD....
:confused5: So 'splain' on us, why did you take them off for a long trip? It sounds like you're saying that they are only good for short drives or that they eat tires or that the front end quickly goes out of alignment with the IE's on your car. What's the deal? Jason
Just so you know... When moving from stock camber plates to IE fixed plates,,, you must get an alignment... And going back to stock...another alignment will be required... It will really change the toe tremendously if you don't...
Since I rotate my tires front to rear for winter wheel and tires to summer wheel and tires every year that is not a big deal. It looks like the IE fixed plates are the way to go. Yes, why take them off for a road trip? I am planning a trip from Washington State to Florida, then Virginia and up to Canada and back across Canada and it sure would be good to get this all sorted out before next Spring.
Not at all-as long as I am not driving on 200 treadwear tires. 0ver my favorite twisty roads. I live near the Santa Monica mountains and all the famed roads of Malbu and spend some time up there early on weekdays when there is no leos to worry about, testing stuff and generally hacking around. admittedly, my car gets attention LAST in the hubub of running the shop, participating in as many SCMM events as possible, steering my 12 yo, lately playing with my 427 Fairlane, etc etc-and had not seen an alignment rack in 4 years. When I switched back this week I had it aligned, but of course it was off due to the stock plates. They are definitely not working out, gotta switch them back, car is terrible after driving 80k on the IEs. Perhaps my thinking should be towards some harder tires for the 2000 mile trip coming up. Of course it hard to give up the ride and grip of soft, round tires too. Maybe I just need to send a set of tires to spokane for the halfish way point-I dunno. At any rate, there are few mods as great as the IE fixed plates, and switching back to stock surely put an exclamation point on that!
Of all the things I have done to my MINI IE plates are at the top of the list. Yes even above the 15% pulley.
Bumping this thread as I just purchased a used R56for backroads + a few HPDEs a year. As a newb., with differences in tolerances in how our cars are made, I don't understand how a fixed camber plate can yield the same neg. camber in the front on both sides. Is there another adjustment point to balance the camber as best as possible L/R? I've read about the IE fixed camber plates raising the car 1/8-1/4th of an inch in the front, have others found the same? Many thanks!
OK perhaps I figured it out? The R56 has a concentric bolt that can be adjusted for fine tuning camber even with the IE fixed plates. Eh?
There are slotted holes in the body that give additional fine tuning of the IE fixed plates.... Chad at Detroit Tuned was able to balance mine.... I also went with Swift lowering springs which more than accounted for the slight increase in top plate thickness.. These two mods along with the adjustable rear camber struts were the best mods made to my MINI....