Suspension Brakes 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: Troubles with allignment after suspension mods

How many miles do you have on your car currently ? For the rear, you could be dealing with worn out control arm bushings.

For the front, i think -.5 is with in reason of the pass strut tower being out of spec. There is a decent thread on NAM (sorry) that illustrates and "non-violent mushroom repair). Personally, i used a 2x4 and a small sledge (2lb) to knock (SLOWLY w/ easy "taps") it back down. I then installed some Craven Strut tower defenders, which IMO are the only ones worth getting. I am on stock upper bushings atm, and both sides i am at -.3 camber, so i did something right.

As far as pushing the subframe over, it certainly cant hurt IMO. You are only dealing with a -.25 swing, and that is not much of anything, and a simple nudge could solve it.

Keep in mind the rear wheel arch is lower then the front, so dont use that to compare front to rear. The jack points would be better for that.

Only thing in the rear, did you drill out the stock bushing spacer and re-use it ? If not, this could be causing the extra low, and the extra Camber.

 

The front camber isn't adjustable, so there's no way to fine tune each side with fixed camber plates. There is no procedure for adjusting the strut tower. If the front camber is out of spec, the dealer will send the car to a body shop and have them adjust the car that way.

Camber, toe, and to a lesser degree caster will be affected by mushroomed strut towers. However, it's not unusual to see the right and left side off by a couple tenths of a degree, so some of the problem may be due to manufacturing tolerances. If you took the stock upper strut mounts off and replaced them with the IE fixed plates, compare the two old stock mounts. You'll see any sign of mushrooming in the stock plate very clearly - all three mounting bolts should point in the same direction. If they're spread apart, you had some mushrooming.

I'm pretty sure you're gonna have to pick up a set of rear lower control arms to get the rear back within spec. There's only about 0.4-0.5 degrees of adjustability in the rear. There's an eccentric-sleeved bolt that secures the stock lower control arm, and if you rotate the eccentric sleeve you can adjust the camber. But the lowering springs are gonna give you at least another half degree of camber, so to get them back within spec the adjustable control arms are useful.

 

I don't know what year the OP's MINI is, but I believe it is only 05 & 06 MINI's that have a bit of rear camber adjustability.

 

The sub frame has indexing dowels up front, so no way to adjust that orientation. Be sure the front shocks are inserted all the way in the knuckle, and the upper washer is above the spring plate on both sides. The studs on IE fixed plates are a slightly smaller diameter than stock, so the plate can be pulled or pushed a minor distance to improve camber disparity. In your case, standing in front facing the car, loosen the nuts and push the shocks toward left, that's driver side inward and passenger side outward. Of course as mentioned, before trying adjustment be sure there is no deformation to begin with.

I don't know where you would locate these, but I know they exist, and that's spring shims. They are made of stiff material and are placed above the rear lower spring perch. Try an additional 3/8ths shim on the rears and see what you get.

 

Honestly you probably won't feel half a degree difference between sides. On the track with sticky tires, you might be able to feel it. I had the opportunity to assist my mechanic with an alignment one time. I swear if you breathe on the car, it'll change camber by 0.1 degree. It's really a very small distance.

I'm not sure what the actual number is, but if the distance from the ground to the top of the strut is 36", the horizontal distance equivalent to 0.1 degrees at the top of the strut is 0.06", or 1/16". That's very small. 0.5 degrees is 0.31", or 5/16".

 

Were you in the car when the alignment specs were gathered, or any weight in the drivers seat ? If not, once you sit in the car you will gain some camber on the drivers side.

 

SPC control arms.

The sub frame cannot be moved because of the dowel cones.

 

Keep in mind that our rear arches are in fact smaller than our front arches and thus you will look lower in the rear than the front even if you aren't. The visual trick becomes more apparent as the tire closes the wheelgap and gets closer to the arch.

 

H-sports look nice on a blue car. Not much difference in control arms across brands. Just make sure to check the lock nuts once a month. Mine backed out a couple times.