7 replies to this topic

[ludsonline]

Hi,
I have done a search but cannot find the answer i want. I am going to lower my mini and want it fairly low. How much can it be lowered by?. Where do you take the measurement on a mini for castor?.

Are the camber, castor & toe in/out different for 10" to 13" wheels??

Cheers

Paul

[Minwah]

I have done a search but cannot find the answer i want. I am going to lower my mini and want it fairly low. How much can it be lowered by?.

You can usually lower a mini as much as you want to...

Where do you take the measurement on a mini for castor?.

Front wheels...you can get camber/castor gauges.

Are the camber, castor & toe in/out different for 10" to 13" wheels??

Optimum settings vary depending on wheel size, yes. For example less negative camber is recommended on a 13" wheel mini to that of a 10" mini. From memory, the Mini Spares website has some good articles on all of this stuff; ride height, geometry etc.

[Big_Adam]

if your doing a big lowering job then your going to have to have the suspension all adjusted so the geometry is all correct.

....I think.

[icklemini]

You can usually lower a mini as much as you want to...

well there is a limit - you really need some clearance between the front bump stops and the top arms.
some remove bump stops, bad practice that results in ball joints breaking.

at the back - things easier, but you need to watch the brake pipe...

Where do you take the measurement on a mini for castor

castor is at the front - basically its the camber change between 20 degs turned in, and 20 degs turned out

Are the camber, castor & toe in/out different for 10" to 13" wheels??

yes - each wheel size has a different setting, the setting i use when setting up 10" are different than when i setup 13". not wildly different, but, for example, where a 10" car can have lots of camber (lots = max 1.5deg- on a roadie), a 13" car i would run at the very most 0.5 degs neg..

[samwell]

would be interested to know whats required on the front to get it all set up correctly. Im getting rly uneven tyre wear (mostly inside) on my 13s (which i didnt install) but the whole geomitry needs to be changed. Would adjustable tie rods and lower arms be enuf to sort out the wear problms and hopefully get the best out of my handling.
Any cheat ways of setting this up without all the measuring tools a garage gas?

samwell

[Minwah]

well there is a limit - you really need some clearance between the front bump stops and the top arms.
some remove bump stops, bad practice that results in ball joints breaking.

But you can lower it as much as you want...just depends if you want to do things like cut bumpstops down/remove bumpstops

I had my previous mini very low...and yes it did knock out balljoints every 6 months or so, and exhaust front link pipe just about as often where it hit the road

[stevesmini]

Could remove bump stops and put coilovers with a built in bump on the damper then you will have to cut out inner arches and outer arches, you'll get a lot of oversteer when you have the grip but a soon as one wheel reaches it maximum movement in the motion of suspension you'll get understeer and that will make it handle like a pig.

[Minwah]

Could remove bump stops and put coilovers with a built in bump on the damper then you will have to cut out inner arches and outer arches, you'll get a lot of oversteer when you have the grip but a soon as one wheel reaches it maximum movement in the motion of suspension you'll get understeer and that will make it handle like a pig.

Mine didn't have a lot of shock travel and suffered with understeer badly when really chucking it in...like doing a u-turn on a mini roundabout. Apart from that it was pretty good, considering it only had about 1cm travel at the front...