My Mate has a R50 Cooper S and it *wanders* left!!

You need to have a hand on the wheel all the time or it goes left.

It has been like that from new and has had several wheel alignments, tyre swaps with no change. ($165 for the last alignment at BMW )

I went and saw THE wheel alignment guru in Brisbane yesterday, and all is OK with the alignment, but it still pulls left

After he phoned a couple of guys that race these things, they all say they pull left and it is a factory problem.

Anybody out there got or had this problem and *maybe* found a fix for it

Minimad

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You can take the boy out of the racer.........but not the racer out of the boy!

Some of the early MINIs had a left pull problem.
It is well documented over on MINI2 in the Faults & Fixes forum.

Those who believe they all pull to the left are idiots. Most track straight and true.

I had a Cooper that pulled to the left, the dealer said, "they all do that" or i"they just follow the camber because they have sharp steering" - RUBBISH it was and is a fault.
The fix was to replace the whole front suspension, not cheap which is why the dealers official line is that they all pull left. Onve the suspension was replaced it drove as straight as an arrow on any road surface as does my current Cooper S.

Take the car to a quiet carpark and line it up in the marked bays. Then set off in 1st gear very slowly with hands off the wheel, if it pulls one way then turn around, line it up in the same set of bays and repeat in the opposit direction. If it pulls left in both directions then it needs fixing. Mine would pull left against the slope and in the USA they had just as many pulling to the left as in the UK and of course in the USA that means pulling towards the oncoming traffic.
Wheel alignments or tyre pressure changes will not fix it.

Thanks for that.

I have just been trawling through MINI2 forum and found some interesting posts.

The thing is, that car is only a 2005 model....not sure why it wasn't fixed.

Well my mate will be VERY happy that he spent the $165 at BMW just before that car went out of warranty....new suspension coming up...at BMWs expense

Minimad

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You can take the boy out of the racer.........but not the racer out of the boy!

My mum's car (05 Cooper S) was doing that and we had a heap of wheel alignments done but eventually we found when we fitted new tyres it went away - how, I don't know. We thought about it for a while and it only started happening as the tyres were just about buggered.

Dunno what happened but hopefully new suspension should fix the problem.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Possibly to counteract the 'right wing' views of the hoity toity owners?

Ok, that was a joke, and I'm fairly confident should not spark up too much abuse.

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

Remove whatever you have wedged under the FLH guard...just kidding.

A fellow here had the same issue with a 05 plated Mini and was told also it was a "known factory issue" by the local mini garage here in ACT. In other words I dont think BMW have a clue. resetting the car after the new suspension goes in might sort your woes.

Good luck

Hooroo

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Rob Forsyth
Miniot!!