Do you other cars have similar spring rates, dampening and travel as your MINI?

 

Joel, I hope your dealer is more lenient than mine.. They didn't want to cover my broken camber because of the mushrooming.. W/o the mushrooming, they would have replaced it. But since it's mushrooming, it was a sign of my "wrong" doing. This is really B.S., because a car should be able to stand bad potholes.... Anyways, my dealer told me to go to a body shop to get this fixed...

Good luck...

///Gilbert

 

I can tell you that my Camaro has a much harsher ride...

But c'on, daily driving causes this kind of problem? Why is the tower so soft as to mushroom like that?

 

CARdiac, r u sure u didnt hit sum rather large holes do0D!?

cuz i know these towers are cheap and flimsy but i have hit sum myself and to date no mushrooming

 

Gilbert-

Is your suspension stock?

Cardiac- Are we to assume yours is stock? Sounded like it was.

 

Here is a picture of the crack-




Here is the flat tower:

and the other mushroomed one:

 

I hit one, but not so bad-

Yes, stock

 

sumthin' must be seriously wrong here cuz like i said i've managed to hit sum but no damage like that

 

After hitting the pot hole I checked the strut (b/c I had seen this thread in the past) no cracking or mushrooming... but that was a while ago

 

Dunno. Depends on what your daily driving involves. Places like Chicago and NY with their monster sized pot-holes are considered daily driving, and they get mushrooming. :impatient

As I've said, I've fallen prone to this issue, hence the reason I started this thread. However, my dealership made a big deal out of "mushrooming". To this day, I honestly cannot see any mushrooming, but the Service Advisor said he saw a little. I had to call in the head MINI mechanic to look at it. Of course he could not say that the advisor was wrong, but he did tell the advisor that my car would get fixed under warranty.

I don't think they're soft necessarily. I've seen cars with mucho miles on them without any mushrooming. I've heard of cases like yours where they were mushroomed without any hard hits.

Kind of like how badly my car reacted to version 39.2 of the ECU software while other people said it fixed much of all of their drivability issues. Wierd huh

 

i think the mushroomed strut towers is an argument in favor of Webb's camber plates. They do raise the car up but they are thick and spread out the shock. The ride is slightly harsher though.

 

and to add to that......... w/a M7 strut bar they're sure to werk together very well.......

 

Is there a safety concern about driving with it like that? I have a 50 mile trip to the dealer.

 

Yup it was stock when I got the mushrooming problem (ripped OEM camber).. I found out about my ripped OEM camber when I was doing my KONI/Hsport. Next day, I took it to the dealer to get it fixed...They pretty much said they won't fix it because of the mushroom..

So I started hammering away and added some camber plates....

///Gilbert

 

I think this issue needs more national and/or international attention! Obviously these towers and bushings were under-engineered and cheap. For so many dealers to deny warranty work because of pot holes is rediculous. For those w/ supposed pot hole damage get that in writing from you dealer, then go after the city for the cost of repairs and while your at it call your local news troubleshooter/advocate and lets start raising a stink! This is much more serious and much more of a safety issue than rear fogs but so many of you seem to be just letting your dealer snow you! I don't want to see my airbags just because my dealer and mfg are a bunch of cheap,corner cutting, jacka**es. My dealer did replace mine w/o so much as a peep and even volunteered to replace both when only one was bad. That and the parts were in stock tells me they know all about this. My dealer just replaced both my window and lock motors when only one was acting up, that tells me we'll be looking at that issue again down the road too. They push the BMW/MINI image when selling this car but BMW is slipping fast in quality and service in my opinion.

 

In case your wondering about my rant. I am currently finding myself defending my car to my wife who is ready to sell it out from under me. The rear hatch latch has been replaced once, adjusted twice, and yesterday replaced again. Couple that w/ the rough idle, broken strut mounts, windows and locks that don't work, AC and radio that sometimes don't work, broken/rough clutch linkage, soft scratched up windshield, $100 dealer alignment, and sometimes 2 weeks to get appointment at dealership has her really starting to push me to get rid of it. And everytime I have to call the dealership it just adds to her arguement. She does love to drive the car but w/ our schedules it is getting to be a real pain to do w/o the car for 2-3 days at a pop.She went in yesterday because they "adjusted" the rear latch because it was rattling. The hatch then became very difficult to close and the light almost never went out on the first try. It started rattling again in two days. She went back and lifted up on the hatch and it opened w/o using the button! She was able to do this several times before it latched hard. The dealer said it was broken (again!) and replaced it while she waited (getting more and more po's every minute because the SA seemed to blow it off like it was nothing important and she was taking up his time - can anyone say Chrysler Mini Van?) She talked w/ another 7Series owner who's car was going on 3 days for an oil change because the computer would not reset (second 7Series owner we have talked to personally to have this proplem)! 3 days to change the oil in an $80K car!!! I just know I'm going to come home one of these days and find a new G35 in the driveway and I get mad because I'm getting to the point of not blaming her.

End Rant #2

 

Well said...

There are actually 2 different problems and obviously weak part here but related...

1. cracked OEM camber (seems as if dealer will replace under warranty unless you have changed/added some aftermarket parts (shocks/strut bars))

2. mushrooming problem (dealer won't touch since it will cost them $$$, so they blame your driving)

One other thing to point out is that most of the mushrooming (90%) are on the passenger side.... Is it coincidence???

///Gilbert

 

From what I have read, and my own experience, the cracked strut mounts are predominantly on the passenger side also.

My right strut mount cracked also, with no mushrooming, and the dealer still tried to blame my driving! I won't go into the frustrating details but after going around and around for a couple of months, I gave up and replaced it myself. Meanwhile that tire ended up worn very unevenly because, of course, the camber was way out while I drove back and forth to work and argued with my dealer.

 

I just left the dealer and I was told that I definately hit something and the cracking problem is not a problem on the 05... so it looks like this will be an out of pocket expense, tho she did recommend I touch base with my ins co to see if they will cover it....

I am seriously concerned that daily driving can cause this kind of problem... I have not done any autocross nor have I been abusive to my car... my other car has 150K miles and never had an issue like this- and driven the same roads...

 

I suggest all of you guys contact Mini north america and complain often and bitterly. BMW had the same problem with the rear shock towers of the e36 cars. They would fix it if it happened in warranty, but not once the car is out of warranty.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil....

 

..

 

Anyone else find it aggravating that MINI USA will jump all over a 5 post thread concerning dealers misrepresenting an aftermarket warranty on tires/wheels but seem to avoid and/or sneak around threads like this one and the one concerning MCSa problems?

 

PS. It it helps anyone or they just need some ammunition my mounts were replaced by Tom Bush MINI in Jacksonville, FL after hearing rubbing noises during low speed tight turns. I figured the tire wear was my fault.

 

hey i jus saw, what u mean!!!

they have not responded on that tyre thread yet, though.....havent heard of a solution either....

 

count me in as part of the club. 2 cracked mounts and one slight Mushroom. I'll give you a million dollars if you can guess which side is mushrooming?

I hope this doesn't lead to unsafe Driving.