My car is scheduled for work on Wed and one of the items is my passenger side mushroomed tower. We'll see what they say.

 

The 17 inch wheels and the runflats are definitely a risk factor (based on poll responses). You might want to consider re-inforcing the strut towers. (And keeping an eye on the strut mounts regardless of whether you chose to re-inforce the strut towers.)

 

Damn! I had been following the issue and was considering the SRP's when, Bam, raised manhole cover, construction zone, not that hard of a hit ,no tire/wheel damage, no apparent strut mount rubber damage, now it looks like I have slight mushrooming, passenger side (same side of the hit) tower. Needless to say, the SRP's are on the way. No other potholes, 1500 miles and yes, 17" rf's, stock suspension.

 

Your damage likely occurred as a result of the 17 inch wheels and the runflat tires....

 

Well, Snow's coming soon sad to say then I'll prolly ditch the rf's in the spring.

 

I have a question.. Will a strut tower brace that uses a large moutning plate ie: jcw help with mushrooming or do i need to do the plates and a bar. I understand that the m7 may do this with there really large plates that come with there bar.

 

You need the large plate to relieve the strut tops from mushrooming. The JCW strut bar does not include any type of plates for the strut top to insure no mushrooming. M7 sells SRP's which cover the entire strut top, and you do not need the strut bar. If you want the strut bar, m7's is problably one of the best. I have a 06 with 20k lowered almost 3 inches all the way around, and I run the m7 strut bar. Have no mushrooming to this day. Check out customminishop.com - they sell everything m7.

 

 

The passenger side appears mushroomed also...

 

Great .

Thanks, I just had nothing to compare it with and the driver's side was pretty obvious

I better give Peter a call..

What's the consensus, just SRP's or the STB?

 

They both strengthen the tower caps...I have the STB for added chassis stiffness

 

Thanks

(Added bling doesn't hurt either )

 

Seems to be a case-by-case basis on Good Will not warranty. This is of course providing there is no road damage (pothole type) the is the cause. I gotta give thumbs up to my guys for taking care of my mystery mushroom as there was no other damage beside the bent strut mount causing the mushroomed tower.

My take on the re-inforcement is this, And I've talked to shops and bulders alike with the same response, ANY bar will help with the mushrooming. The weak spot is the strut bearing assembly that is bending, and taking the sheetmetal with it. This will not be corrected by any bar, M7 included, but the brace (JCW, M7 etc) will keep the mushrooming to a minimum. the best fix is to replace the OEM strut mount with stronger camberplates, either adjustable like Helix, or fixed like Ireland Engineering.

 

I have avoided potholes like the plague and I still have mushrooming on both sides, with the driver side the most noticeable. However with the bombed-like roads along southeast Michigan, it is no wonder mine are mushroomed.

 

You may have bombed roads in Michigan; but in the S.F. bay area, we have fox holes in the roadway. Ever see an 18 wheel tractor-trailer swerve to avoid breaking his axles (from the encounter with the fox hole)? He almost took out 3 cars that were in the lane immediately to left of the tractor-trailer.

 

Our '06 MCS Cabrio had mushrooming on the passenger side after less than 6,000 miles and no notable impacts. Wheels are Web-spokes, with 17" run-flats.

The mushrooming didn't look too bad, but it was enough that when I installed the M7 SRP on that side, I couldn't even get all three of the bolts started. After following the directions and flattening the metal back out, everything went together fine. I also have a set ready to go into my new car when it arrives next week. I may even put them on before I drive the car home!

Scott

 

18s... non runflat.... NO PROBLEMO!

 

Friend comes over today. '06 MCS - 1500 miles, 17" dunlop run-flats. Stock suspension. Driver's strut tower had a decent crease/mushroom - especially for such low mileage. Passenger side was very slightly out of shape.

Installed an M7 STB with an performed the bonnet pad back-side-ectomy.

Comparing these strut towers those on to my daughter's TOYota Camry, the MINI's strut towers look like they belong on a toy .

 

I went to put on my new M7STB and frickin mushrooming on both sides. 04MCS 18" Dunlop Run-Flats stock suspension. I am going to the dealer to see what can be done. Will update.

 

. . . Not certain that I can tell whether this is occurring on my car: '05 w/17" runflats . . . low miles

is there any difference here than depicted on MiniMacPR's photos?

I'm pretty good about dodging pot holes and taking it easy on rough road. Can hard cornering do the damage as well?

 

I have the Strut Reinforcement Plates instead of the Strut Brace, but the directions that are included with the Plates describe how to flatten out the mushrooming with a block of wood and a hammer. Worked perfectly on my wife's car, and her mushrooming was bad enough that the passenger-side plate wouldn't even go on over the bolts at first. I did wrap the wood block with a thin towel to prevent marring the paint on the strut tower.

Scott

 

You certainly appear to be tempting fate (with the 17-inch wheels and runflat tires).

In terms of do your strut towers show mushrooming - they don't appear to be; however, the only way to conclusively tell would be to put some re-inforcing plates on and see if there is any mushrooming.

Safe driving practices seem to have avoided the dreaded disease (mushrooming). But if it were mine, I would either loose the runflats and 17 inch wheels or invest in a set of re-inforcing plates. Or, better yet - re-inforce from below with a set of camber plates. Also, there is the risk of cracked strut mounts inside the strut towers. Reinforcing plates won't stop that (strut mount failure) from happening.

 

I'm not trying to tempt anything . . . I'm more than a bit concerned about this issue . . . and, mushrooming aside, have wanted to add a STB in addition to other upgrades. No real interest in the 16" wheels . . . at least I haven't been looking in that direction.

I'm also curious as to whether loads experienced in dramatic cornering can produce the same damage as a pothole?

A prior post questionned how the SRP's work. I'm not an engineer, but I can't quite grasp how the plate functions on the top of the tower.

Would it not have to be installed under the portion of the body work that the struts are actually mounted to make any difference . . . otherwise I imagine it could eventually get "punched" up, possibly stripping the bolts upon which it is mounted.

What do I know? Not much.

 

16 inch wheels are a consideration insofar as the tires will be taller (going from /45 series cross section to /50 series), which provides more rubber (the tire sidewall) to absorb road impact before it gets transmitted to the strut tower.

Doubtful as the load from cornering is different (horizontal application of forces) than potholes (vertical application of forces). Although, if you hit a pothole while cornering, all bets are off....

There has been a whole line of back-and-forth in another thread between Dave and at least two of the people (Peter and Randy if memory serves) at M7 about which is the best way to protect from mushrooming the strut towers. Plates on top of the strut tower probably can be conceptualized as adding a re-inforcement that fights the urge of the strut tower sheet metal to give (bulge/mushroom) in response to road impacts.

You have grasped the essential point of debate between Dave and the crew at M7. My personal belief is that the plates probably provide an intermediate level of protection against mushrooming. A more permanent solution would be to install camber plates under the strut tower sheet metal. If you were to install adjustable camber plates under the strut towers, you would gain a further benefit in that you could adjust camber and further improve the MINI's handling. Also, Ireland Engineering sells a fixed camber plate that has a mild amount of negative camber but has a more robust strut mount (the rubber thing that is also prone to fail in addition to the mushrooming). The reinforcement plates will do nothing to stop the rubber strut mount from failing in response to road impacts; so, the best solution in my mind is the Ireland Engineering fixed camber plates with the more robust strut mount.

Don't sell yourself short. You were able to think through the issues and ask relevent questions.

 

I hope they've fixed this issue with the R56