hello all well i have some h-sport camber plates and the h-sport tower brace and cant install them due to balloned towers, i LOVE michigan roads
so anywho i was curiouse about my options and what i can do if on my own to remedy the issue

some say smake it with a hammer ........um no
and otehrs say sandwich it with the camber plats and that will bring it back to possition, .....well i dont need to bent the camber plates

so i was wondering if anyone else had the same issues and to what i can do to fix the problem :(

thanks in advance
chris

 

A block of 2x4 maple or oak about a foot long and a bigass hammer.

Really!

Lay the wood over the ballooned areas and pound away till it's flat again. The wood distributes the force evenly and acts as a cushion for the paint. The block prevents you from going too far (it acts as a bridge once you are flat). Touch up any chipped paint especially underneath to prevent corrosion.

 

If you take it to a body shop, does anyone know how they flatten it out???

///Gilbert

 

With a much more expensive hammer and a plastic block.

 

Thanks Leel... That made my day (been a long one)..

///Gilbert

 

should i remove the struts or just leave them in something is telling me to take them off since their would be less metal to straiten!!!:smile:

 

take the struts off first. You will not have to pound it that hard either btw.

 

oh yeah Gilbert, I can also confirm that the (bodyshop/dealer) just pound it flat and use pink nail polish for touch up. j/k, it's black nail polish.

 

well... the dealerships are advised to do the following:
1. Supply tech. with car
2. Make tech very angry...
3. Give tech nice big sturdy hammer and block of wood
4. Tell tech to take frustration out on customers shock towers with supplied hammer and block of wood
5. In about 30min-1hr car should be done and customer should be happy... so as long as they didn't see this archaic "fix" occur.



seriously though... MINI tells the dealerships to use a block of wood an a good old fashion hammer! Itll get the job done!

(P.S) we have run into these problems at the dealer with the camber plates and this is how we deal with it (we actually build and sell turn key spec mini cooper S race cars... we have about 12 or so on the road and burning gas!) They are pretty neat cars... they can still function as a daily driver... but do quite a bit of damage to porsches on the race tracks

 

So just pound it back in place, but continuing to drive on the same roads, the towers will likely balloon out again, right? Is there anything to help prevent ballooning?

 

well i thought the thicker metal from the camber plates anf the strut brace would remedy some of this since you are building up the mount!

 

yeah... i know... i don't agree witht he fix since anyone who has ever worked with metal knows that if you have bent metal... then bend it back into place... its weaker than what it was before you bent it back!

Hopefully with camber plates it will help add some strength... i hate to add a strut bar to the front... i just really don't like to stiffen the front anymore than it already is... if i stiffened the front i wouldn't definetly add a rear sway to counter act the increased ridgity of the front... does that make any sense? its soo hot here in phoenix i can't think straight!

 

With a fair amount of bump-stopping (a few times with no bump-stops ), I'm guessing that I might be in need of a few good whacks to get things back. Any photos to share? Nice to have for comparison purposes... Thanks.

 

I have the Webb camber plates. Hopefully I will not experience this condition as they are big. heavy, and fit under the top of the shock tower. Check them out.

 

Ah, I hate to break it to you, but your H-Sport plates aren't going to help prevent your ballooning situation. I just got rid of H-Sport camber plates because of the ballooning on the top of my strut towers, combined with having gone through a couple of sets of bushings because they shredded and messed up my steering feel. Keep your ears open for creaking bushings and steering that pulls right after you turn right, left after you turn left, etc. I went with RDR camber plates because I got a sweet deal, but the Ireland Engineering plates are just as good, at a fraction of the price.