Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum, as well I am new to owning a Mini Cooper. I bought my 2004 Mini Cooper S last week and since then it has been awesome. Great gasmileage, and greate over all performance.

But unfortunatley today I had my first hard hit. While driving home from work, I was unfortunate enough to come across a stretch of highway where work was being done, and with no warning there is a peice of asphalt cut out basically equalling out to a curb. So unavoidably, I hit the "curb" in the road. IT felt like I rolled right over a curb. It hit the car pretty hard and made the glovebox open up. As well I now have a tiny dent about the size of a quarter inch in each rim. This is pretty depressing to me.

Not to sound likea hypochondriach but now I kinda feel like the car sounds a little funny being that when it is in the higher RPMs it kinda sounds a bit like it is "pu putting". I am not sure. Any reccomendations on how to make sure everything is ok? Or quick things to check to make sure no problems?

Thanks for the help.

 

Check for strut mushrooming. There's a major thread with photos and everything.
And maybe an alignment shop...
-skip-

 

So then another Quesiton would be, does this happen often? Should I be worried? Or should I just not worry too much about it?

Thanks

 

Honestly, the so-called strut tower we have is made of thin sheet metal... so really all 02-06 MINIs can experience this issue... it's all a matter of the types of roads you drive on... the more pot holes and imperfections... the higher probability of mushrooming. Fortunately there are a few vendors that offer ways of reinforcing the strut... M7 and Cravenspeed are two such vendors that carry products to strengthen the strut tower... if you do a search on STB (strut tower brace) or SRP (strut reinforcement plate) you'll find tons of info regarding how these simple yet effective mods work to help prevent additional mushrooming. You might also consider swapping out your camber plates, but if you're on a tight budget I'd at least get the SRP or STB.

As far as being worried... I can't really begin to tell you the long term effects of having mushroomed towers... but it does throw your front wheels out of alignment, least camber wise... and that's never good if you track your car, not to mention it will also cause your tires to have uneven wear.

GotMINI

 

Sorry to hear of your misfortune but if the hit was as hard as you say, you should spend the one hour shop charge and have your local dealer put your car on a lift for a thorough inspection. As we all know there just is'nt a lot of clearance down there......

 

That sucks. It happened to me here in NY last year... roadwork.
I wonder if you can't report this to the road department... or some other authority (your insurance company could maybe help out with this type of situation too). If there were no signs urging drivers to slow down for the roadwork, then there could be damages paid out by the county/authority.
Just a thought.