My front strut mounts are torn/cracked and are (I think) causing my car to be out of alignment. I believe my towers are slightly mushroomed as well.

Question 1

Can I hammer my strut towers back into shape without removing the entire strut assembly. Just jacking up the car on jack stands to relieve the weight and then hammer with a block of wood?

Question 2

If I buy Megan racing coilovers, do the front coilovers that have camber adjustment serve as the strut mounts? So I do not need to purchase additional strut mounts? I'm not very familiar with coilovers, but from what I gather the fronts just mount directly to the strut tower and that's it. Am I correct ?

 

if the strut towers are slightly mushroomed just take a 4x4 and a decent sized hammer to hammer them flat (with the strut mount still on the car and the car slightly off the ground) and pick up a pair of strut tower defenders for the top of the strut

yes the camber plate replaces the rubber strut mount

 

Great thanks for the reply brother.

I was reading an article in bimmerforums about a guy fixing his towers on his ZHP. He said it took 10 plus hours cause he had to remove the whole strut assembly. I assume that was because he was replacing the strut mounts too.

 

Yeah just bang it down while slapping on this Megans. Watch out for that pinch bolt. Some people have been known to break it. PB blaster on disassembly and anti-seize on assembly were my best friends. Also a large gorilla-sized friend always helps with the disassembly.

 

how do the vmaxx coils ride?

 

Well, if you are planning on replacing the strut towers anyway, and don't care about being as low as possible, I'd suggest the megans. The VMAXX are good for ehat they are..cheap (bidget ). They ride better than stock until I hit the bump stops (common for me at my height). They're smooth, but you can't adjust camber or damping. I don't have a single bad thing to say about them for the price, really. They gave me the low I wanted...and allow me to go lower than I am capable of going at the moment (speed bumps ). They alse handle SOO much better than stock. Could be the lower CG or just better design. I wouldnt really know, I just wanted a low dd. I still have yet to hit the limit of my grip in any cornering situation since I installed them, whereas I did a gew times with the stock suspension. All in all its really what you're looking for. For track use, there are way better performers. For aesthetics...its hard to pass up VMAXX for the price. They're also liveable in day to day driving.

The way I looked at it is: lowering springs + struts would cost about the same as VMAXX without allowing me the ride height adjustability.

 

true, good info. I don't want to go super low. Just lower than stock, and I want a good quality ride. I've just read good things about the Megans, seems that a lot of mini owners have them.

 

Well the VMAXX did give a good ride before I slammed them. Its just they use the OEM strut mounts.

 

Oh true. Well I might as well get the Megan's then.