Just bought a used 06 Mini Cooper r50 and I didn't notice at the dealer the slight angle on the passenger tire top is angled in, so I pulled the tire and noticed the strut is bent a little inward but I llive in the middle of no where and I have to order parts 24 hours in advance from oreilys ,do I just need the strut or is there any parts I need to also get just in case and also will the new strut correct the negative camber or will I have to get an allignment

 

Take a good look at the strut tower from inside the engine bay and compare the top surface to the opposite side. If the bolts are dramatically pointed outward, the housing appears to bowed upward then that would be the problem. R50s are notorious for having weak strut towers. Its a simple solution. Jack that side up, lay a short piece of 2X4 across the bolts and beat the whey out of it with a big ballpeen or dead blow hammer till its level. Then order a pair of strut tower braces and bolt them in place. The nuts torque down to 25#.
If that's not the problem, but I bet it is, then get the alignment checked next and if that's OK then look to the strut.

 

What was said above. Here you have a video that will give you a visual understanding

 

As the others have said it's unlikely your strut is actually bent. Pull the wheel and snap a photo and post it up here. Someone will probably be able to tell you whether it's bent or not. You can also compare it to the other side.

Oh and one thread would have been sufficient

 

Yea, forgot about shock mount failure. Mine were replaced about 69K miles.

 

Kk will get pics later tonight thanks for info video was a great help since I'm a noob and yes passenger mushroomed bad but I got 2 x4 and a hammer thank you again guys for the quick info

 

Be sure to get those tower braces ordered too. They are an easy DIY. Just remove the nuts, put the plate in place and tighten it back down to 25#. There are two or three vendors listed on the site that can supply those for you. I have the ones from M7, not to promote one over the other but that's what I got. Once they are in place you'll never have to worry about that again though you still need to inspect the top strut bushing periodically like the guy in the video shows because it is a wear item.

 

Congrats on your R50! I'd like to share an article we published outlining the instructions for the strut brace install, click here.

You don't have to drill or modify anything at all, just pull the plastic plugs which expose the threaded holes for the torx screws. Then simple fasten each brace and you're done!

We list the braces (they were standard on the convertible) here.

Hope that helps
Mark/Pelican Parts

 

kk here are pics of the passenger tire, strut tower and the strut notice the divot where the sticker is and then it runs upward and bulges back out also
3 of my tires have wavy sections on the inside cupping maybe? I think the dealer and the previous owner just moved the tires around on the passenger side to make the ride better because its rides rough as crap on that side at 30+mph since i bought it. Oh, do i need to have the strut out to beat the mushroom down on the tower?

 

Well that strut tower is definitely messed up. You don't have to remove the strut to pound it back. Just lift that corner of the car up.

I don't know that the deformed strut tower would cause that much negative camber though. But start with fixing the strut tower then see how things look

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using NAMotoring

 

OK so yesterday I replaced both passenger and driver side struts inspected the mounts (they were fine) and beat the passenger side tower back down a little with a 2x4 and a hammer... so now the tilted wheel on the passeneger is alot better... and the drive was getting really bumpy at 30mph now after new struts it is bumpy at 60mph.....So today i took off all four tires, they all had a decent amount of inside wear so i put the best one on the front passenger side now I get a little vibration(not as bad as it use to be) at 70mph....so I am thinking that 4 new tires (cause obviously the previous owner and the dealer just rotated them around on the bad passenger side so they all wore unevenly on the inside) and an alignment will do the trick and make my ride a lot better but will the alignment also take out the little bit of negative camber i have on the passenger side..oh and reinforced camber plates is it possible to make them myself has anyone tried and if so what thickness metal should i use? All and all strut change out are easy but the tower reshaping beat the hell out of me any tips on beating the towers back down so if i have to do it again and also I read somewhere that doing the 2x4 and hammer trick is terrible for the tower and cause metal fatigue?

 

If you have run flats now, please get rid of them....they suck, your ride will improve with non run flats I have Continue DSW and the are superb very comfy low noise got rid of the awful torque steer from the RF and they are great for wet surfaces, they are ok in light snow but now great

 

Your struts probably weren't the source of the negative camber on the wheel but it certainly isn't going to hurt replacing them on an older car.

The alignment isn't going to help. The camber in the front isn't really adjustable. There is a slight amount of adjustment using slop in the bolts but there is no factory adjustable eccentric bolt or anything like that. So if the camber is off more than a few tenths of a degree an alignment won't help. You could make reinforcement plates yourself but unless you have access to a machine shop and/or a lot of spare time it's probably best to just buy a pair. If you make them out of aluminum I think they're normally something like 1/2" thick.

Yes bending metal one way and then another will fatigue the metal. I wouldn't be too worried about it though. You'd have to bend it a bunch before it was significantly weakened. And you're going to strengthen it with a strut tower plate anyways.