My 2013 JCW Hardtop has 5,800 miles of it and after a trip to Washington, DC from Cincinnati, Ohio and back I found this damage. The entire return trip was on the interstate with light snow. It had been treated. It is obvious when looking at the overall damage pattern that it has been caused by "stuff" being thrown from the front, and to a lesser extent on the rear bumper molding, the rear tires.

I changed my tires from the factory run flats to Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s when the car was new. They have a fairly wide horizontal tread on the outside of the tire. The factory Dunlops have a similar tread on the outside.

I find this amount of damage remarkable. All of the wheel moldings have to be replaced, plus the bumper molding and three panels on both side of the car and the rocker panel have to be painted.

Is it possible the tires are the culprit? My Mini dealer, one of the largest in the country, says they have never seen damage this severe. Neither has my neighbor, the tire dealer who put the Michelins on the car. He has checked with Michelin and they say they have not seen it. I have heard about Pennsylvania using abrasive coal grit or cinders on their highways. That would be a factor, I would think. But, no damage on the front of the car or anwhere else but the fan-shaped pattern off of the wheels.

Driver's Side - Rear:



Driver's Side - Front:

 

Is this a freshly washed car? Or am I looking at stuck salt?

Did you try something like a clay bar?

 

That was my thought.....
But didn't want to post it....
Was afraid it would be taken the wrong way...

 

You are looking at a freshly washed, and dried, car. These are all chips. Have a look at that rear wheel molding -- it is as if it were sand blasted. Thousands of surface nicks leaving a little "feather" of the plastic molding. Imagine striking a piece of wood at an angle with a chisel. Same effect, only smaller.

 

Close up of the left rear wheel molding and some of the panel. Tire tread I mentioned is clear in this photo. Click on photo to see full-zized.

 

Maybe caused by magnesium chloride? Many states are using this as a pre-treatment for ice. It is nasty stuff.

 

But wouldn't this affect the entire car, not just a "spray" pattern from the front wheels? The rest of the car is fine.

 

Oh wow...

Its been a brutal winter here in PA. That's for sure.

But I have no damage like that at all.. I do have my fair share of windscreen chips from the ash/cinders/kryptonite.. which kills me..

And if that kills me.. you must be dead and buried!

So they are chips! My Clubman does not have the lower JCW painted panels.. but I don't have anything like that damage on my plastic wheel arches.. or my paint.

I wonder if there was a section with sand on the roadway that got kicked up? Or small rocks? I know some townships were starting to mix rocks/sand and salt for added traction and to spread the supply longer...

That sucks..!

 

+1
Have a r53....has seen tons of snow up here in nh...
One thing...what size tires do you have? Stock rims? Spacers?
I have seen some stuff like that on pick-ups that have wider tires fitted...but not wider fender flares....

 

Not dead yet, but will be if it happens again after $4,000+ in repairs. My main concern now is to not have it happen again. That's why I ask about the tires. Anyone think I should change them? I know they are popular substitutes for the run flats, but if there is one person who can tell me these tires are a problem, they're going away. So ...

One time freak thing because of an 8-hour, 70 MPH drive on roads treated with really bad crap?

Tires especially good at picking up crap and turning it into missiles? I've heard this about some tires.

Am I all alone with this disaster?

 

The tires are the EXACT same size as the factory run flats, 205/45 R17.

 

Mud flaps for winter use? I'm thinking about it...

 

Mud flaps do not fit if you have the Aero kit that's on JCWs. I've seen a thread when someone modified some, but it's not clear what he cut.

I have even considered replacing the front spoiler and rocker (is that the right term?) panels with standard ones, but hey, whatever did this would wipe them out too.

 

Weird. I've never seen anything like that before. My first thought was that you were running really wide wheels and/or a low offset and you had some crazy wheel poke going on.

 

http://www.rallysportdirect.com/Rall...rsal-Mud-Flaps

GOTTA be a way to make these work.

 

Wheel poke. I had to look that up. Is it possible that the same size tire, 205/45 R17, would be wider and stick out further with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires than with the factory Dunlop SP Sport Run Flats?

 

Tire widths CAN varry a small amount from brand to brand....but not enough to be meaningful....
Running factory rims?

 

I'd assume its possible that there might be some variances between tires of the same size from different manufacturers, but if there is, its very small.

The only thing I could think of that varies most between different tires would be the shoulder profile. Some tires are really square and others are a lot more rounded. That could account for some difference in the way they throw stuff up but I don't think to the extent that you experienced.

Either the tread on those tires is just somehow super conducive to throwing debris up or you encountered some really nasty stuff that was thrown on the roads. I'd suspect the latter.

 

I would not blame the tires....
Many mini's run aggressive snow tires....like blizzacks....no issues....
I'm wondering....
1...did you tailgate the plow/sandtruck for 1500 miles...ok..just kidding there...
Or do you have rims that have a different "offset" from the factory? Frankly, I would expect to see that type of dammage in a "stance" tire/rim combo... Or run with spacers to push the tires out...the risk is if the tires stick out too far, the arches cannot do their job...that is WHY jeeps and pickups often have extra wheel arches attached when a different tire rim combo makes the tires poke out from the arches.... Many states INSPECT for this if yearly inspections are done.

If it was just painted surfaces....I would suspect defective paint....but it shows plastic dammage too....

 

Just to be clear, the car is 100% factory JCW except for the tires.

 

Did you drive through West Virginia on the way there or back? They use gravel in the winter....

 

That was me, and the thread is here. My description of what I did starts at post number 20. I didn't cut anything on the fronts, I just used a wooden template and some heat to reshape them. The only thing that needed trimming was a little "pip" of plastic that would protrude into the sill seam that doesn't line up on cars with the JCW kit. It's not much bigger than a moulding spur, and I just shaved it off with a utility knife. I did a tiny trim on the back ones, but really nothing of consequence.

My winter wheels stick out much more than my summer Challenge spokes, so the side of my car was getting really dirty. Even before I fitted the flaps, I haven't noticed any damage like the OP, but I haven't done long highway drives with the winter tyres on this year.

 

I just checked my tires. The sidewall on the Michelins stick out only 1/8 (about) beyond the rims, so I don't think I have an issue with this.

Thanks for the details about modifying the mud flaps.

 

This is my car on the summer tyres:

No protrusion at the top of the wheel, but due to the way the side of the car tapers in there's some exposure at the bottom of the wheel. It's always been a chore to keep the sides of the car clean.

With the winter tyres/wheels it's a different, way worse story:


The top of the wheel is close to flush, and the side of the car was getting absolutely hammered, hence the mudflaps:


I haven't had them on long enough to see the difference, it's been pretty dry for the most part. I'll update the other thread with how effective they are once we have a week or two of crappy weather.

 

So, these are the standard Mini flaps slightly modified by you? They look okay to me. Perhaps you can provide a few more details about the heating and shaping.