So my recently acquired 2004 MCS JCW has some mushrooming on the strut towers. To address this I bought an M7 strut brace and was working on the Mini today trying to flatten the strut towers. The towers are very difficult to flatten and as I was looking at it more closely I noticed that there appears to be a plate under the towers which does not appear in pictures of struts I have looked at on the web. This got me wondering whether a prior owner has already addressed the mushrooming by using plates that fit between the tower and the strut. Can an expert here help me confirm? See picture below. And if my Mini has plates to address the mushrooming, then what should I do regarding the M7 strut brace?

 

In doing more research, I came across the Cravenspeed Under Tower Indurators.

The color of these looks similar to what I see on my Mini. Do you think this is what I have and if so, is it enough? I don't think the three strut bolts are long enough to allow the M7 plates on top.

 

Looks like a Cravenspeed Under Tower Indurator plates to me. I have the same on my MCS to address the mushroomed strut towers that were discovered when I bought the car this last December. In fact, it was the first thing I did when I got the car. I followed the instructions in this video to flatten the tops back into shape and install the plates.
It didn't take much effort to do using a 2x4 and hammer. I just took my time to make sure I was not over doing it.

Once the plates are installed, they take away any remaining stud length for things like a strut brace. Some strut braces come with an adapter bolt/nut that acts as an extension to the strut bolts. Then the brace is bolted to the adapter bolts/nuts. Without them, you'll have to pick one over the other. Either one will reinforce the strut tower tops.

 

OK thanks. I should have looked the situation more carefully before I bought the M7 strut brace kit.

 

Not to spill more milk, but you should've gotten VIP plates+bar or ECS or Cravenspeed strut tower plates. The under plates obviously weren't enough if you still have mushrooming & they lift the fronts a bit. I used the AP+P bar on Craven combo. No hood bulge....Best MINI strut bar out there.

 

that looks like a quality piece, I'm hoping ECS might add a strut plate and bar as an option in the near future.

 

Thanks. I'm not sure that the towers were flattened before the plate install so its hard to say that the mushroom appearance continued after the indurator install. I have flattened the towers somewhat so I will watch them to see what happens.

 

Our ECS Tuning STPs ones are here and come in different finishes for your taste.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ht-mods-3.html




Bavmotors - possible in the future.