Before removing the front right shock strut from a 03 R53 I checked for worn bushings by rolling the wheel to see if it moved and sure enough the wheel had slight movement which would normally indicate worn bushings but when pulling the strut I found the bolt on the lower arm that retains the bottom of the strut in place not very tight(surprise--surprise) so on completion of the shock strut install I checked the bushings again and voila---the wheel did not move----as tight as the left side. Oh BTW I had mushroomed strut tops and did smack them back down where they belonged. Now the next project is replacing the rear swaybar with a Hotchkiss 25mm adjustable bar. I hope to make a few autocrosses in the near future.

 

Nice work. If I were you, I'd put some strut tower plates on there to keep the mushrooming from happening again. You don't that to bend that metal too many times...

 

Good idea, this mini spent a little time in the northeast during its early days and long before I bought it(2 months ago) and I am sure it saw its share of potholes especially on the passenger side which had the mushrooming(left side looks good). Here in Florida we are very spoiled wi the frost free excellent roads and there is no reason for mushrooming.

 

ugh, I'm jealous, you can tell a drunk driver here because they drive straight instead of zig zagging around the potholes. I think the mushrooming was more of a design flaw. Not much suspension travel and that sheet metal is pretty thin. Then if you throw in worn out shocks/bump stops and thin sidewalled (17 inch) tires there's very little left to absorb that energy so more of it gets transferred to the towers. MINI has never come out and said that they messed that one up, but it's a pretty wide spread problem. Fortunately the fix is easy and fairly inexpensive. I got the m7 brace that protects the towers and gives it some reinforcement in the turns. Way motor works makes one that's similar, might be an improvement on the design, and I think is a bit cheaper.

 

I think I will just go ahead and order up the nonadjustable camber plates from Way Motors that are much thicker than the standard plates adding at least -1deg and kill 2 birds with one stone. The camber plates and a strut brace should tighten up the front end along with Koni Yellows that I just installed. I picked up the strut brace used here on NAM----have waited for the camber plates to come up but to no avail yet.

 

Thanks, that is a good fix since they are thicker, plus you will gain some handling. We keep them in stock and can ship asap for you.
https://www.waymotorworks.com/irelan...e-r50-r53.html

 

I just found out that I must run stock strut mounts if I want to stay in the stock for autocross so that screws my last great idea, Back to stock parts.

 

Now that my strut mount has been replaced now I need to do the control arm bushings.