Does anybody have experience with the M7 strut tower bar or strut tower reinforcement plates. Here's the thing, my MINI keeps getting a popping in the steering. The upper strut plates keep going out. Luckily the strut towers themselves have not mushroomed. I want to strengthen the strut tower, but I want to keep my strut tower brace. M7 tuning has a strut tower bar that also reinforces the strut tower; however, they say it's only for a MINI Cooper S. I have a lowered battery cover, and from the pictures, it doesn't look any higher than my current Moss MINI strut tower bar. Does anybody have any experience with this or can anybody offer any advice. Thanks a lot.

 

Okay, I researched and found my answer. I think I'll stray away from the M7 strut tower bar. I will get the strut tower reinforcement plates.

One question to eveybody though. How many of you have trouble with the upper strut mounting plate. It's the plate that mounts underneath the strut tower and has the bearing on it. MINI fixed my popping in the steering problem about 3 and a half weeks ago. They replaced these plates and all was fine.......until about 5 days ago. The popping in the steering is coming back, and I'm about 1,000 miles from being out of warranty. The steering is fine. There is no compromise or problems. It's just at slow speeds or almost standstill turns, that you feel a slight popping in the steering column. It's bugging me.

 

I'm curious to know what you learned about the strut brace. I've tried a couple of them myself. Once you modify the battery cover the remaining problem seems to be the hood liner. I have a Helix bar that worked fine until I had an accident and they replaced the hood and liner. Suddenly, there isn't enough clearance. I asked my favorite mech about it and he said the newer hood liners (at least, newer than the one that came in my mid-02) are quite a bit thicker. So, I'm planning to replace the thick OEM liner with something else.....something thinner.

Can't help you with the other biz - I've had no trouble with the strut plates and don't have the popping problem.

 

While I have an S I also had the problem with the too think bonnet liner. The solution was to do the soak & slam mod. It actually works. Just soak the liner down & slam the hood. Let it sit overnight & it will conform to the strut bar. Worked like a charm for me.

 

What I learned was that it will not work on my base model Cooper. I really want to keep the strut tower bar that I have, but if mine is going to be prone to strut tower damage, I'll concentrate on beefing up the strut towers. I'll save my money up for the M7 USS.

 

I have m7 brace on 02 mini clears battery hits hood pad and outter bolt heads hit hood

 

lnsminiwrench, can you describe more detail? By outer bolt heads, do you mean at the ends of the bar or on the end plate, and do you mean that you trimmed the pad and they still hit the hood? Also, how much does it raise of the rear of your hood?

 

We installed our bar on a 03 Mini at the dragon. With out any prep work , soak and slam or cutting the liner above the bar the rear of the hood was raised about 3/8 th of a inch. That was the only fitment issue we were able to see .

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Funny, this sounds like my car.

My hood has since dropped to less than 1/4 in at the middle, and I did not trim or soak the liner. There is enough room above the ECU and intake (MCS) that the bar could actually be made slightly lower without interference issues. The same should hold true with a MC.

 

The hood lifted alittle but now has went down the 4 allen bolts 2 on each end the outter bolt on each side will dimple the hood