I replaced my struts and mounts today and after taking a drive I opened the hood and the mounts looked odd to me. It seems like they are sticking up too high and flexing/straining the rubber quite a bit. I have not seen a MINI with proper strut mounts so I don't know if it is suppose to be like that or not. The ride feels so much better than it did before so I know they are doing the job. Bumps that were jarring before are barley noticeable now.


Could someone take pictures of theirs and post for me?


What I am trying to see is how much the strut pushes up the rubber. All of the pictures I could find on the web don't show well enough. Try and take the picture so you can see inside the housing and a good picture of where the cracks normally happen. I will also take a picture of mine in the morning and hopefully someone will have some in-site. Thanks.


-Gunner

 

Have a look at this video, it shows how to check for deformity of the shock towers, if your shock towers are deformed, its a matter of time until your new shocks and mounts fail again.




This second video shows you how to hammer the towers back into shape.




Hope this helps you.

 

I can take a picture a bit later after it gets light out. But if you look into the opening the dust cap should be well below the opening. If you remember what your new strut mounts looked like, they are somewhat like this:

--\_=_/-- (Hopefully this comes out right!)

The plate sits flat (at least it should be flat) against the top of the tower and the rubber is slightly concave with the bearing in the center where the top of the strut comes through it. But regardless if the tower is deformed, the rubber is very stiff and should NOT be bulging upwards in a new strut mount. It's not possible to put these in upside down as the bolts to attach always face up.

The problem is that older ones start to push upward due to aging and wear on the rubber ring and you can see cracks in it. If left long enough the rubber can break and you no longer have anything supporting the top of the strut.

I hope that makes sense but I can't imagine any way a new mount would immediately fail. As tough as the rubber is, you do really see any deflection on it at all from the weight of the front of the car.

 

Those videos don't show how the finished product looks up close which is really what I need.


Here are pictures of mine after the install. I put on new Monroe struts and KYB mounts. The car rides great so it isn't impacting ride quality but I'm worried they are defective. Also, I either have JCW springs or after market springs since they are red. If they were lowering springs could that do this? The struts I removed were the original MINI/BMW brand (I think the originals from 2004, and they are black. I still have them for comparison)


This is the first picture of the right strut tower. You can see it is bulging upwards (at least that's what it looks like to me) and I do have mushrooming going on, I ran out of time and didn't have the right hammer for the job. I will be getting either tower defenders or a strut brace and will do it then.



Here is a second picture, I used my finger to remove a top layer of black film and it look much cleaner but still bulging.



And a picture of the left side, still bulging, not as bad.



Let me know you thought, thanks.




-Gunner

 

Your shock towers are the problem - they are mushroomed. Have a quick google on mini shock tower mushrooming. The upper strut mounts look fine themselves. The "procedure" for fixing the shock tower is pretty well documented here -- 2x4 - BFH. However, you should get some strut tower defenders or one of the more robust strut bars (M7). That can help to bring the metal back to flat by sandwiching the shock tower and the defender together and prevent future damage. Personally I use the craven speed ones.

 

The rubber bushings in the upper strut mounts look entirely normal. Yes, there is mushrooming but that is not going to affect the upper mount or the bushing. I have no mushrooming plus Craven Speed Defenders install (highly recommended!) and this is what my new upper mounts look like. Mine have some "cracking" but that is just in a thin rubber-like film that is on the outside of the rubber bushing. That is not cracking and I don't expect it to any time soon. In my case the RH side one had cracked partially but the LH side one looked OK, but I replaced both, the struts all around, as well as the polyurethane bushings that slide onto the strut rod.

 

That is what mine did and that is what first concerned me. I just used my finger to smug it off. I am going to go back over it with some sore of cleaner to make it look right.


In retrospect the driver side is mushrooming more and is also protruding higher so I'm going to say that is the cause. I think I may un-mushroom asap instead of waiting until I get a set of defenders or a tower brace. Thanks everyone for helping curb my anxiety.


-Gunner

 

Go Cravenspeed or VIP.

 

The mushrooming is not a urgent issue, rather it's a long-term problem caused mostly by worn struts allowing the strut to bottom-out and slam into the top when you hit a big bump. There are 4 lines of defense here:

1) The spring.
2) The strut itself
3) The upper polyurethane "bumper" that fits on the strut shaft.
4) The rubber bushing in the upper strut mount.

The biggest issues comes when the strut is worn and doesn't slow down the upward movement of the front wheel enough and the poly bumper slams up into the strut tower. The top of the strut towers are probably not as beefy as they should be and given enough pounding will start to mushroom out.

I would not recommend flattening them out until you get some tower defenders to put on. Why? Because the tops of the towers are now weakened due to being mushroomed and will be weakened again when you pound them back flat. So you need reinforcement right away after you flatten them out.

Nothing bad is going to happen from the mushrooming in the short-term until you get some defenders ordered and delivered. I'd wait until then.

 

Cool, thanks. I will wait. I believe the struts were the originals from 2004 with 101k miles on them so I would say that was the cause, lol. And when I pulled them off I could tell they were bad. Unfortunately I believe the person who owned the car before me did not take very good care of it but I am brining it back up to great condition slowly.


-Gunner