i am in a similar boat that i do not want to spend the money on the vorshlag plates. SPC/eibach used to make (they still make?) camber kits for our cars, but there isn't much info on them. i bought some chinese knockoffs and installed them...discussed here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...s-67620-a.html

i am still running them so far. however, i also bought a set of silver project plates and intend to install them at some point. however, i'm working on another car right now so the mini is my daily. if you want some pictures of the silver project plates, let me know and i can get some for you.

 

Mentioning that top plate gives me an idea. The mounts did spin freely before I installed on the car. However, what if the new springs have a slightly different shape to the top of the coil and don't sit evenly ("flat") on the top plate, so the force of the spring is not being distributed around the whole mount evenly. Again they looked fine before going onto the car, but let me repost a photo. Notice how the part of the rubber towards the firewall is much less crackly...



Unfortunately I'm now out of town for work, so I won't be able to take the struts apart until next weekend.

 

Sure, it would be interesting to see the bearing setup and how much rubber there is or isn't, as the photos online leave a bit to be desired. Despite my mount issues, the Konis feel pretty good compared to my old R50's suspension, and I don't want to cause the car to have an obnoxiously harsh ride.

 

there will be zero cushion with these. it's a solid metal construction. the bearing is sealed and looks replaceable, which i liked b/c that would make these rebuildable. i think the 3 holes gives you the option to get more or less camber depending on which holes you use.

 

Okay, time for an update here. ECS customer service was kind enough to send me a new set of their mounts and front Koni struts. Today I removed the front right/passenger side strut assembly.

First, I compared the Koni Special Active with the original strut and found the Koni to be 1/4 inch longer from the tab (A) that secures into the steering knuckle, to the the collar on the strut rod (B) where the upper spring plate rests. Probably not a big deal. Also, on reassembly, I was extra careful to make sure the spring plate sat properly on that collar, just in case that could've been an issue in my previous attempts.



Next, I disassembled and compared the original springs from the car to the Lesjofors I previously bought from FCP Euro. Not as obvious in the photo, but the original (right) is a little taller and has a slightly different profile than the Lesjofors, especially visible when seated with the spring plate and rubber spring pads.



Continuing on, I swapped the original MINI spring in with the fresh rubbers and plate, and turned to the new mounts. Out of the box, the new set of ECS heavy duty mounts already shows some cracking in the paint if you look closely.



New vs the previous set that have a little over 100 miles on them, where the rubber has deformed and the paint is flaking off:



Next, I reassembled, using a brand new Koni strut and ECS mount, along with the original MINI coil spring. After a short test drive around the neighborhood, here is how the new mount looks:



It still looks bad but I think I'm going to call it progress. The mount doesn't seem to be bulging up nearly as bad as before and I probably wouldn't think twice about it if there weren't all the cracks in the paint. If I take a pick or my finger nail, I can scrape off the flakes of paint and there is normal looking rubber below. With the dust cap off, there is about 3/8" between the top of the bearing and the opening of the strut tower. The old, bulged ECS mount on the other side is level with the opening of the strut tower.

Also, the right side of the car with the original spring and new strut/mount is sitting about 2cm higher than the side with the bad mount and Lesjofors spring. The newly changed side will probably settle lower but just sharing all the observations I've made.

Tomorrow I'll work on the driver side, again swapping the original springs in with the fresh mounts and strut. Then I'll put some miles on the car and see how it looks. If the result is still bad, I think I'll order the Project Silver camber plates and be done with the rubber mounts.

 

Noticed that you stated you left out the sealing washer #5 under the mount and without that can cause the bearing in both the Lemforder and ECS mount to twist up the rubber because there is no smooth bearing action between the mount & spring , due to the twist in the coil spring .

 

I used the sealing washer with the Lemforder mounts but left it out with the ECS mounts. The ECS bearing is sealed and has a slightly different shape on the bottom that the sealing washer doesn't seem to match with. It's a little hard to see but I included a photo of that in the quoted post. Every assembly spun freely by hand, and the ECS mounts are actually smoother as I think the bearing must be higher quality.

The rubber stretch with my issue doesn't seem to be a twisting action and has progressed as soon as the weight of the car goes back on the wheels when I lower it off the jack stands.

I have been told elsewhere that I shouldn't have hammered the strut towers down and instead should have used under tower plates to correct mushrooming. Unfortunately, I couldn't even get the nuts started due to the tight clearance of the holes on the ECS reinforcement plates. Once I corrected a couple millimeters of mushrooming, I could get the nuts started and the mushrooming now seems to be gone. I'll gladly try adding under tower reinforcement plates too, but I'm not sure that would correct this bulging issue.

 

. The under strut tower reinforcement would stop the tower mushrooming but, actually raises the front end by approximately 1/4” to 1/2” and the rubber strut mounts would probably stop the bulging issue.

 

I don't know what under strut mounts you used, but there's no reason a 1/8" plate of steel will raise the front end 1"

 

Agreed, 4.5mm according to the plates ECS sells. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-hamburg-...7400-0070~ham/

I'll plan to order a set but it'll probably be two weeks before I get them installed and update here.

 

[QUOTE=GLEX;4698225]Agreed, 4.5mm according to the plates ECS sells. https://www.ecstuning.com/b-hamburg-...7400-0070~ham/

I'll plan to order a set but it'll probably be two weeks before I get them installed and update here.[/I have both - CravenSpeed under plates and M7 top plates. What I refer to as "the sandwich".
Therefore (in my case), there is absolutely little to none, chance of ever mushrooming.
While I'm confident in this 'double indemnity', In my opinion; under plates provide the most protection against mushrooming.
As for under plates option - Fixed or adjustable camber plates (1/4" - 1/2") by themselves would probably offer the best of both worlds.

 

I've heard people say that all-metal mounts from coilovers or camber plates negate the need for under-tower reinforcement, however, those seem to always have the same shape as the stock mounts. Aren't the under plates larger with the goal of distributing the forces more evenly in the strut tower?

Silver Project camber plates are my last resort here but I feel like I need to solve the root cause of this issue instead. Also the Silver Project plates appear to have the same shape as the stock mounts. Are people using under plates in addition to stock-shaped camber plates?

 

It's not the shape of the strut mounts that's the problem. It's the fact that the tower and/or strut mount is under-designed (too thin). When the tower deforms, the thin stock strut mount also bends, and the studs end up pointing in different directions.

You just need to add some extra stiffness (could be on top of the tower, could be underneath) to the assembly to counter the deformation. All the camber plates I've seen are a much thicker steel, so they're all that's needed. I actually have a set of M7 plates on top in addition to my Vorshlag plates, but I don't really think they're necessary. The Vorshlags are pretty much bomb-proof. If I bend one of them, I've got much bigger issues.

 

I guess this is where I'm unsure if the under plates will solve my problem. With the ECS reinforcement plates on top of the strut towers, the studs of my mounts look nice and parallel. Still, maybe there is some other strut tower deformation needing correction and extra plates will address that.

 

I've got 1/8" under tower plates. My strut towers are not perceptibly deformed, but i wanted to protect them right after i bought the car.

I too have the same problem with bulging strut mounts. After a couple of hundred miles, they will start bulging up. Passenger side is the worst, but both are doing it. I just replaced my control arm bushings as a potential fix. However, the new passenger side mount looks to be bulging after a couple of rides.

What i'm trying next, is pouring urethane into the void of new strut mounts. I did this with brand new ECS Tuning heavy duty mounts. If i had to do it over, i would have poured more, so that the urethane completely covered the entire surface, and surrounding the bolts. But this will do. The picture makes the urethane look higher than it really is.

I had to find a pipe that could extend the center hole and still accept my 22mm deep socket for the top nut for the strut.

I need to let these cure for 7 days and then i will install them. I don't see how traditional strut mounts can be expected to last, given the design of these things. Now, there will be no room for bulging and failure. I have high hopes.

 

Wow, very interesting. What suspension are you running? My control arm bushings were also replaced with OEM bushings a few months ago, so seems like that isn't the cause of our problem.

 

I've got ST-X coilovers. The fronts have always been adjusted all the way up, which yields .8 inches of lowering. That's ok with brand new strut mounts, but as the mounts wear out, hitting dips or bumps seems like it causes more tire scrape on the fender arches (I've got the wheels and tires poking out).

When i install these modified mounts, i'm also adding 1" coil spring spacers to give me that little bit of extra adjustment. I should be able keep the ride height exactly where i want it, with no change over time. I've been struggling with this issue for as long as i can remember. But maybe it started after i installed the coilovers? I'm not sure since they've been on almost as long as i've had the car.

 

Do you have any reinforcement on top of the strut towers?

It blows my mind that we're having this issue when the mount studs are straight and the rest of the suspension is fresh. The old suspension on my car was totally shot, with one mount having the typical rubber crack around the bearing, and both showing a little bit of curvature from mushrooming. However, no bulging like this. Seeing you have the same issue, if the under tower plates don't help my car, I'm definitely ditching the stock mounts and going for camber plates.

 

No, only under plates.

 

I've been thinking about this problem and I just had an opifany; just for testing purposes disconnect the droplink from the anti roll bar and see how it sits.

Maybe the struts get pushed up real hard by them, somehow?

 

Thanks for the idea. I'll be away from the car for another day or two but will definitely give it a shot. From what I remember, the Koni struts seemed to match up closely in dimensions compared to the originals, but I could see the drop links maybe being the issue with MINI 06S above since they're running coilovers.

 

Have you made any progress?

As I was checking my oil level I also wanted to check my top mounts. My 06 R53 ~(100k miles) has this rubbing tire noise when driving slowly while taking a sharp turn. Since my car is completely stock and had a wheel alignment last year so I knew my tires couldn't be causing this noise.

So when checking the top mounts for cracks all seemed well, untill I noticed they were bulging exactly like yours!

I replaced my top mounts the 6th of January 2024 with Lemfroder ones and only drove about 6k miles on them. Again, I am running stock shocks and stock springs. I am stumped and am convinced this is the cause of my rubbing noise.

 

This weekend I'm working on swapping in new mounts on the front, polyurethane bushings in the rear shock mounts, and new sway bar end links. Unfortunately, I've been hung up with one of the studs spinning on the strut mounts. I'll have an update for you in the next day or two when I'm done, but I'm optimistic about the new genuine MINI mounts. I found an R53 group on Facebook with a lot of people from the UK, and dozens of reports of the same issue I've had. Some say Corteco mounts are okay, but the general consensus is that anything except genuine MINI strut mounts can be expected to fail anywhere from immediately to a few thousand miles. I also found generally bad reviews of the Silver Project camber plates, so I went with a new set of genuine mounts. Fingers crossed.

 

What were the criticisms of silver project? I'd guess that it's stiff, but wondering if there is anything else

 

No issues so far for me, no bulging mount. All stock ( Mini springs, ) Lemforder strut mount, OE Bilstein B4 Struts front and rear, replaced pinch bolts with MINI, cheapo lemforder bump stops, replaced links front only, driven on NYC and NJ city streets ( known for potholes all over ) and lastly ECS anti mushroom plates.

Let's see maybe if I hit a really deep pothole, we'll see.