I think I may have suffered the dreaded mushroom effect. My car is 2 months old with 11,000 miles. I'm looking to learn exactly what part of the tower shows signs first, and what the driving symptoms may be. I currently don't have any pull aside from drift due to the crown of the road. Is there a concrete test to determine if the problem exists, and the severity? I've got an m7 brace on order (what the heck, right?), but until it arrives, I'm freaking out (sort of).

thanks

bill

 

Aside from a visual inspection, how does the car drive?

 

This thread https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...light=mushroom
has lots of pics. Does it look like any of those pics?

 

The area where the VIN is seems to be bulging upward - is that the litmus test?
I've been told the VIN should be like glass...

I think I'm screwed. What should I do?

 

There seem to be two symptoms of the mushrooming - 1. when the car is turned at full steering lock (tightest turn possible) there is a rubbing sound at slow speed (~5 mph), and 2. the sheetmetal where the front suspension strut is mounted exhibits a slight upward bulge - the sheetmetal is normally flat. The rubbing sound is usually indicative of a tear in the rubber bump stop; the sheetmetal bulge is usually the result of a complete tear (360 degree) where the strut is pushing up against the sheetmetal where the suspension strut is mounted.

 

I posted this in the other thread so I'll post it here too.

I've got a tear on the passenger side but no other symptoms; no mushrooming, no noises, the car sits perfectly level and handles great. Should I be concerned? The rubber is very dried out and I was thinking about spraying on some WD40 to help mositurize it and help reduce further tearing.

 

WD40 will do absolutely nothing to reduce further tearing. You need to get the torn part replaced ASAP. And you should give serious consideration to replacing the other non-torn part as well (even if MINI won't cover the cost; this is one of those circumstances where delay can cause the problem to get worse, as in mushrooming and the collateral damage from the mushroming).

 

Looks like I'll take a drive over to CarMax where I bought the car and have them take a look-see. I bought an extended warranty so here's hoping it's something that's covered.

 

it drives just fine - aside from being sensitive to the crown in the road, it tracks perfectly straight.

 

It doesn't seem to nearly as bad as the blue one - I may be in hypochondriac mode, but this sort of thing really bugs me.

Will the fit of the m7 plate tell me what's going on in there. It should be the exact negative of an undeformed tower - therefore a gap (or gaps) would indicate a problem.