As I posted elsewhere, I discovered a cracked strut mount Saturday morning.
The marks indicate the extreme ends of the crack as of this morning.

Below is the diagram of the area.

Part #1 is what is cracked. It looks as if part #7 is what bears the load at the upper end of the strut. Can anyone shed any further light on my dim underrstanding of this?

I informed Brian Harris Mini in Baton Rouge of the by email on Saturday morning, and by phone message on Monday morning.

 

#7 is part of your top mount.

#11 is your lower spring seat or a gasket or something.
the strut holds the spring.

 

I guess what I am trying to find out is if anything bad is going to happen if the crack in #1 goes all the way around #3. Like, is something going to come out of the hole in the strut tower? From the diagram, it looks like #7 is under #1 and will prevent this.

 

your spacer/collar and bump stop might find its way through your
top mount.

just take it apart and replace the parts that needs to be replaced. dont
play games with your suspension as it is a critical part of your car.

 

Well if it does I don't think it will come up & hit the bonnet. That being said get them fixed asap! I'd do both sides.

 

Also check to see that part #12 has not "mushroomed" up either. I have had the dealer replace one set and I replaced a set already @ 52k miles. It's been gone over many timess on this forum and it's obviously a big problem with the 02-04's. Definantly get it fixed before you hit another pot hole in the road and cause even more damage!! Good luck!

 

when the strut top bearing part #1 rips like that the strut can also come out from under if you unload your suspention or pick up the car. I have had cars where the whole suspension falls like when you loosen the top three nuts on the top of the strut. If I were you I would might as well get the IE fixed camber plates.

Good Luck,
Danny D
MINICORSA
818 994 0338

 

This story had a happy ending today. I continued to drive pretty carefully for several days after the service manager told me the car was fine to drive. Eventually I began to drive normally again and had no further reasons for concern. The crack was not increasing in length. This morning I went to my service appointment at Brian Harris Mini in Baton Rouge, which took about 3 hours. They replaced the strut mount under warranty and also the boot lid light switch which was malfunctioning.

 

cool! good to hear you got it fixed.

kinda surprised that your dealer said it was "fine" to drive it like that..
uhhhh... no it's not.

 

Well, I definitely had my doubts at first. I marked the ends of the crack and checked it twice a day. My daily drive is 26 miles each way, on smooth road. After several days and no change, I began to believe. I was also told that it might begin to make some noise, but unless it got really loud and loose, it was still ok. It never made a sound. I spent a lot of time staring at the exploded parts diagram, lamenting that I had not heard a single explaination of how all this stuff fits together and works that made me feel the author knew what they were talking about. MiniUSA assured me that the service manager has access to volumes of technical information about the car.

In the end, I, in consultation with another Mini owner, decided that the engineers who designed this car were unlikely to put together a set-up where the only thing between me and catastrophic failure was a piece of rubber 1/4" thick, AND then not tell you, AND then if you ask, lie and tell you "no problem".