When changing out my winter tires to my summer tires (had snow three times in the last two weeks so I did this twice) I noticed my struct boots were quite twisted up. Upon investigation I discovers several plastic "C" shaped pieces that appeared to have originally surrounded the strut shaft - two sets of "white" about 1-1/2 inches high and one set of "blue" about 3/4 of an inch high. All with BMW parts numbers on them. These were all twisted up and partially broken under the boot and appeared to be restricting the suspension travel.

I tried called my dealer service department, the parts department and e-mailing the lead tech since I am over 150 miles away. No one was able to help. answer (Also checked the internet). Drove up to the service bay two weeks later with the parts in hand - the first person I see said "Those are packing spacers that should have been removed during dealer prep." I removed them my self at home in 5 minuites instead of waiting the 2 hours it would have taken the dealer.

Very frustrating! But now I have suspension travel (sport style) I always thought the sport suspension seemed to be so tight that I questioned why someone would want the JCW - now I know.

 

They are shipping spacers meant to make the MINI ride higher for when they load and offload from ships. The dealership should have remioved them before you picked up your MINI.

At least you took care of it yourself. I bet it rides alot better now.