Just curious what's generally accepted as the best solution for mild/very slight mushrooming of the strut towers.

Cravenspeed Strut Tower defenders are about $139 or for $100 more ($239), I could get the M7 Strut Tower Brace and improve the handling a bit as well.

Thoughts/Experiences?

 

Unless you are planning on tracking your Mini, the brace is overkill imo. Straighten out the towers with a mallet and 2x4 then install the craven speed defenders. Another option if you're interested in better handling is to install the IE camber plates, which are much stronger than the oem plates and will prevent future mushrooming.
Goodluck!

 

Scrutinized all available options. Went w/ Cravens as I didn't want to add on an already high stock height w/ under-mount camber plates. If you're on coilovers, by all means, choose camber plates. M7s look good but Cravens have beefier mounting bolt adapters.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like the Cravens are a good choice. Moss has them for 124.95 right now which isn't bad.

Just curious though- did you guys consider these? Good review and a little cheaper.
http://www.madnessmotorworks.com/mad...nt-plates.aspx

 

Just bash them into place, and imo craven std's....
Then since you have a 2004+ car, you can install cabrio strut braces under the hood...are oem, cheap, fit well, and seem to stiffen the towers up gorward/back...makes the car less jittery on big bumps, like railroad tracks is where you can really tell...all mid2004 cars have the bolt holes on the moting points ready to go...was done to allow the cabrio's to be built from mostly the same parts.
The m7 bar is nice, but imo is mostly bling unless you really plan in doing some tracking, and can get in the way when it comes to mx. Like many things, it is a tradeoff.

 

The mini madness ones look like the craven undertower thinggys....are a bit more cumbersom to install. The cravens were about a 15 job with un-mushroomed towers ....and i am still looking good years later....

 

Thanks to all of you for the feedback, very helpful. Glad you all reminded me about the cabrio strut braces, too.

 

Update- ordered the cabrio strut braces while picking up some intercooler boots at the dealership. The braces listed for $28 each ($56 total) but got them for $19 each after showing the parts guy the prices online (which were actually around $24-$25 each. Pretty good deal I think.

Also got a printout of all of the options installed on my car. A trip to the dealership doesn't always suck.

Will order the cravens in a couple days.

 

I have an 08 Cabrio MCS JCW and it is stored for the winter so I can't go pop the hood. I see you mention the Cabrio plates. Does my Cabrio already have stiffening plates so I shouldn't buy any STD's? I was planning on buying some and installing this spring.

 

Cabrio braces compensate for the lack of lateral stiffness w/o a roof. STDs are anti-mushrooming plates. Different purposes.

 

Hammer them down a bit and then install the brace or Craven STD's to pull them straight the rest of the way.
But to do it 100% right you need to replace the upper strut mount that is mushroomed with an OEM mount or camber plate.

We do NOT recommend the undertower plates. These will raise the ride height of your car and also remove neg camber from the front, and you really want to have more neg camber. Plus they are alot of work to install.