The MINI Center told me I needed two new ones on my 03 MCS. So, as a strut novice, how can I tell if I really do need new strut braces, etc. Thanks.

 

Here's a link to an article explaining how to tell if your struts (shocks) are worn and what it means.

By the way, a front "strut brace" is a bar that goes across the engine bay from strut tower to tower, used to stiffen the chasis. What you want/need are just struts.

 

Thanks, great article. And you are right, its not a brace as you describe it. However, the SA said the part that is welded to the car body is no longer flat, so it needs to be "smoothed out" somehow (I guess by hammering it down softly). But I will likely need new strut towers.

So any recommendation as to which strut towers to get? OEM or are there others that are similar in price but better?

 

This happens to a lot of people! It's called "strut tower ballooning." You'll find tons of posts on it if you search. The short deal is that you just have to hammer them down and the easiest way to do so is to get some wood [like a 2 by 4] and hammer that to transfer force to the tower. You don't need new ones, because that would be really really expensive since they are large body panels. If you meant that you need new struts, well you don't necessarily need those...unless your car bounces a lot over bumps.

 

I think some posts over at mini2.com mentioned this as "strut tower mushrooming" as well.

 

We just reapired our friends today... Bought the new part (top of strut with rubber) for somewhere around $40... we bent the strut tower back using a 2x4 and a hammer.... took us a couple of hours, next time (now that we know what we are doing) it should take a lot less time....

The repair was not as bad as I thought it would be... I am a little pissed I paid $360 to get mine fixed in December!