Hello, again, everyone! I was hoping some of you could take two minutes out of your busy lives that you'll never get back to verify if I actually have a problem with my MINI...

I've been having steering alignment issues for some time now and when I happened to be looking under the bonnet a few days ago, I noticed that the front strut towers appeared to be uneven.

What I mean is that if one were to place a perfectly flat board on top of both front strut towers, one would angle up more than the other. I've never actually examined the strut towers of any other car but I don't think this should be the case...

The strut towers have a flat plane where the bolts are and then another raised, round bulge (or donut, if you will) where the top of the strut bolt is visible. When looking at either of those two surfaces of the strut towers, it's pretty obvious in my car that they're not symmetrical and that the passenger (left) side angles upwards more.

I took a photo but the uneveness doesn't show well enough when I hold the camera far back enough to capture both strut towers. I wish you could all see this in person...

Is this how it is in everyone else's MINIs or do I have a defect? I've never crashed this car and I can't imagine that any of my normal driving could've bent the frame.

Any ideas, anyone?

 

See this thread.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...light=mushroom

What sort of alignment problem are you having?

 

So you go to the front end shop & the alignment is off? And how often?
The shock towers don't control alignment, only camber. The tie rods are adjusted for alignment. If the shock towers are off a bit, there should not be an issue, there is enough adjustment at the spindle to take care of a couple of degrees either way + -.

 

strut towers not only control camber but castor as well. 1/4" can make almost 1 degree of difference in the alignment angle.

 

Having a strut tower dramatically higher in the left front would cause the right rear suspension to carry less weight affecting the alignment angles on that corner. Even the act of sitting in the car changes the static alignment angles.

 

The tie rods only adjust toe.

 

Duh.... He said alignment [ ], not caster or camber. If there hasen't been a big event with the chassis & the alignment, till now, has not been a problem, I can't imagine how the chassis would just bend on its own.

If we're talking about chassis alignment that's a different story.
MiniBetterThanBeer, have you taken the car to a good chassis shop, with a frame machiene? A good shop could tell you if the car is out of square.

 

My passenger side strut tower is mushroomed, and not only does the car pull to one side, also both right side tires are wearing very fast versus the two left side tires.

 

BadMini, is your tower the typical mushroom, IE is it pounded in the center with a high area? That & the cracked top bearing mounts are the only things I have seen, never a bent shock tower ( out of square ). I hope your car is still under the BMW umbrella.......

 

Hey Steve,

Yeah, mine is the "typical" mushrooming, where the center is pushed up. The upper strut mount does not appear to be cracked, but I know sometimes it's hard to tell. You asked if the car is still under the umbrella. The answer is yes. It's an 05 with 18,300 miles on it. I bought it with 17,500 and with the strut tower mushroomed. I have already called Brian Harris, and they say they won't cover it. I believe I will be calling owner's assistance on this matter. I don't care if they say the previous owner was at fault, the thing is, this situation happening on ANY Mini is UNACCEPTABLE. It is a blatant design flaw that should have been fixed earlier in the Mini's life span. Sorry, but I needed to vent. Since you asked whether it was under warranty, should I try different dealers. My 03 that I traded in for the 05 did not have this happen once while I owned it, and I racked up 54K+ miles on it.

 

This will probably help you understand better.

In its most basic form, a wheel alignment consists of adjusting the angles of the wheels .

http://www.familycar.com/Alignment.htm

The "angles" include castor, camber and toe. I had 13 years in the collision repair industry doing heavy hit repair along with ASE Master Certification. I kind of know what I'm talking about. Hitting a big enough pot hole can cause unibody misalignment.

 

That defect should be covered, and, hopefully, your car will be fixed. Funny the only cars I have seen with this problem late 04's and on. It's also strange that BMW has not addressed this problem. UNACCEPTABLE id the key word.
Best of luck with this issue.

 

I'll call around to some of the other dealers and see if they will fix it. If this gets no where, I'll call Owner's Assistance. Thanks for the help. I'll keep you posted.

~ Tim ~