Does the M7 strut brace fit under the bonnet, or is cutting required?

 

Mine fit with no bulging bonnet issue. This may be due to a little custom filing of the corners/edges of the plates coupled with a little fine tuning of the strut towers when fixing my mushrooming.

 

Just remember that the plates will not do anything to keep the stock strut mount from deforming and the bushing cracking. The only thing to prevent that is to get better mounts like the fixed camber plates. The reinforcement plates will only prevent the tower from deforming. That's only half of the problem.

 

Not entirely true . The plates WILL help in keeping the strut from deforming . A solid camber plate system will help as well but the plates still assist in keeping the deformation in check.If this was not the case you would have heard of many people STILL having problems with the struts deforming and I for one have not heard of any. The product is almost 2 years old now and has a VERY good track record. As for the bushings cracking that is another problem all together .

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Yes- the expensive half!

Seriously though, I got the M7 Strut Bar and Tower Plates @ AMVIV- just in time to not be able to install them until I got the strut mounts and tower fixed. A day @ the shop for the mounts, a few sledge-wacks on the tower, 10 minutes for the M7 Strut Bar and Tower Plates = just like new! (not really, I'm exagerrating a bit. But I love my M7 STB/TP!)

 

Go for the strut brace. I did have to trim the hood liner a little bit to keep the hood from buldging. I all so put in fixed camber plates from Ireland engineering because they are thicker than stock and add 1.5 degrees of camber. You want to talk about improved cornering capability! I used to be able to out turn the car, now the car can out turn me!

 

My hood bulged a bit with the M7 brace. I called M7 and Peter told me how to fix it without cutting the liner (the instructions said to call so I did). After a couple of easy water applications to the liner the hood seems about right again.

As I said in my earlier post my 02 MCS had no mushrooming. The M7 plates fit flat and bolted on very easily.

I also want to say I am the second owner of this car. I purchased it with over 60k miles on it. It had 15" non-runflats at the time of purchase (yes 15s on a MCS). I changed to 17" Dunlop Sport 9000 runflats late last August. I've put on just over 5k in the one year I've owned it. I have a friend with a Miata. He added a strut tower brace. He said it improved the handling on his car and I've read similar comments for the MINI on NAM. I deceided to add one. After looking at the great variety of choices I chose M7. Why, the NAM threads regarding the mushrooming issue. I figured I'd try to prevent that problem at the same time as adding a little extra stability. I don't really know if the STB was needed. It has given me some additional piece of mind. For me the $$ was worth that! And, it looks great too

 

I like mine for similar reasons. There is one speedy right hand turn with a big dip (roadbed on volcanic ash) where I'd have to adjust the steering as I compressed the suspension before the bar and not so much or at all now. So that convinces me it makes a difference. Most of the time it is more subtle. It looks good, and its a good place to dry socks.

 

/me smacks forehead "That's wear my socks went!"

 

Do you have those cool limited edition M7 socks? I'd love to get a pair!

 

I just looked at my my '05 MCS. With exactly 17k miles on it there is some very slight mushrooming going on. It is so small that i would almost call it break in rather than a problem.

This is running with 17in run flats up in the north east (roads can be real bad).

 

I had some very VERY slight mushrooming when I put on my M7 STRPs last week, at around 23000 miles.

 

I had no mushrooming or other problems with my strut towers with over 30,000 miles. Now I have the Ireland fixed camber plates and never will have any problems! Well, except for a dedicated tire rotation schedule.

 

Been there done that! twice now I have had strut support cracks. 1st time it was a warranty repair, 2nd time I replace em myself...( was out of warranty ) Took about 2 hours having been the first time I have had to work on anything on my 03'
I took it for granted that it was just the roads here in Houston. lol....

 

I've just learned that I've been driving my 05 Cooper with 17" non-run-flats with a bent strut and mushroomed and torn mount for almost a year.

Dealer wants $1450 to fix it, even though the car is barely driven (19k miles).

Clearly the suspension is too stiff and/or the strut towers are not reinforced to accomodate such a stiff suspension. If this car was designed for track-use only, that would be acceptable. However, this car suffers full and complete catostrophic suspension failure in regular driving scenarios on public roads that other, similar cars in the same scenario (from other manufacturers) do not suffer any damage what-so-ever.

If your MINI has suffered from any of the suspension damage mentioned in this thread, the NHSTA wants to know about it.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

 

I just wanted to add, that our strut tower has "mushroomed" for the third time on the Passenger's side, as well as the second time for a cracked strut support. This is the first time since I installed the M7 strut tower brace last june. All of this on a stock 04 S, with 17 inch runflats, and about 60,000 miles on it, a M7 strut tower brace is the only modification.


Has any one approached the BBB about starting a complaint? I know MINI is not a member of the BBB, however they still have some pull. At about 1500 a pop to fix this at the dealer, I am getting a bit sick of the car.

 

54,800 miles and no mushrooming. I have a 18 wheels, 35 series tires and Koni Yellows with H-Sports. I installed the Ireland fixed plates about 22,000 miles ago. The bracebar has been installed at least for the past 40,000 miles but it is not an M7. His were not out yet I think. So far so good but I am planning on going to M7 Coilovers with Adj camber plates soon. Don't anticipate any issues. Also I drive primarily (for now) in Michigan. So if you want bad roads......Come here!

-C

 

it's just a frequency of failure, but without knowing how many cars with the same set up DON'T have mushrooming, you have no clue about the percentage of cars in a given configuration have problems. While the data is interesting, I'd guess that there are over 100 17" minis for each 18" Mini. So take the 17" results and divide by 100 to get a number to compare to the 18s. But that's just a guess. While the data is interesting, it shows that we still have a massive deficit in the use of statistics!

Matt

ps, there's also no accounting for camber plates, or strut bars that support from the top. I bottom all the time, but have had camber plates forever, and don't have mushrooming. If I had the stock strut guides, I'd be all shroomed up.

 

I just adopted a 2005 MC with 24K. It had the stock R82s and non-run flat Continentals on it. It was checked at the dealer upon purchase and no mushrooming or cracks were eveident. I recently went to 16 inch R90s and Kuhmo ASTs 205/50-16 tires. Thanks to this thread, I have ordered the M7 strut tower plates. Thanks for sharing this issue.

 

That's insane... if you have a local MINI tuner near you, they should be willing to fix it for a fraction of that... The one near me in Philly has piles of old strut mounts sitting around from camber plate installs... Once you've done it a few times, the front suspension comes apart and goes back together pretty easily.

 

There's a picture of k-huevo (Keith) fixing mushrooming. Big Friggin Hammer and some wood. Drop the strut first though.

Matt

 

I've got an 06 MCS, 17" RFT's. Put the M7 SRP's on shortly after the purchase, (after thumbing through this site). 10K miles on the MINI now. No shroom's. Of course our roads in Phoenix ain't anywhere near the condition those folks back East or California face...

 

When you say drop the strut, do you mean to just put some jackstands under the car to unload the strut, or does one physically have to disconnect the bolts etc. to the strut also?

 

If you hammer on it with the top of the stut bolted in, it's going to be much harder to get any deformation back to normal.

Drop the strut and pound the crap out of the top of the shock tower. If the top of the strut guide need "adjustment" it will be much easier to do that on it's own as well.

But I believe in experiment. If you need to do it go ahead and try! Just get a Really F**king Big Hammer, as I don't think the F**king Big Hammer is heavy enough....

Matt

 

The upper mount doesn’t have to be struck very hard; it is a moderated tap rather than a forceful blow. A standard claw hammer will work just fine. The strut must be removed, and if the tower is deformed, the guide support will be also, so be prepared to either replace it with the OEM part or install camber plates.