MG -

While a stiff, FULL coverage, "upper" (on the top of the housing) plate may provide "some" amount of protection...the BEST protection from mushrooming will be from the underside. You pick your poison.
This is purely from an Engineering standpoint.

Mike

 

Just purchased an 05 JCW dealer installed drive train. The shock towers loo good, it has 17" White wheels, it is British Racing green with a white roof, mirrors and wheels. Not hot on the wheels. Anyway, I have ordered a strut tower brace, mainly to be on the safe side. I feel that I am lucky with this car, an 05 with 63k on the clock and no mushrooming. My wife said she liked the looks of the Generation 1, and in BRG, only, so here I am. One of the things that I looked for was the mushrooming of the towers, and like I said, got lucky.

 

Ive had the Ireland fixed plates , its a trade off cause it does raise the height of the suspension

 

 

Our first Mini, a 2005 R50 which has always had 16" wheels on it and is still in the family, has never had a mushroomed or cracked tower despite being driven over 100k miles in Maine on some of the worst roads in the US. I think it's a lot of luck but the car has always had stock/stock-spec suspension and non-runflat tires so that surely helps.

My wife's current car, a 2013 R56 S with factory sport suspension and 17" non-runflats, came to us in 2017 with 80k miles on it and no mushrooming visible. I put strut tower defenders on it immediately and so far, in 3 years and another 45k miles, there is still no visible mushrooming. I replaced the the shocks, struts, and all ancillary mounting parts last year and stuck with all OEM parts because why mess with what's worked? She also doesn't want it to ride any harsher than stock (like I said, the roads here are often really bad and especially so in the winter). One additional change I made was to swap the stock size tires for 235/35-17 tires last year which add a fraction more sidewall than the stock size. Needless to say that the added contact patch further enhances the already mind-blowing cornering abilities of the car but the extra rubber has also added to the compliance of the car's ride, too.

I recently acquired a 2003 R53 with 122k miles on it. Mechanically the car was quite poorly maintained whereas the PO spent tons of money at independent shops chasing a door lock issue and other minor annoyances rather than putting needed repair money into leaking struts and shocks and keeping up with the maintenance of the engine, exhaust, and transmission. The strut towers were so badly mushroomed it took me almost an hour on each one to get them back into shape. I just completed a total suspension replacement (literally everything swapped for new) and I installed Cravenspeed's "indurators" that are thick metal plates which sit between the strut mount and strut tower sheet metal (I think there is a photo of them in an earlier post above) coupled with Cravenspeed's strut tower defenders which are massively thick things that sit on top of the strut towers. As a bonus, they look badass, too. It seems to me that sandwiching the weak strut tower sheet metal between two much thicker metal plates is a good way to strengthen and reinforce this notoriously poorly designed area of the Gen 1 chassis. My hope is this will truly "defend" my car from future damage because I am going to run 18" wheels with 225/35-18 non-runflat tires. I had the car professionally aligned this morning and the initial results of my repair and reinforcement seem promising: the "after" specs for the front end are absolutely spot-on for every measurement which was not the case prior to my repairing the towers. The front camber was visibly "off" to the extreme before I turned a perfectly good block of wood into splinters by using it to make the strut towers flat again. Now the readings are -0.4 degrees on each side - almost exactly in the middle of the acceptable range. Most importantly, the car handles perfectly which I am sure it has not done for many years.

The results of this poll are really interesting and the comments in the thread even more so. I hope someone gets something useful from this post, thanks to all the members who have shared info on here, I learned a lot.

 

A couple of years ago, I replaced the front struts and observed some mushrooming. I flattened out the towers and used reenforcement plates between the strut mount and the strut tower (underside). I thought this might eliminate the problems but I have hot a couple of pot holes and now both strut towers have mushrooming. I suspect the strut mount is bent as well. Is there a consensus opinion on the best solution? WOuld both under side and topside plates make a difference. What about a brace between the strut mounts?
Would appreciate any thoughts and comments.

 

I used the top mount ESC Tuning strut mounts. Almost 2 years ago. When I purchased my mini. It was the first thing I did. They were mushroomed bad. Since the upgrade. No issues.

 

I have a strut tower brace for sale, if anyone is interested. I sold my Gen 1 three years ago, kind of miss her now. And have no need for it. Also a pair of LED taillights.

 

Hemisedan, sent you a PM

 

Car is 2003 base hatch, with "regular" 16s and 205000 miles on. Both strut towers are mushroomed, left about 10mm, right about 8mm, both strut mounts cracking around the bearing seat, but not separating from the steel, no cracking in the towers themselves.

Car has lived in Western MA and Eastern NY, and we are known for our somewhat irregular road surfaces.

 

Rough city roads, got to love them.