for those of you who already have the 07 r56, does the front suffer from strut tower mushrooming/deforming?

can someone take a picture of what the strut towers look like up close? (macro)?

if it does, does 06 camber plates work on the 07 r56?

thanks for the time



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???

They are not even available yet.......

 

they are avaliable in europe.

 

I think the R56 has more suspension travel.

Matt

 

It's probably a bit too early to tell, I think.

 

Maybe not, one of the GP owners in the States mushroomed a strut tower on his drive home from the dealership.

 

The GP is NOT an R56

 

True.

No signs of this on my R56 MCS, I asked MINI HQ in Oxford about this via e-mail, they said that they were aware of the issue in previous models and that steps had been taken to address the problem, they would not specify what these measures were though.

 

They probably specced it out with a coupla additional layers of aluminum foil.

 

Obviously more metal (thicker) may help. If the tower mushrooms the metal has exceeded its yield limit. All metal undergoes movement (strain) when subjected to stress (load), if within the yield limit, it reverts to its shape, if it exceeds the yield limit, it deforms. This would seem to be an easy problem to fix with either a little more metal, varying the shape (hence the load path), or a combination of the two. I'd be surprised if they didn't fix this, given they knew of it. Having more travel in springs and struts help somewhat as well as some of the energy is dampened and not all transmitted to the tower, but probably not as much as just more metal and minimizing the load path.

 

that will do the most to prevent it. In a % terms, it's quite an increase in travel.

Matt

 

could someone with a r56 take a picture of their strut tower top? e.g. if its still flat or is it domed now and also if they could take a few caliper measurements of how thick the metal is?

thanks for the time



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I'll take some pics later today and post them here.

 

I am well aware of that. :impatient My post was in response to:

Since mushrooming was such a problem on the old Mini (to the extent that it has occured within the first day of ownership); isn't it conceivable that if such a problem exists on the new Mini that it could manifest itself as early as its maiden voyage to its new home?

 

There is another thread further down called engine bay pics. Doesn't look like top of strut tower is flat, somewhat slightly domed. Don't know about first gen, so I can't compare. If it was flat, using a more domed shape will help. Flat would be the worst.

 

There's a concept... pre-shroomed from the factory!

 

In general it took awhile for the issue to be recognized in the R53 - to the tune of a couple of years.

.......and they just don't spontaneously do it. It takes a pretty decent jolt.

 

Some Pics as requested - the raised portion is 2 mm thick approx.

 

Thanks for the pics.

If anyone is ever so brave to take a nut off(no, not a genital, lol), are the hole's underneath the strut tower nuts slotted at all to allow for some camber gain? If so, thats good news. It sorta looks like they might be slotted since the three nut's on the strut tower have an ultra fat bottom to possibly provide extra support.

Anyone feel like taking one off too see? :-)

 

I haven't taken the nut off, but have just checked the strut towers after 1200 miles of driving, predominately on bumpy back roads and there are no signs of mushrooming.

 

Interesting, it looks like it's got a pin on the strut mount and two holes in the sheetmetal. doesn't that look like you could rotate the strut bearing towards the back? that might be like BMW's old "Offset" upper bearings for the E30/E36 cars.

(just speculation)

 

What would rotating it do to the geometry?

 

You posted that line before, Zip! Either that or youre stealing your comedy material.

 

can someone pls explain - if this is an issue - why are you not going to the dealer about it

I'd B knock knock knocking on Mr Service's door asap. But, again, I have very limited info and experience. But, if it were my 06 Ridgeline doing this - HONDA would know for sure

Such a long wait for my little Peppa - hummmmm I need a friend..

Thanks for the education on this topic - and lets pray the 07 stays away from mushrooms period!

 

If the strut top bearing/mount assembly is assymetrical, rotating it one way or the other would change camber. Not sure if this is the case here, though.