I have just fitted a JCW Strutbrace to my 05 Mini Cooper S.

I followed the official Mini instructions.

The Strutbrace is on the car and sitting tight to the bodywork and the aifilter housing, yet when I go to close the bonnet/hood it catches.

I can close the bonnet/hood but it is sitting higher than it should.

I can remove the strutbrace or remove the under bonnet/hood insulation but I don't really want to do either of these.

Any ideas why this is happening & what I can do to correct it?

 

Well....if it's (the hood) bulging then just remove the padding from the hood, flip it over and slice the outer layer of padding and pull it back. Then remove the padding enough to correct the clearence issues. That's what I'm doing now with the M7 stb I installed. I need to remove more tho because I thought I could get away with just removing a 27" L x 1 3/4" W section, which is roughly the center section of the M7 brace. Problem is that the padding over the outer ends of the bar is thicker and still causing some bulging so I'll have to re-remove it and trim some more.

 

The solution I went with my M7 Strut Tower Brace was the "soak the padding" method. [Edit: this solution is a PDF on the M7 site (link)], but basically:

1- Use a water hose to soak the heck out of the padding where it hits the bar. You should be able to see where that is because it has already left a dent in your padding.

2- Repeat on a regular basis until you see the "gap" dissappear. (Because I can be impatient sometimes, I did this about every other day until I noticed the gap go away.)3- Take pictures of your shiny JCW Strut brace and uncut bonnet padding and post them for future generations to see.