M7's Strut Re-Inforcement Plates
 

I know many of you have them on your Cooper's, and I assume many of you did it yourself. Can someone please explain to me how to install them before I go ahead and buy them? It looks like it involves just removing the nuts from the strut tower, putting the plate on, and putting the nuts back on. Is there anything else to it?

And I've seen on other forums where people mention you have to get the car re-aligned after you put them on but that makes no sense to me since you really aren't messing with the suspension geometry.

Any help will be appreciated.

People say that because the nuts determine the camber on the new r56 to a VERY slight extent. There is room to move the strut so that you can align the camber just a little bit.

With that said, it's not likely that you will need a re-alignment if you're just installing these plates.

Thanks for the info. Any word on how they install though? I'm not to terribly mechanically inclined.

When i made mine I just removed the nuts, set the plates on top reinstall nuts and torque them to 28ft lbs. As long as you dont jack or more the car while the nuts are loose you should be fine.

It is really straight forward as you are removing 6 bolts and replacing them. There is no need to even jack the car up :) Re alignment is not necessary. You do need to have access to a tongue wrench however as the torgue setting is an amazingly low 25 ft lb. IF you have questions you can usually reach me 10 am to 11 pm PST seven days a week.

Randy
M7 Tuning

Thank you very much, consider the order placed!

Torque wrench will probably be more effective than a tongue wrench as the latter can be a bit slimy :razz:

Oucchhh that left a mark. Just when i think i can get by without spell check :)

Randy

Eh I knew what you meant, I don't have a torque wrench but I've been meaning to get one. I'll probably pick one up this week.

I installed these without a torque wrench with no problem.... however, if I try to remove them.......

You WILL need to jack the car up if your strut towers have mushroomed. Since you are "pounding" these towers back into shape, an alignment is a good idea. If you car doesn't have this problem, no jacking or aligning is necessary.

Overtightening them isn't a great idea. The required torque is around 25 Ft/#s, and that's not a demanding number.

Nice job on the plates. What kind of machining center do you have?

If you don't mind, how thick is the material on yours after C'boring for the hex nuts?

Thanks, started with .500 thk mat. and .300 deep for the c bores. Made them on a fadal machining center

Got them yesterday and put them on today. AutoZone has a loan a tool programme and they loaned me a toques wrench for the morning. I really didn't want to spend $80 on one at Sears.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/P7190085.jpg

Before:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...P7190087-1.jpg

After:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/P7190091.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/P7190092.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...0/P7190093.jpg

I was really happy with the quality of the product as well, M7 seems to make great stuff. I just hope they make the crossbar for the just-a-Cooper now.

Ahh a "Fatal" user...cool beans. :thumbsup: I've a Fryer MB-11, old school Centurian 1 controller, 3-axis.

I was thinking the mat'l left after C'boring would be a bit thin, yet everyone seems to have zero issues with mushrooming after installs, so I'd say problem solved.
The M-7's are nice looking units as well.....who should I copy? :razz:

Off to the shop to build me some... :grin:

Looks good, Joey! Sooner or later, you'll be tinkering with all sorts of parts. Just like me... I started with replacing a battery on my old Protege (I thought it would be hard) and now I'm doing all the repairs myself. Unthinkable to the former Noegel a year ago.

Thanks, I have a feeling I will start messing around more and more. I did a lot of work on my Blazer, including dropping it 7 inches among other things but I was in a truck club with a bunch of guys that knew what they were doing. I still don't know many people with MINI's.

is the mushroom effect a problem on the r56's or are the plates more of a preventative measure?
thanks

How is the clearance between the M7 Strut Plates and the bonnet? Any rubbing? Thanks! :)

I haven't noticed any rubbing and the clearance looks to be good.

Are these really necessary on the R56? I haven't heard of anybody having any mushrooming since they redesigned that area on the R56.

I'm wondering the same thing.

It would be ridiculous for Mini not to fix this known problem on the new platform.

That's one of the main reasons I don't already own an R53.

IMHO: MINI has been remiss when addressing & fixing a known issue. An example is the MCS melting hoodscoop that has been reported for some time and a fix has not been implemented except for replacing the part under warranty.

A common theme recited by the MINI service advisor is "I've never heard of that before" :nod:


.

I agree that sounds like they should have some sort of solution to that problem as well...

However, that is a problem that started with the R56 and it is, for the most part, a cosmetic one. If Mini doesn't fix the problem for you, just go with the CF scoop and your problem is solved for a few hundred bucks.

Mushrooming/deforming the strut towers is a serious mechanical problem which was known on the previous body-style and there is no solution other than hoping that the one you purchase doesn't have the problem and then HOPING that one of the band-aids available from the aftermarket succeed in preventing the problem. I would say that there is no REAL solution. So, to let that kind of serious structural/mechanical problem re-occur in a ground-up redesign would be ridiculous, to put it quite lightly.

Like I said, I would probably already be driving a DS/B R53 if it wasn't for that problem.