First off, let me apologize for the lack of pictures. I am a terrible mechanic and did not want to have to clean my hands the 400 times I would need to be able to take terrible pics... however here I go.

The Mini Madness Strut Tower plates are used to help with the mushrooming issue of the R53. They are a steel plate that is installed in the shock tower between the top of the strut and the bottom of the shock tower (like a giant steel washer).

The install is very straightforward and the PDF instructions that are included are only 4 pages. Even a retard like me was able to complete it, and quickly too.

The first side was not mushroomed and took me about 2 hours, I had no idea what I was doing and was never able to locate a 17mm open wrench (turns out an 11/16th works fine.)

I chose the Mini Madness plates because it seemed to make a lot of sense to me to use a piece of steel inbetween the strut and tower - this would prevent the strut from bashing the tower at all, it would also prevent the three bolts from spreading (the steel is much, much thicker than the MINI aluminum tower and the steel is much stronger, so it should be an excellent designed solution.) It will also allow the installation of any 3rd party strut tower brace without interfering since it is a below mount.

The installation proceeded very simply, however I found the instructions lacking in description, they were for sure written by someone who had done the installation many times before.

1. I used a floor jack and jack stand to hold the car up. I simply did not trust either to hold the car up with me half under the car.

2. An 11/16" open wrench can be used to hold the bolt from the front sway bar link. You place this right behind the bracket attached to the car and in front of the rubber fitting. I recommend that you keep a hand here to be able to feel the bolt rotating (this is the only place it will be appearant as there is no visual indication.)

3. I found it very, very helpful to use a standard scissor jack under the A Arm to control the height of the strut with some precision. This allowed me to remove any pressure from the front sway bar as well as to manipulate the shock alone, as I had no help for the project.

4. Depending on the amount of mushrooming you may need to widen the holes in the tower slightly. I opened them about .5mm around and then used the scissor jack to "press" them through the holes as I had some slight mushrooming on the passenger side.

If anyone has any questions, do not hesitate to ask. This is an excellent solution and I only wish I would have done it immediately.


FWIW - with this issue in the R53 I would recommend every owner install these to prevent mushrooming.

Here is a link to the product: http://www.mini-madness.com/madness-...nt-plates.aspx

 

Good info HH I am considering picking some up for my '04 R53

 

I will try to check this weekend and see if the plates have "righted" my issue so I can install my strut tower bar.

 

NO you should NEVER need to widen the holes. I've repaired over 100 mushroomed strut towers and never cut 1 of them.

If you replace the bent upper strut mount and hammer the body straight it will slide together like it did at the factory.

 

Does anyone know if these plates will fit into an R50 (std mini)?

 

R53 plates will fit R50. though there may be a difference with early 2002 models (not sure on that).

 

One thing these plates do is the exact opposite of what many want. You'll end up with more wheel gap up front.

 

Thanks Fellas!

 

~3-4mm is hardly worth talking about

 

I recently installed these as well as M7 upper plates and replaced the strut mount studs with longer hardware. Everything is nicely sandwhiched together and perfectly true to shape again.

 

I had a lot of problems getting the plates to fit onto the strut tops. The tops were "new" but had been installed by the used car dealer onto very mushroomed strut mounts, so I guess the bolts had already been spread out. I noticed that they had elongated the mount holes on the car as well to get them to fit.
It would be adviseable to start with new tops or to flatten out the tops prior to installation.
I ended up drilling the holes on the plates to get them to fit, but in hindsight I would rather have tweaked the top bushings get them to fit the plates. I was thinking they were new but likely they were already bent, since they were installed in the car it was difficult to tell without removing them completely.
I may end up going into there again to fix the mushrooming more completely in the future. The mushrooming is still present and the was not "fixed" by tightening the bolts and drawing into the plates. That can only do a little straightening.
I was leary about pounding down the mounts on the car due to metal fatigue, but I now defer to WayMotorWorks' expertise on this issue. I just didn't know about it at the time.

 

Will camber plates, or coil overs serve the same purpose?