No problem , glad to help out. Its not that they wouldn't help in the long run and you will be better off for having done it, I just didn't see you as being in the " high risk " area. Enjoy and thanks for the support.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

So Randy, with all of this talk about mushrooms, I decided to take a look at my car. Sure enough the drivers side it pushed up. I went ahead and put an order in for your strut brace, are there any good tips to hammering it back down other than jacking the car off the ground and using a rubber mallet and a piece of wood? I'm just debating whether or not to do it myself. Thanks. Oh yeah just so you know its not that bad for a Mini with 25000 miles, the only way to see the mushrooming is if you're looking for it.

 

I am sorry to hear that you have been " mushroomed " but glad that you caught it early. As " stone age " as the remedy sounds it is the only way I have seen the problem solved. Just give it a few good shots and then try the brace. If it doesnt sit level, repeat as necessary.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Maybe somebody already has, I didn't do a search.
But I keep hearing the process of fixing a mushroomed tower as, hit it with a big hammer & block of wood.
There really should be more instructions with that, like making sure to get the weight off the suspension first. In some cases should disconnect the strut from the strut tower. In severe cases should inspect upper strut plate for damage & replace if neccesary.
Maybe this is just common sense to everybody, but I worry someone may not know the rest of the repair, because it is never mentioned.

 

Like me, I really had to piece together the different information in different posts to get a good sence on what to do and what to look for.

 

Has anybody got some photos of this distortion? before & after type pics would be good and maybe a few shots of it being fixed by you guys. How can you tell how much distortion there is? has any one taken mesurements for example? going medieval on structural sheet metal with a hammer and a bit of wood because it does not look right could be a mistake if you not absolutely sure what your looking at or doing.

Cheers : )

 

I measured the distance between the strut bolts on both sides, thats how I could tell for sure.

 

Hi osmacow, I just tried your sugestion and checked out my strut tower mounts. I measured the distance between the strut top bolts with a set of 0-150mm vernier calipers they are perfect, this seems like a good simple way of checking for any distortion as its unlikely you would get the same measurements on both left & right sides if there was some distortion. And you would expect the bolts to splay out to some degree if the mount was damaged.
I was bit worried about the so called mushroom effect, we have some very bad roads down here in Sydney and I had to have a top mount rubber bushing replaced after it started to break up. My MCS is low and it takes a fair pounding some times so its good to be able to make a fast check.

Cheers : )

 

Excellant idea ! Maby we should start a thread where we post step by step methods and others could add tips where applicable? How to recognize the condition and measure it.Maby a list of tools that have worked would be good to have as well.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

That is a great tip. Side to side comparison.