Anyone know how to change the bolts on the front struts? Mine are

a.) Too short to use with a strut brace
b.) Starting to strip because of using them with a strut brace.

What size/length should be used?

 

You should get them from mini as they are not really bolts but studs with knurled edges. The other option is to just knock them out and use thru bolts . I stripped and replaced one back when i put my first strut tower brace on. Hope this helps , welcome back to the land of running Minis

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Welcome back Jason!

If you have stock shocks, and if I remember correctly, the bolts are actually studs on a plate. Heck, I could be confusing this with another car I recently worked-on though...

I'll be going through my Bentley manual later, and I'll try to remember to check for you...

 

so how do you knock the bolts out?

 

The bolts are captive to the front strut hat (bearing plate), see: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...95&hg=31&fg=10

You can knock them out from the strut hat, but not while it's on the car. So you'd want to take off both front struts, disassemble them using spring compressors, knock the studs out, replace them with longer bolts, tack weld the bolt heads to the hat so they won't fall into the wheel well during assembly and drive you crazy, paint the underside of the hat to provent corrosion, then reassemble everything.

Fun? Not all that much. Are there any shortcuts? Dunno.

Neil
05 MCS
96 M3

 

Would getting new spring hats be a shortcut?

 

Or maybe ill just get coilovers as a welcome back to the world of working cars present to it

 

The new spring hat sounds like a good idea . I just replaced the one stripped stud with a thru belt. It wasnt that big of a deal as it was only one. If it was all three it would be a pain in the butt and a two man job to put the strut tower back in the car .

randy
M7 tuning

 

All SIX are stripped

 

I don't know if you have camber plates already, but the IE plates (even the fixed ones) are well made and offer very long bolts that would fit any strut brace or anti-mushroom plate. In the end it might be a better solution as you get better front camber, and some nice parts much improved over stock.
just .02,

 

Thanks for the suggestion... Ill look into it

 

Camber plates sounds like the way to go. I mean you are already going to be spending bucks to replace the top plates as all 6 are bad so you might as well go a bit further and get something that will improve your handeling. I have had a few different sets of camber plates and they all offer far superior bolting situations .

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

I just went down and bought new mounts... camber plates will have to wait :impatient

 

what strut brace do you have?

 

m7 now... the Dinan I had snapped