The M7 strut tower brace has substantial plates that help prevent mushrooming. They won't cure BadMINI's problem, but once he has the towers fixed then he might want to consider installing them as an insurance against mushrooming.

 

BadMINI, once you do get the Mushroomism fixed, put either the M7 SRPs or the M7 STB on and than get some camber plates to sandwich the metal of the tower. The camber plates are the Ireland fixed camber plates. It is more for prevention than a permanant fix.

 

Out of curiousity, how is prevention not a permanent fix?

 

Just to nitpick, because this is NAM afterall , the MINI does not have a "frame", it is a unibody construction. However, the suggestion of putting it on a frame machine to see if the suspension mounting points are still within spec is a good one. Oh, and if you need help fixing that mushroom, note my login name.

 

That's okay. I know it's uni-body, however, the body does kind of act like the frame.

Seriously though guys. I do not have the money to have the towers replaced. I'm just going to have to bang it back down and sandwich it like you all were suggesting. If the strut assembly is removed and then the tower is compressed in the way of the non-destructive method, will the strut assembly bolts line back up? I would think the metal would stretch. I'm kind of at a loss. Thanks for the replies everybody.

 

The bolts should line up. There has to be a lot of metal stretch before the bolt holes do not line up. You would likely get to metal fatigue before the bolt holes failed to line up. Even if there was metal stretching that was sufficient to cause the bolt holes to shift, a good metal worker with a torch can do wonders resolving the "stretch". Remember, you are dealing with stamped sheetmetal here, not a precision machined part like what is in the engine or transmission.

 

I just posted this in the Poll thread, I think I will get more feedback here...

I am pretty new to MINIs and am just kinda realizing what a big deal this mushrooming is!!

When I inspect the towers am I basically looking for them not being flat on top?

If there is any sort of dome shape to them at all are they mushrooming?

Are the M7 SRP's the cheapest way to counter this problem?
I was thinking of gettting the IE fixed camber plates... Is this also a good way to battle this problem? They are fairly inexpensive as well.
Is a STB good at helping this or are the other products mentioned better? I dont really need the bling or the added benefits at this point of a STB. I would eventully like to get one, but am more worried about the fighting the dreaded mushrooming at this point. If my MINI is mushrooming I am going to be bummed....

Last night I find out about the door sill rust... Now the mushrooming... Whats next? This damn car is like a sick child!!! Why am I so emotionally concerned!!!???

My wife has the car right now... I wish I could check it out... The suspense is killing me!!!
__________________

 

I posted on the poll thread a while back since I wasn't sure if I had them. Some feedback from my pictures confirmed I have mushroomed towers. I eventually got M7 SRP's but I haven't been able to put them on yet.

From just experimenting and trying to put them on my mushroomed towers as they are, the strut tower top plates need to be totally level for the reinforcement plates to fit. Any slight bulge is probably evidence of mushrooming.

 

Awesome !! I didn't even think of that way. My driver's side mushrooming is so minor, hammering it won't bother it. The passenger's side however is the bad side, and I want to try pressing it back down as far as it will go. I see now it shouldn't affect the holes.

I do have another question. I have read somewhere that when using the SRPs, the nuts only catch on a few of the threads. Is this true, and if I get some camber plates, are the bolts longer? Thanks again.

 

Yes. Although there is a debate about whether the fact that only a few of the threads engage is significant. But, the IE camber plates come with longer bolts, which means fuller engagement.

 

Thanks. I guess the Irelands and the M7 SRPs are going to be ordered here soon.