Picture of bar:


Passenger side that was mushroomed 2mm, but after the use of a 4 lb hammer and 2X4, it is flat as a pancake.


Driver side:


While I was at it, I painted the battery box shield with ceramic engine paint:


And finally, I replaced the R/C antenna with a S2000 antenna:


I took my time with the 2X4 and hammer technique and I am satisfied with the results. All I have left is to cut the CAI insulation and modify the bonnet padding to fit the m7 bar.

 

you should cut the insulation asap as it will cause damage to your hood.

 

You may find you don't need to cut any insulation. Sure, the hood on my car doesn't nestle as tight as before installing the M7 strut tower bar, but the difference is only a fraction of an inch. This is nothing to take action with. Hopefully, you have the same situation.

 

I am lucky, I don't have to modify the bonnet at all. I have an '04 and the bonnet fits like before. I did have to modify the rubber gasket on my MM CAI though.

 

Are all the M7 STBs black now? I really liked the titanium finish in the pictures and description on their website.

 

I beleive that the bars will all be black from this point on. The responce to that particual finish was so positive that we have booked the next few orders in black only.
As for modifying your liner you may not have to do much if anything at all as many have seen so far. In any event there would be no damage to the hood other than a slight lifting at the rear of the hood which several of the bars do as well. There are several threads on NAM as to various fixes for the " bulge " and if you need further assistance you can always call me from 10 am to 11 pm PST 7 days a week.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Thanks for the quick reply, Randy. In Arly's pictures, the STB kind of "disappears" into the engine compartment, but that may be the lighting - I haven't seen one of the black ones in person yet.

And I'm not complaining, regardless. If I want a different finish, there are always the three Ps - Paint, Powdercoat, or Polish!

 

No worries. The reason we went to the black finish was that when some of the first buyes of the Under Strut System saw how nice they looked in black they started asking for the STB to be done the same wayThe black finish wa so well received that we have made that our primary color. As you mentioned you could use any of the three " Ps" and come up with a totally custom color for the unit as well. Thanks for the interest.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Black is universal. Whether you have blue, green, yellow, etc. highlights under your hood, black will go with it. Titanium doesn't really go as well.

 

This is a new one on me. I did the soak & slam H2O mod & after almost a year there is zero damage to my cars hood...aka bonnet.

 

When you say soak and slam, do you mean spray with hot water and close? I was thinking of using a hot steam iron and steaming the areas of concern and closing. maybe cut the shadow of the bar and let it sit.

Also, did you guys preload the bar by lifting one side and tightening the bar bolts?

 

Arly, when I bolted my bar down the car was on it's wheels with the cars full weight on them. I figured that was the way the car most always is...on the ground with a load on the tires.

At first I was really bothered by the lifting of the rear of the bonnet. I removed the insulation pad & the bonnet sat just right. Trouble was my under bonnet was mostly grey primer colored. That bothered me even more that the lifted bonnet.
I took the insulation pad & soaked it real good with the garden hose. Then I reinstalled it & slammed the bonnet. After 2 days I opened it up & it had molded to the strut bar nicely. The bonnet is still up in the rear a very little bit, but it really doesn't bother me at all.

I've seen a couple of cars with the insulation cut for bar clearance. It wasn't for me, so mine stays as is.

 

One of the simpler " soak " methods is to get a spray bottle ,like one used for window washer fluid, and spray ( inject ) water along the area that makes contact with the brace. Be sure to wrap the bar in plastic to prevent any staining and close the hood . After the lining dries you should be good to go. I think if you do it with a warm engine the drying process will be quite short. Hope this helps a bit.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Like Randy says his method will be easier. The only reason I had at mine with the hose is because the pad was already off. I'd sure try Randy's method first.

 

Would one of these bars work on a MC, I think my hood is lower and I have a battery box that could be in the way, could I get away with just doing the the soak and slam method?

Also I have heard conflicting opininons about weather or not strut bars really do anything in mini's what are people feeling about the m7 bar?

I love the black on my USS it would be sweet to have a matching bar

 

You are out of luck JuniroMint. Check here.

 

I helped a friend with an install of another manufacturer's bar. He decided that he wanted to trim away a few layers of the insulating material. We sprinkled talc (baby powder that I use on my rubber seals) on the bar and carefully lowerd the bonnet. Where ever the powder transferred to the liner, he trimmed a bit away and we repeated until no powder was transferred.

I'm not saying that this was a better method than the "soak 'n slam", but it made for a very precise install.

 

do you have to do any trimming of the insulation with the GTT Strut brace?

 

I have the GTT strutbrace and no trimming was required. Hood closes as it should with no bulges. Steve

 

I love the way the GTT SB looks, but it doesn't do anything for the Mushroomism.

 

sweet, thanks.

My camber plates should help stop the mushrooming....

I like the GTT brace

 

Read Rolands reply on MINI2, under suspension R53 about his bar. He says his bar stops mushrooming. Camber plates are the best for this.

 

I also did the soaking routine on my GP with the water bottle as mentioned here and on other posts.

I found it to be pretty straight forward. In fact, no "slamming" was required. Snug shut was good enough.

As far as being able to measure 2mm of mushrooming... How could you even tell this? All I did was inspect visually. Certainly couldn't "see" 2mm. Just curious how you went about that. Put a ruller down or a straight edge?

When bolting down the bar, I did as the instructions suggested with a twist because it wasn't fully detailed:
1) Loosen and remove strut nuts with a 13mm wrench.
2) Loosen bar bolts at strut plates with supplied allen wrench.
3) Align strut plates to strut tower bolts as best as possible. One strut tower at a time.
4) Use new self locking strut tower nuts and tighten these clockwise on each strut tower until they barely allow any strut plate movement. Check alignment of strut plates to to strut tower bolts. Make sure strut bolts aren't ridding against strut plate holes. Make adjustments as necessary.
5) READ THIS WHOLE STEP CAREFULLY: Gradually and evenly tighten down in clockwise fashion the strut tower bolts to specificed 25 foot lbs of torque. This implies going back and forth between bolts for every turn of the wrench. However, if at any time during the tightening there's a feeling of the bolts starting to force the strut plates to "flatten" the strut mounts ... STOP! You either didn't flatten correctly enough or need to flatten the strut towers with a 2x4 piece of wood. There's probably some mushrooming already going on if the plates start to dig into the towers when you tighten down the strut bolts.
6) Retighten down bar bolts at strut plates. Check for clearances to make sure nothing is impacting the bar (except for the foam padding to the hood).

Few have mentioned the need for new self locking strut tower nuts. I strongly recommend this step. Especially since the new strut tower plates won't allow the nuts to completely thread the strut tower bolts. This is just cheap insurance against any potential thread problems.

After that it's just a matter of figuring out where the bar hits the foam padding and start spraying some water to presoak the foam so it shapes to the bar.

So does this help performance? Not sure. Probably hurts it more than anything. Regardless, I see this more as preventive maintenance for the mushroom syndrome. A real performance upgrade in my mind would be a complete suspension package covering all the angles. Any one item is just guess work. All components tend to work together and so they're interdependent.

My two cents.

 

I have the dreaded mushrooming. How do I know? My Dinan Strut Bar Ring broke! And now my new M7 plates fit but I can't get one bolt threaded (nearest rear of engine) if the other two are threaded, so... How much do I hit with the 2x4? What is the technique for how much and hard to hit? And where do I find these new self locking strut tower nuts? TIA Michael

 

Your Mini dealership will know about the self locking nuts.

As for knowing when your towers are correctly flat, I'd like to know as well. The sheet metal on the towers is shaped in such a way that there are some "stamped" fingers protruding from the bigger strut tower openings. How can you lay down a ruller or straight edge to make sure the mounts are flat enough? I'm not picturing this right now. The best you could do is lay down a ruller or straight edge on lengthwise across where the fingers don't protrude. But again, this is guess work at best.