Plates, Mushrooming, etc.

kenshin138 · Post by **kenshin138** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:36 pm

What sort of mushrooming prevention are people running? Doing some reading and am a bit scared about this. I checked mine over and it LOOKS like there isn't any, but I've read it can be hard to eyeball.

Seems to be sides arguing the M7 plates vs the Craven plates vs camber plates and no real definitive answer. The M7's would be easy to install having done several STB in the past (its 6 screws, not rocket science) whereas the Craven require you to drop the entire strut assembly. I have helped once with the installation of some TEIN coilovers on my SE-R but would worry about doing it myself.

Has anybody here dealt with any of these products and could make a suggestion? I won't have the money to get anything just yet, but either the M7 STB or Craven plates look to be my first upgrade to the car.

Thanks in advance.

Minidave · Post by **Minidave** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:10 pm

First of all, if you don't have any mushrooming now, unless your planning to rock crawl with it, why bother?

Second, no one has convinced me yet that attaching a thin piece of aluminum over the top of the tower with just three 8mm nuts could ever really stop this from happening. It may be possible that it works, but I remain unconvinced.............

DDodge · Post by **DDodge** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:26 pm

Oh ye of little faith. . .

I figured if they came with the strut tower brace, it was a win-win! Looks good, stiffens the chassis, can't hurt.

Don D

Edit: Oh and those rigid runflats DO feed some shock into the chassis!

Minidave wrote:First of all, if you don't have any mushrooming now, unless your planning to rock crawl with it, why bother?

Second, no one has convinced me yet that attaching a thin piece of aluminum over the top of the tower with just three 8mm nuts could ever really stop this from happening. It may be possible that it works, but I remain unconvinced.............

kenshin138 · Post by **kenshin138** » Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:40 pm

DDodge wrote:Edit: Oh and those rigid runflats DO feed some shock into the chassis!

Actually my car came without the runflats (its used). It has a set of Hankook Sport K104's on it IIRC. Not the BEST tire ever but I suppose its not bad. I'll need to get some all-seasons once winter looms though. Having no spare scares me though, I considered getting run-flats, maybe not.

Anybody know if the mini-spare will fit in the boot of a cabrio?

MiniGeoff · Post by **MiniGeoff** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:07 pm

As MiniDave's devil advocate, I think that the mushrooming is a real issue, and can be a problem. While I fully trust his engineering/mechanical knowledge well above mine, I did just have a mushroomed strut tower repaired this past week on my 03.

The reason that I believe that the damage did exist and was required was because I filed in on my insurance, and after looking at it on a lift, my adjuster approved the repairs. My experience is that insurance adjusters don't want to pay anything they don't think needs done, and some stuff that DOES need to be done, and since they approved it, I guess it needed to be fixed.

As a result, I just put the M7 strut brace on my car. I'm not sure it'll help at all, but it looks pretty cool, took me 10 min to install, and if that $200 part prevents another $2900 repair, then it was worth every dime.

kraydl · Post by **kraydl** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:12 pm

What mushrooming are you talking about. I have an '08 MCS.

Are you talking about where the top of the shocks attach under the bonnet?

sundance · Post by **sundance** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:44 pm

2007 and newer MINIs don't have to worry about mushrooming strut towers because they re-designed them. At least that's what I've been told but my sources.

kabootist · Post by **kabootist** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:14 am

Ive heard the same as mr. Sundance

dimini · Post by **dimini** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:57 pm

I bought a pair of M7 plates last year for $100 plus s&h. Do they work? Dunno, but I think of it as cheap insurance. Are they sexy, are they bling? Well, maybe in the eyes of the beholder. Just a couple of black anodized aluminum plates scabbed ontop of the strut towers--nothing I'd want to point out to anyone.

I have a hard time imagining the repair to cost over $2k... Seems like something that could be "adjusted" back to "spec" with a 2x4 and a middle weight shop hammer.

Maybe MiniDave and I need to moonlight as the Mini Mushroom Mashers. Oh darn, the trademark 3M is locked up forever, likewise, M3. What would we call our new enterprise?

kinshin138- I almost forgot to mention that when I did research on strut braces, it was believed that they offer no noticeable performance value--just bling. If I recall correctly, the point was that the strut towers are positioned so close to the bulkhead that there is no flex compared to other cars that actually benefit from upper tower strut braces. There are some issues with certain brands of braces not fitting properly and causing annoying vibrations against the OE parts that actually ought to be under the hood.

DDodge · Post by **DDodge** » Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:37 am

dimini wrote:I
kinshin138- I almost forgot to mention that when I did research on strut braces, it was believed that they offer no noticeable performance value--just bling. If I recall correctly, the point was that the strut towers are positioned so close to the bulkhead that there is no flex compared to other cars that actually benefit from upper tower strut braces. There are some issues with certain brands of braces not fitting properly and causing annoying vibrations against the OE parts that actually ought to be under the hood.

Just to keep this going - I don't believe that any engineer would argue with any sort of thing that stiffens a chassis. They're just pressed sheet metal. It is way closer to the firewall than in a car with a longitudinal engine, but any stiffness increase in the chassis can do nothing but help.

Another quote: "Who are we to question someone else's bling?"