1st Gen R50 Cooper Most liked posts in thread: Strut Tower Reinforcement Plate

Two birds with one stone.....
IE fixed camber plates.... Have a very robust top plate.... In and of itself would fight "mushrooming" but from underneath..... With the much improved handling through added negative camber.... Stocked by several of our good vendors....

 

I'm a fan of the Craven ones. I had them before I even started the site and they became a sponsor.

Also have the Helix Adjustable Camber plates.

 

^^^ And gets you moar fun....

 

I justa use the muscle memory in my arthritic wrist. Use a 3/8 drive ratchet & hold it near the head. Snug is what you need.

 

^^^^. This or the M7 plates would work great.

I have the Helix adj. camber plates from the bottom with M7 top strut plates and nothing is going to make my strut towers mushroom.

 

^^^Yup...

 

Yes after installing those you will definitely need to have an alignment done. Adding those will cause your MINI to go toe-in. That will be corrected with an alignment. You will love the change & adding those plates will help the front tires wear better.

 

We've installed all the different brands of strut tower plates and we found we like the Craven STD plates the best. They are easy to install and solid so they will prevent mushrooming.

The IE fixed camber plates will also prevent mushrooming as they are about 3/16inch thick. But these will take more time to install and will require an alignment after install.

 

I've been more than satisfied with the M7 plates on my 2 R53s and my R50.

 

If you don't want to do camber plates the strut top plates do work. I have M7 plates & they kept my strut towers from mushrooming. I'm sure the Craven ones will do the same. The fact your MINI has 15 inch wheels helps. One word of caution do not over tighten the nuts holding the plates in place or you'll break the studs coming out of the strut.

I'd recommend Outmotoring.

Cravenspeed MINI Cooper Strut Tower Plates

 

Just to add to the confusion. MC Special has both reinforcement plates and fixed camber plates at a savings. Since you only have 39k mi your bearing should still be good. I have have the camber plates and they are great. http://www.mcspecial.net/

 

I bought two of my M7 sets from Way when he was selling M7 stuff. That said, I do not think the quality of the M7 STRPs has changed, even though Way is now supporting some other brand.

I have IE fixed camber plates on one R53, plus a set of the M7 STRPs. On my other two MINIs I just have the M7 STRPs.

 

They are a heck of a lot easier to install than the camber plates that's for sure.

 

There..... Fixed it for you

 

^^^ True that, but it requires moar work.