MINI Woes

[Mudhen]

I know a couple of you guys have MINIs...wondering if you've had to replace struts, strut mounts, control arm bushings, etc?

My '05 started wandering around the road a couple months ago.  Thought it was probably tie rods or ball joints or something normal...but they all seemed to check out ok.  Digging deeper I see that both my strut mounts are split and my control arm bushings are almost non existent.  Also looks like my strut towers are mushroomed out - definitely never heard of that happening before - wish I'd known BEFORE that last rally.   :o

If you did get new ones - what brands?  Looking at ProFlex poly control arm bushings...and a Madness strut tower reinforcement plate.  Will probably just go stock with the strut mounts; was looking at Ireland Engineering fixed negative camber ones but they're a tad bit more money.  I'll be replacing my shocks now, too - anyone have any experience with KYB?  I've used their jelly before but not their shocks...  :D

Instead of the Madness strut tower plates I was also thinking about talking to a machine shop to see if I could get something like 1/2" thick aluminum plates instead - give me the tower reinforcement plus a little more height for rallying.  Think there would be any big implications to that?  Like brake lines snapping or alignment that is impossible to get in spec...

[94touring]

Luckily mine has not done that yet. 

[MPlayle]

The gen-1 MINIs had a reputation for such issues when driven "hard" a lot.  My 2002 had the suspension bushings start going around 96000 miles of regular driving.  It had just the faintest signs of starting to have the tower mushrooming - not enough to be concerned about according to the dealer at that time.  The recommendation was to begin considering one of the strut braces with the strengthening plates.  They just hammer the mushrooming back down and install the plates and brace.    The car got totaled at 111000 mile, so never got addressed.

When you refer to:

Instead of the Madness strut tower plates I was also thinking about talking to a machine shop to see if I could get something like 1/2" thick aluminum plates instead - give me the tower reinforcement plus a little more height for rallying.

Do you mean clearance between a strut brace and the engine?  If so, it may put your brace hitting the bottom of the bonnet.  If you were thinking it would increase ground clearance, it won't - the plates mount on top of the towers with extended studs through the strut mounts.

[Mudhen]

Do you mean clearance between a strut brace and the engine?  If so, it may put your brace hitting the bottom of the bonnet.  If you were thinking it would increase ground clearance, it won't - the plates mount on top of the towers with extended studs through the strut mounts.

A long time ago a friend of mine gave me his old strut tower brace...I think that may have saved my strut towers (but I won't know for sure until I try dropping the bushings out I guess).  I only rallied the car on a handful of events, but the last one was extremely brutal...all night getting hammered.  I probably owe my buddy a beer.

The plate I'm thinking about would go underneath...between the tower and the strut.  This is what I was going to get...



If that thing was 1" thick would it give me 1" more ground clearance?

[MPlayle]

I don't really think the Madness kit will add ground clearance.

As for extra thick ones, they will either stiffen the spring rate by causing extra compression of the strut's spring - no added clearance, or may cause the spring to keep the strut slightly more extended - which might give additional static clearance, but would also reduce downward travel range of the strut.  Reduced downward suspension travel would not be a good thing, especially when encountering pot-holes.

If you already have the Madness kit, It would be a good thing to install to solve your current tower mushrooming.  The reasoning of their kit being better than top mounted ones does make sufficient sense to me for the kit's intended purpose: fix/prevent the mushrooming. 

[Mudhen]

I don't really think the Madness kit will add ground clearance.

As for extra thick ones, they will either stiffen the spring rate by causing extra compression of the strut's spring - no added clearance, or may cause the spring to keep the strut slightly more extended - which might give additional static clearance, but would also reduce downward travel range of the strut.  Reduced downward suspension travel would not be a good thing, especially when encountering pot-holes.

If you already have the Madness kit, It would be a good thing to install to solve your current tower mushrooming.  The reasoning of their kit being better than top mounted ones does make sufficient sense to me for the kit's intended purpose: fix/prevent the mushrooming.

Thanks a lot, MP.  Sounds like once I get these issues sorted I'll just stick with the current setup - a big skidplate and a lot of praying.   ;D

A guy on SpecialStage forum swapped his struts out for STi ones...maybe in the future I'll do something silly like that.  There's just a slight difference in the size of the piston  :-\

[MPlayle]

 :-\  Whoa!  :-\

I wonder what other mods he had to do to make those fit.

[Mudhen]

:-\  Whoa!  :-\

I wonder what other mods he had to do to make those fit.

"Fairly straight forward...sort of..haha cut off the ears to expose the tube body, then cut off and weld the Mini brackets to the STI strut. The STI spring seat stays in the same place but I had to put a metal shim around the base of the STI strut tube as it was a slighty smaller diameter than the original Mini strut. Finally I cut a hole in the strut tower to accept the bigger STI top mount. With standard STI road springs the stiffness seems about right."

Full build thread:
www.specialstage.com/forums/showthread.php?45489-The-rally-Mini-build

There's a guy over there building a Fiat600 tube frame rally car...(gotta admire the effort, but I'd put money on the organizers sending him packing) - his friend is building a Mini - with...19" Fox racing suspension.  Talk about  :-\

[Mudhen]

Going under the knife starting today.



KYB shocks/struts, Lemfoerder strut bushings (OEM supposedly), poly control arm bushings, pads/rotors...skipping the strut tower brace for now - will see how bad it looks when I get in there.  I'll probably add a plate in the future, but I didn't want to mess around with trying to find longer studs for the strut bushings, etc - I need to get it inspected this month or I'll have to commute in the Rover... :o

I also de-stripe'd the hood (crappy cell pic - it's not really yellow):



Thought I'd need to heat them up or something - nope.  Peeled right off.  I'm thinking flat black for the hood, leaving the intake white still...after grinding off the rust, that is.  :(

[jedduh01]

Good Project .. Susspension stuff shouldnt be bad at all - and will freshen up the suspension like you never knew before.

Good call on the stripes- and keeping the rust at bay...

Flat black -- I say- give it some grunt-  Do Texture Coat -- like truck bed liner or Paintable Undercoat...

I think you saw "diddys" van on MiniMania.... Yea!! tough!!

[Mudhen]

Good Project .. Susspension stuff shouldnt be bad at all - and will freshen up the suspension like you never knew before.

I bet...the strut bushings are torn almost all the way around.  Can't believe they're still holding up.



Didn't see the van - but when I was reading your post the other day about your floors I was thinking it looked pretty cool.  I'll start with some dark primer to see if I even like it at all...

[Mudhen]

Yesterday I managed to get the left side strut out...disassembled it.  Had to heat the control arm a bunch to get the outer balljoint separated - so will need to replace that since I burned the boot up.  Used a big puller and some heat to get the inner to pop.  Couldn't for the life of me get the bushing housing out - they make it look so easy on youtube... ::)

So I hit it again this morning some - still couldn't get it out.  Really don't want to pull the subframe...

Hit a much larger stumbling block this morning, though - snapped off the frickin' strut pinch bolt on the right side!!!  I'd read that could happen and it scared the crap out of me so I heated it a lot...had been soaking it with penetrating oil, too.  ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

No clue how to attack it now.  I guess I need to get that whole carrier out somehow, with the strut attached.  And then I'll probably buy a used carrier.  Never had much luck in drilling things like that out and digging out the pieces...fk.

[Mudhen]

I did some more research...looks like the second gen cars use a bolt/nut for holding the strut instead of a bolt into threads in the carrier - great idea!   50.gif

So I think I'll try to drill out the broken bolt and upgrade to the nut/bolt on the right side - will leave the bolt in the left side and take my chances when it hits 340k miles and I have to do this again.  Now my hope is I can get a drill in there and drill it out in place - I REALLY don't want to try to get the axle nut off to remove the entire assembly from the car...

My own personal little hell.



Still need to get the stupid bushing out, too.  It's pretty mangled at this point.




Fun fun.

[94touring]

Yikes

[jedduh01]

Man I love living in the south - Rust - Old Bolts Not an issue!

  - I would nearly be looking for a used Spindle.and lower control arm from a used / salvage car...ALl that trouble for Bleh!!

Goodluck.

[MPlayle]

Seeing that makes me glad I had a dealership do the ones on my 2002 MCS when it needed them replaced at 96K miles.  Did another 15K miles on the car before it got totaled.

I just did a search over on NAM and found this thread that may be of help:

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/stock-problems-issues/246754-lca-bushing-lower-ball-joint-fun.html

[Mudhen]

Seeing that makes me glad I had a dealership do the ones on my 2002 MCS when it needed them replaced at 96K miles.  Did another 15K miles on the car before it got totaled.

I just did a search over on NAM and found this thread that may be of help:

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/stock-problems-issues/246754-lca-bushing-lower-ball-joint-fun.html

Thanks - some of those tips will definitely help.  I was wondering about using a cutting torch on the metal bushing sleeve...it would heat up/melt off easily before cutting into the much heavier metal of the housing...and if the car burns, insurance should cover it!

[Mudhen]

Passenger side...out!  It wasn't pretty...or fun.  Or even pretty fun.



Used a combo of blind sawzall'ing and air chisel'ing.  I think the big issue is that when I pulled my control arm out part of the bushing remained - so I'm not only trying to get the thin metal sleeve out but the thicker metal and rubber of the nougaty center, too.

Now back to the drivers side... 11.gif

[94touring]

Beating it to a pulp!

[Mudhen]

Just got the other side out, too.  Sawzall made all the difference.

I'd beat the outer metal inward so the inside wouldn't come out.  Once that was removed the outer part was easy. er.

Bazinga!

My later style pinch bolts are in at the dealer, too...need to attack that headache next.  She's a lot like a real Mini at this point - the parts of the front subby not protected by the engine oil pouring on it are all rusted out...  4.gif

Looks like it blew a seal....'nah, it's just a little ice cream'...

[Mudhen]

Speaking of beating to a pulp...this thing took a good walluping before giving up - outer balljoint:



But things are starting to go back together slowly.  And I'm finally getting to use the fun stuff I got for the '80...just the wrong frickin' car.

Put these in the sandblast cabinet and cleaned them up - then a couple coats of POR (the red is so the springs look good when it's upside down  ;D):




How would one go about torquing the upper strut nut without the special tool?  Funny some of the 'professional' how-to's just say to put it back on, nothing about torque or how to hold the shock when doing it.   ::)

[94touring]

Red springs add 10 horsepower.  4.gif

[Mudhen]

Finally got the drill bit I needed to drill out the broken pinch bolt.  Then I shanked the actual drilling of the hole.  Had no room to really work in there and the drill apparently preferred to chew out the metal of the knuckle instead of biting into the bolt.  50.gif



Found a used one not too far from here for $50 on car-parts.com - will drive down and take a look...

[Mudhen]

What's it been - 3 weeks since I started this?  These look ready:



1 corner done.



The left rear worries me some...never experienced this sort of brake rotor 'failure'?  Would you call it failure?  Still plenty of pad left.



Think maybe the caliper is seized?  I was able to thread it back in, though.  I do think I broke one of the emergency brake cables fooling around in the driveway - wondering if it locked the brake on a little.  Don't like the sound of replacing it - 'remove exhaust'....here we go again.  ::)

[94touring]

This has turned into quite the project.  I need to do my brakes but keep pushing it back.