Cracked front strut towers !?!!!

[m ben]

a good friend of mine mentioned to me (he's not much of a car guy) that the
dealer told him that his front strut towers were cracked. it was noticed at a
scheduled maintanence visit. they told him that it wasn't covered under
warranty as it was "normal wear & tear". this is of course complete and
utter BS, but I'll deal with them later. it was first noted ~2 months ago at
the service visit but may have been going on before that. he's just been
driving it since then. I've not seen the car yet, but will be taking a look at
it in the next day or so & getting pics.

roads around the Detroit area aren't very good, but this is absurd. he's
running the OE 17" Pirelli's and (not suprisingly) getting uneven wear now
that he's lost a significant measure of structure in the front end of the car.
car is completely stock & has never been tracked, auto-x'ed or anything
other than normal daily driving.

anyone else seen this sort of problem ? I can't find anything in the archives
via searching (other than a lot of windshield problems, which we had on
my wife's car) around, so maybe this is just an isolated case of a unibody
with some bad welds.

I'm out of the Mini world lately with my wife having sold hers last year, but
figured the community is still here to help...



Ben
'91 M5

[Mike Edwards]

Cracked = fatigue fracture of the steel bodywork structure :eek

1. Tell him to stop driving it immediately on safety grounds.
2. Report to Mini USA.
3. Beat the living cr*p out of the staff at the dealership who told him it was "wear and tear" and let him drive it.
4. Are you on good terms with a "hearse-chaser"?

[manilaman2001]

You may be referring to the same problem I have today.

I am attaching a photo where it can be found. I need two pieces (left and right). NOTE: THE PART I AM INQUIRING ABOUT IS THE RUBBER RING FOUND INSIDE THE TOP FRONT STRUT WELL. Reading through the various forums I have found the following parts numbers. Guide Support and the number is 31-33-6-759-498 for 3/02 models, and another source says the part number is 31-30-769-741 , and still, another part number front, part number 31-30-6-769-741 replaces part number 31-30-6-764-884. This is starting to confuse me. Maybe you have had experience in, my opinion, is a weakest link in the MINI.

Keep this in mind, its good to know before it happens to you. And just in case you find a solution, specially Polyurethene replacements, SEND ME A PM, I am enclosing the details of my car.

Here are the details of my car:
Make & Type: Mini Cooper S
Color: Red
VIN: WMWRE31062TD02208
Motor #: 011365605828320

I have a friend Flying into Singapore this week, and I hope to get these parts from PML BMW. BMW PHilippines do not recognize and distribute the Mini's here. They Opted to release the Series 1 which is not even selling well. Such Bone heads.

[twouptons]

We had this happen on our old VW Golf. It was not (surprise) covered under warranty either. The repair wasn't too bad, though, when we finally did it as part of replacing parts of the front suspension.
Before the repair, the only thing we noticed was that the wheels wouldn't stay perfectly aligned (and the dealer wouldn't even align them at all), which resulted in a little faster tire wear, but it never got bad enough to be a hazard.
-Eric

[Mike Edwards]

Ah - right.

If the problem is the same as the pictures, you have a perished top mount - not a cracked strut tower.

Not ideal, but not the end of the world.

If the problem is actually cracks in the sheet metal of the strut towers, refer to my earlier post.