It is referred to as a 'strut tower brace'... one of the weakest chassis areas is the large opening of the engine bay in particular the ability under hard cornering and braking for the strut towers to flex inward. The brace eliminates this tendency and creates a more crisp feel in turning etc. Under 'normal' driving not needed, but if you plan to autoX or track or really hop on it in the twisties the brace is nice addition.

The one on my MINI is the JCW unit available from forum vendors and MINI dealerships...there are other aftermarket ones available too.

Michael

 

[/quote]As soon as I got to my garage pulled out the laser remote temp reader and got a 146 deg F temp off of the M7 unit at the point just below the scoop. So with no intention originally to be concerned with melting hood scopes, I feel this is a total none issue now. The M7 shield is very nicely made, works exactly as advertised and IMO dresses up the engine bay too [/quote]

How about a temp reading 5 and 10 minutes after you have parked the car? I can lay my hand on the scoop of my car immediately after I park also, and I only have the stock heat shield. But after 5 minutes, it's too hot to touch the area around the scoop. I think the problem is when the car sits with a hot turbo and no place for the heat to go. After the fan turns off, the heat has nowhere to go. I wonder if the M7 shield will "heat soak" and just radiate upwards anyway? So if you can, please get a temp reading after 5 and 10 minutes of the heat shield, and also the hood around the scoop. Thanks.

 

Well, I got my supposed MINI "fix" for this installed at the dealer the other day, and it was the EXACT same less than 50% opened grill insert that comes stock on the cars to begin with. So MINI is still doing NOTHING to fix this for us.

I decided to try a little experiment though. I spent $20.00 on a roll of this silver colored thermal tape from Auto zone. It is supposed to reflect up to 2000 degrees F of radiant heat. I took my newly replaced scoop off, and stuck 4-5 layers of this tape on the underside of the area that melts.

In a few weeks/months I will let you know if it melted again.

 

Actually, I don't think the problem is with the airflow through the scoop, it has more to do with the material the scoop is made from.

Based on my experiences and what I've read here and elsewhere, I think the scoops are being heated from a combination of exposure to engine/turbo heat and heating from the sun, just past the point where the plastic begins to turn soft.

My own scoop (stock painted 2008) is cold to the touch right after driving the car and it doesn't heat up until the car's been sitting for a few minutes. Also, my scoop didn't distort until the car had been parked in the direct sunlight and I never heard of a distorted scoop until the start of summer. I've also heard that dealers are reporting that stock chromed scoops are distorting less frequently, which is consistent with the sunlight being reflected off of them, rather than the sunlight heating the scoops.

My opinion, pending new information to the contrary, is that Mini slightly miscalculated the amount of heat the scoop would be subjected to and made the scoop out of material that was slightly too temperature sensitive. That's why the turbo wraps, heat shields, carbon fiber and chromed scoops solve the problem. All that needs to be done is lower the scoop's temperature a few degrees by reducing the heat sent to it, or speading the heat out over a larger area. Also, making the scoop slightly more temperature tolerant works, too.

The basic problem is Mini needs to do this engineering and make a fix, if this is indeed the problem. They're the only ones that have all the information and can make an accurate accessment of the problem. My opinion is based only on what I've seen; I could be missing something and be compeltely wrong.

I'm also reluctant to spend money on a problem caused by a mistake in Mini's engineering; that's why the car has a warranty in the first place.

 

How about a temp reading 5 and 10 minutes after you have parked the car? I can lay my hand on the scoop of my car immediately after I park also, and I only have the stock heat shield. But after 5 minutes, it's too hot to touch the area around the scoop.

I can do that... but for a base line I need to do on a non shielded turbo MINI and then mine... but for now I will provide the requested info on mine only

Michael

 

Too bad you're in VA, I'd offer you my MCS for the measuring. Actually, maybe I can. I'll go look for a proper thermometer and see if I can get any meaningful readings.

 

Here are readings (using a Raytek MT6 remote laser temp reader):
Weather
Sunny and hazy
Temp: 90 deg F
High humidity

After a highway run with some back road routing:

Immediately after shut down (all measured with hood closed and readings from top side)
Anywhere on the scoop itself: 104 deg F
The metal area of hood directly behind scoop: 118 deg F

6 minutes after shut down:
Anywhere on the scoop itself: 121 deg F
The metal area of hood directly behind scoop: 140 deg F

10 minutes after shut down:
All temps declining so getting lower readings than after 6 minutes

I do not see any temps that would cause melting etc. but will be interesting to see temp readings from a non shielded turbo car

Michael

 

I decided to put my oil temperature sensor to good use while waiting for an adapter to complete the install. I mounted it to the turbo heat shield and did some driving. Here are some typical measurements of the turbo heat shield temperatures on an 80 F day:

10 minutes of Idling: 195 F
45 minutes of driving hard 220 F
5 minutes after engine off 280 F

The temperature climbs after the engine is shutoff since the fan is no longer running or engine being cooled. All the heat in the exhaust has nowhere to go but up to the turbo and hood scoop. I think that better venting or forced air would lower temperatures best.

BTW my hood scoop is now showing signs of heat distortion so I cut three small plugs in the center collumn of the screen. I will get some more measurements to see if there is any change.

Now that there is an investigation into tail pipe burns MINI would be wise to address this problem before they get a reputation for exposed exhaust heat at both ends.

Here is a pic of my sensor mount:

 

My 08 MCS has never had any signs of hood scoop melting. I live in SW Oklahoma and this summer there have been several days in excess of 110. I even took it to the track when it was 105 and although I usually open the hood between 25 minute track sessions, one time I forgot and left it down. This was after 25 minutes of very demanding driving.
It is my feeling that the melting hood scoop issue has all ready been fixed.

 

Could very well be. All it would take is to change the material that the scoop is made from. There are plenty of plastics that can take high heat, all BMW has to do is probably recalibrate the molding machine for the new material.

 

I was trying to kill some time (waiting for the ship to dock that's bringing our 2009 across), so I decided to look at the features list on the MINI website. I noticed that it lists one feature as a "hood scoop air intake".

Isn't that misleading? I've read on NAM that the 2007/2008 MCS hood scoops were purely decorative (not even any holes). Then (I think I remember correctly) they started drilling out a few of the holes, to let heat escape and attempt to avoid the melting problem.

In what sense is a sealed, decorative hood scoop an "air intake"?

 

My 09 JCW hood scoop has some holes in it.

 

Yes, that's what I've heard. But I've also heard that the scoop doesn't function as an "air intake", it functions as a heat exhaust when the car is parked. Supposedly (at least on the MCS), the turbo intake is down at the bottom of the engine...

(But how would I know, my MINI is sitting on the ship in Jersey City, waiting to be offloaded?)

 

The hood scoop on my 2008 MCS has holes in the grille/intake. It has also melted/warped after 2200 miles. PITA

 

My hood scoop has not melted on my MCS. My view is if it isn't broken, don't fix it. My long experience in the "Corvette world" is that there's an endless array of aftermarket "fixes" for "problems" or "performance issues" that the factory somehow never seemed to notice (it seemed) -- and that invariably they either did not work or involved severe compromises making them impractical. My advice: save your money, and keep your Mini stock and enjoy it.

 

I live in Dallas and my 08 MCS is starting to get a deformed scoop. Problem is not fixed. And I haven't AXed this car. Bimini is a week 17 of '08 build. And I don't think the issue is sun created heat. At work I park in a parking garage structure, at home inside our garage. This problem is due to the failure to dissipate heat from the turbo during cool down. If it wasn't, MINI would not have altered the scoop from sealed to openings. They wouldn't have added the post shutdown fan run. And if updating the material to a higher temp was cheap, they would have done that at some point. Adding the post shutdown fan run is a zero cost item. Creating the scoop holes is a cost item (both initial and probably on each part). Higher temp plastics must be even more cost, or MINI would have done that.

 

I was week 4 of 2008 and you where after that. It seams like hit or miss with thoses affected. I too would be upset if I had the problem.