I recently purchased a 2005 R53. I have some mushrooming on my passenger side strut tower. The driver's side has some, but not as much. I'm looking at either the Craven Strut Tower Defenders or the Mini Madness reinforcement plates. It seems the Craven's are an easier install, but the Mini Madness plates explicitly state that they will correct any mushrooming that has already occurred. Will the Craven's do the same thing? Thoughts on which ones I should be considering? I've read a bunch of the threads on this issue, and haven't come across a solid comparison of the over-the-top Cravens and the under-mounted Mini Madness plates.

 

I have the MM reinforcement plates. IMO any kind of reinforcement should come from below the towers so the force can be more evenly redistributed over more metal. If you think about it, the top mounted ones are only as strong as the bolts.

I see you have no mods yet. Have fun. This site is a great resource.

I too have an 05 R53.

 

I'm a mechanical engineer with 30 years experience in structures. Get the under-mounted Mini Madness plates. That what I have on my MCS. The mushrooming is caused by an upward force on the shock tower. Putting a plate on top is easier to do but it is not going to do the job of spreading the force out to a wider area unless the plate were welded onto the shock tower.

I have also switched my shocks to Koni FSD. They do not transfer the load of a bump to the car as quickly and therefore do not have quite as high a load on the shock tower.

 

Whichever you choose, here are my thoughts on the STDs:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-thoughts.html

I can't say which is superior, but either could be prone to the same problems I had, I think. Good luck!

 

Cravens have the proper cutouts for the hood release cable i i remember right....just more attention to detail.
They look good, are easy to install, and have work in my case.....hit a bigg enough hole...and anything will brake.

 

I am using the IE camber plates and M7 BRACES on top,the camber plate is much stronger than the oem part so i guess i'm getting support on both sides,no more probs after 3-4 yrs and i've hit a couple of potholes pretty hard in that time.The plates also add camber for better handling,mine are adj but the fixed ones are cheaper and use a BMW Z4 bushing which was designed for a heavier car.

 

Get the Craven STD's they are much easier to install and won't add positive camber to the car. They also work great as I've NEVER seen a car that had the Craven STD's get any mushrooming.