Mini aluminum skid plates/steel strut plates

I got the Cooper S today. Totally stoked, the car is a hoot to drive. Already thinking of mods.

First off is a skid plate. Driving in the snow and E36 M3, it seems to be a must have. I can find the stainless steel one at 10 kg, but can't find the elusive aluminum one for sale. See lots of postings about it but can't find it online. Anyone know who sells these?

Also looking for a recommendation on the strut tower plates. Mine are not mushroomed, and I want to keep it that way.

Finally, what do you think of the run flats? I think they ride harsh, but have never had them before nor compared them side by side. If I dump the run flats, how do you carry a spare in a MINI?

Will post up pics this weekend.

Thanks.

Run flats suck. They are heavy and ride poorly. When we had a Cooper S we just risked it and ran without a spare. It wasn't a long distance car for us so I didn't worry about it.

I'm running M7 Tuning strut plates on my Mini (to fix mushrooming and to prevent it in the future) and have a set ordered for a lady friend of mine who just got a Cooper S (remember, 'shrooms are bad, kids), I prefer the design over the Cravenspeed units and they are a few bucks cheaper, at least through Fastmini.net (my preferred Mini shop, folks do good work and are great to hang around and talk shop with if you're ever in the Sterling, Va area)

as for runflats, I've honestly got no idea how one would carry a spare in a Mini, other than a rear seat delete kit, a B-pillar-back cage, and a cage mounted spare tire carrier, and that's a bit excessive for a street driven car and would make your 3rd and 4th passengers more than slightly irritable. if you don't mind giving up trunk space, it's likely a spare would fit in the trunk, but then you can't carry much of anything

hearing 1 series and MINI owners at local autocrosses talk to each other, one of the most common questions is if theyve ditched the runflats yet.

here's what looks like an aluminum skid plate. looks a bit thin for rallycross duty but maybe great for winter?

http://www.mossmini.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=87847

As for the run-flats, run a tire patch/plug kit and a portable air compressor for the minor punctures and cell phone and AAA card for the big ones.

We have both the stainless steel and aluminum skid plates on our MINI's. Both were made by Cobalt and purchased from Moss Motors. The stainless one is quite a bit heavier although it does probably protect better. It's on the older MCS which is the year-round DD whereas the al one is on the 'vert which gets parked for the winter.

We run Craven top plates on both MINI's. We previously had M7 plates but the towers mushroomed again with the M7 plates installed. The Craven design is better as it spreads the attachement loads over a greater surface area.

We carry a compact spare (OE in the R50 model) in a custom carrying bag (Google: MINI spare tire bag) that fits behind the driver's seat. We are both 5' 10" tall and there's enough room behind the seat.

If you don't mind more negative camber up front, get the Ireland Engineering fixed plates to prevent mushroomed strut towers. Ireland uses a top strut mount from a heavier bmw. And the plate is a solid piece of steel rather than the stamped factory piece. With the plates, my MINI has -1.8 front camber.

Factory part on right: you can see the factory piece has been bent at one corner. Bigger pic here.

And from the bottom:

Thanks for finding the skid plate, I couldn't.

For strut plates I was thinking steel. Talk to me about those aluminum ones, do they do a good job? If you have deformation, will that push it back (to some extent)?

Finally, I just put the mounted snows on that came with the car. Five minutes into the drive I'm getting the blinking tire light. First car I've had with pressure sensors. If the tires are at pressure, can I just ignore it? What can I do to try and fix it? I know from reading here that those things are a pain in the ass.

Thanks.

I carry a 205/50/15 spare in the trunk. It leaves just enough room for 1 bag of groceries !

Battery in the MCS sits where the spare tire SHOULD be, theoretically. Also heard rumor they actually put a donut UNDER the car, on the non MCS ones. Runflats are lame, and the wifes car no longer has them.

Did you check the tire pressures on the new winter tires? The Tire Pressure Monitoring System will detect a few degrees difference from one tire to another. (under the emergency brake handle, there should be a re-set button for the TPS. Hold the button to re-set).

mndsm wrote: Also heard rumor they actually put a donut UNDER the car, on the non MCS ones.

Not a rumor. Non-S Coopers do have a compact spare under the car. IIRC, it was removed in the last year or two in an effort to reduce cost/weight.

The non-TPMS system cars use the ABS sensors to monitor rotational differences between each wheel. Make sure all of the tires are same size (probably) and the pressures are equal. That said, it's not uncommon for the light to go on when switching to snows, which are occasionally a slightly smaller diameter - no, it shouldn't matter, but sometimes it does. Reset the light (button under the ebrake handle) and try again.

We've also had the light go off in slippery conditions and one wheel spins more than the others.

Top plates won't really fix an existing mushroom condition. Sometimes it can be fixed by lifting the weight off the strut and pounding it flat again with a hammer and a 2x4. When I fix it, I pull the strut and flatten/straighten the tower and the mount separately. M7 plates will fit on a mildly mushroomed tower (and are a bitch to get off if the tower mushrooms again). Craven plates won't fit at all due to the design and the tower and mount need to be close to perfect for them to fit.

Mini madness makes a strut tower re-enforcement plate for $100 a pair. They go under the strut tower. A little more work than the top plates, but looks like it would work better. Anyone try those?

I'll reset the light and see what happens.

When spring comes I'm dumping the run flats. I'll find a doughnut spare and stow it in the back. Next fall, the snows will get changed to non run flats.

I've only had the car a day and love it. Thanks for the help. I'll try to take some pictures this weekend.

Jeff

I haven't as they weren't available when we were going through this - went with the IE fixed camber plates - but the idea seems sound. Fortunately, the struts in a MINI are pretty easy to R&R as long as corrosion isn't too bad.