HMMS Forum

This week I have started experiencing a significant vibration coming from the passenger side front wheel area.  It kinda feels like a bent rim type vibration but much worse.  I have had a bent rim before on another vehicle and I mainly felt it through the steering wheel.  This seems to be something more than that.  It happens around 45mph and gets significantly worse if I accelerate.  Has anyone ever had this?

I looked through NAM and found one or two threads on something similar but one suggested a bent rim and another suggested a bunch more issues (cv joint, upper strut mount, lower engine mount). Has anyone replaced any of these before?  Cost?  How difficult is it to change them out?  I plan to get my tires balance and rotated to see if that helps, but I just don't think it is that.

You are right, before I get too carried away on purchases I am going to take it to the tire shop and have them inspect all tires and rotate/balance just to make sure.  The more I have read on NAM though the more I think it is either one of the following things:

1. Upper Hydraulic motor mount – I looked at it and it looks like it has been leaking for awhile. So I am going to purchase the polyurethane replacement from TSW.  Do we get a discount with them?

2. Strut mount crack/failure – apparently with the setup I have of the lowered suspension and the 17 inch rims the strut towers take a beating and start mushrooming, I can tell that mine are.  With the mushrooming a cracked mount is soon to follow.  If this is the case then I think I will just go ahead and replace the camber plates and upgrade to the M7 Strut bar/tower reinforcemant plates. 

Has anyone ever done either upgrade?  I think I remember Jeff saying he upgraded his camber plates, how difficult is this install?  I am hoping that I can do it myself and save the money.  I figure it would take a weekend or so, but I have a spare care so Charlize can take a break :)

Post edited 3:14 PM – July 4, 2010 by MiniCoog

I got the tires rotated and balanced and it seems to have helped significantly so that is dedinitely good news. I would guess that i got a 50% improvement. But There is still some wobble so i am thinking that it has to be a combination of a badly out of balance tire and the bad motor mount. I looked and my upper struts mounts and there is no cracking yet. So i am going to change out the motor mounts first to see if that solves the problem. If it does than i will put off the camber plates and m7 strut reinforcement bar upgrade until next month.

Jeff i will definitely take you up on that spring compressor tool. Thanks!

Avelino

Have you checked your control arm bushings? My MINI was having a similar problem and pretty much everything went out at the same time. I was troubleshooting and saw the leaking motor mount and replaced that (very easy to do) but the problem was still there, about a month later i finally got under the car and checked out the front lower control arm bushings and saw that that was my problem, replaced those myself (not recommended unless you really know what youre doing and have all the right tools/lift) 

Good luck though, and if you need any help send me a PM.

Well yesterday was the day to spend some quality time with my mini. 

1. Change Lower Engine Mount

2. Change upper engine mount

3. Add VIP Engine Stabilizer

4. Add M7 Strut Tower Bar

Results?  WOW! Some of the best mods I have done to date, whole new feeling to the car.  Now I may regret a little going with the "Race" version of the BSH lower engine mount but overall the car has a much more solid feel.  The vibrations and noise from the race version of the motor mount are very nice, except at idle with the AC on, still trying to get used to that.  But under hard acceleration and braking I love it, makes me feel much more connected with the car.  I wouldn't recommend it all to someone who is concerned with noise or ride comfort.  I will give the Race version a try for a month or so, to see if after break in the vibrations at idle settle a little, if not I may purchase the "street" inserts for the mount.

As for the wobble that I was experiencing, it seems to be completely gone!  I won't get my hopes up but I took the car out and it seems the wobble under acceleration is no longer there.  When I removed both my engine mounts I could see that the lower was completely shot and the upper had very little fluid left in it. (I will bring as a show and tell for our next meeting).  I figure after a week or two of driving I will get a better idea if in fact it is cured.