did my left strut bar got "mushroomed"?

[katsooba]

Hi guys

Today while doing some general cleaning i noticed this under the hood,
That the left and right struts are not matching, the driver side looks ok, flat, as it should be
But the passenger side looks kind of.. well..mushroomed.

Took some pics, and wanted to ask you guys to check yours too to validate if its normal or not.

Thank you

[Ginger_Extract]

Yeah, that doesn't look right at all.

[r0nd3L]

This seems to be quiet a common problem. Are you on stock suspension?

[wjk_glynn]

Hi katsooba,

Any ideas on how it might have happened?

A few folks (not many) have reported this after hitting potholes: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=836231

It seems repairing this is not too hard. The top of the strut can be beaten back into place using a wooden block & hammer technique. Just try to find a place that's done this before...

Karl.

[katsooba]

everything stock, just have the M3 rear bushing.

could anyone check their passenger side strut to validate this?

edit -

Hi Karl!

no idea, i am the only driver on the car, and i do not remmember anything harsh or bad happening suspension wise.
has a few track days and drift days, but all on flat surfaces

car with 28000km on it
kinda bummed to see this.
im sure gonna invest in some better strut bars

[Stohlen]

Strut bars aren't gonna do anything to fix this issue.

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by Stohlen

Strut bars aren't gonna do anything to fix this issue.

Sure they do. If they having mounting brackets which fully ring around the opening for the top hat/top of shock, they'll clearly provide added support.

Much like a tower reinforcement plate does (e.g Turner plates), albeit from the other side.

[katsooba]

so i guess that a combination of the gentle dinan camber plate + the hpa strut brace bars are the best protection against this, and you still get some nice camber added to the front.

[RimasRS]

Did you do pin out mod?

[Stohlen]

Originally Posted by PrematureApex

Sure they do. If they having mounting brackets which fully ring around the opening for the top hat/top of shock, they'll clearly provide added support.

Much like a tower reinforcement plate does (e.g Turner plates), albeit from the other side.

No, its the fact that the plate is on the other side that makes all the difference. A force able to mushroom the tower would just push the bar up with it, and deform in a slightly different manner. A strut bar isn't going to have nearly the same affect that those plates would.

[katsooba]

Originally Posted by RimasRS

Did you do pin out mod?

yes i did, but i cant tell when the mushrooming happened, before or after the pin out.

i guess ill try doing what was suggested earlier, whack it with a wooden block and rubber hammer, then buy the dinan camber plates and the hpa strut tower brace.

[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by Stohlen

No, its the fact that the plate is on the other side that makes all the difference. A force able to mushroom the tower would just push the bar up with it, and deform in a slightly different manner. A strut bar isn't going to have nearly the same affect that those plates would.

This is discussed at length, on many forums.

While it's not as effective as a plate on the bottom, it certainly adds additional resistance to mushrooming. It's still bolted down, and will work to transfer some additional load around to other portions of the strut tower. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that a plate bolted to the top of the tower would offer structural benefits.

No one said it was as good of a solution, but contrary to your initial statement, it certainly helps. Without question. Draw a free body diagram of it. Keeping in mind the strut tower is not uniformly strong, thus, you typically see the mushrooming around one or two of the bolts, or in certain portions of the tower, rather than all the way around, in a uniform fashion. Thus, the top mounted ring would clerly work to transfer at least some additional load to the non-deforming portions of the tower.

Just for clarification, the bar in the pics isn't doing much, but my post said a strut bar which fully rings around the opening in the top hat would do significantly more.

[wjk_glynn]

Originally Posted by katsooba

...i guess ill try doing what was suggested earlier, whack it with a wooden block and rubber hammer...

Are you thinking of attemping this yourself, or having a professional body shop do it for you?

I know I'd leave it to the experts...

Karl.