Beken Technologies

 

This is a review of the M7 Strut Tower Reinforcement plates.  

 

The R50/R53 generation of MINIs have a problem inherent in it’s design.  Because the car was not originally designed for runflat tires,  the strut mount on the front of the car was specced with rather thin sheet metal.   The shock mount plate at the top of the macpherson strut is also fairly thin.   MINI Cooper S models, in Canada, came stock with Sport Suspension +.  The springs are a bit stiffer, as well, the wheels were bigger and the runflat tires made the overall front suspension have rather hard rebound characteristics, sometimes referred to as harsh.  As stock on normal roads, the shock tower plate at the top would warp over time.  In the case of my car, there was slight signs of bulging and the mounting bolts looked to splay apart  just enough to be visually noticeable after 4+ years of generally normal driving.   There are those who have lowered and stiffened their suspension which may make the bulging happen sooner.  But the real bad ones appear to be on cars with modified suspension driving the really bad American highways or used in racing without significant mods to the chassis.   This issue does not appear to be as prevalent in the R56 cars, so it appears MINI had redesigned the shock towers.  However, this problem took over 4 years before I noticed it starting to happen in my car.   So it might take longer in the R56 cars.  The repair costs of badly mushroomed towers appear to be in the $600 to $1000 range to repair.   

There are generally four ways to prevent the towers from mushrooming.    For those planning on tracking their cars, camber plates sandwiched between the shock mount and the tower underneath is the best remedy.   But that is part of a fairly expensive suspension mod (shorter springs, shocks etc).    

Enter M7 with their Strut Tower Reinforcement plates (STR plates).  They are cast aluminum and bolt right on top of the Strut Tower.  Their pros are easy to install, light weight, look good and reasonably inexpensive.   You can even get them in colour.   Their cons:  if the tower is already badly mushroomed, there will be a point where you have to fix the mushrooming before bolting these plates on.   Torquing the bolts are critical as they are not quite long enough to use the entire thread for bolting down.  Finally, the R53 strut tower is not perfectly flat.  It has a bump cast into it, forcing M7 to cut a crease through the STR plate.  This in turn compromises the overall strength of the STR plates.  But maybe not enough a compromise to make the plates ineffective.

Then Cravenspeed came out with their Strut Tower Defenders (STD).  The STD work essentially the same way as the M7 STR plates.  The STDs appear to be slightly lighter and they are shaped to maintain the same thickness over the entire surface of the plates.   The STDs also come with their own bolts, which would address one of the perceived issues of the M7 plates and are shaped to fit flush on an unmushroomed strut tower.  Their fit also look nicer as they do not cover as much surface area as the M7 plates.   However, they do introduce a compromise in their design.  In order to maintain the ½ thickness across the entire surface,  the part that needs to go over the bump on the strut tower is welded on as a separate piece.   This is probably not an issue as I've seen welds stronger than cast aluminum before. 

 

The M7 and the Cravenspeed solutions both also have one more issue for those planning on adding a strut brace in the future.   It would be difficult to add a brace that would fit under the MINI’s bonnet.   However M7 does have a solution.  They sell a separate Strut tower brace with STR plates built in.   The brace is still a tight fit and does raise the bonnet just a bit.  

 

Finally, MINI-Madness has a solution which makes the most sense to me.   Whereas the Cravenspeed and M7 solutions use the mounting bolts as the stress parts that keep the tower surface flat, Madness, by sandwiching 1/8” carbon steel between the strut mount plate and the strut tower surface uses the carbon steel as the stress material.  This would be similar to the camber plate method.   However, this is not a simple bolt on mod.  You have to actually lift the car chassis off the strut and slide the plates in from under the fender, then lower the chassis back in place.  It is supposed to be fairly simple if you have a hydraulic jack and jack stands.  But I feel you are also open to needing a wheel alignment.  Also, depending oh how badly mushroomed your towers may be already, your front end is raised anywhere from 1/8” to as much as ¾”.    Once mounted, you can't see the plates from the engine bay as they are hidden under the strut tower.   

I was prepared to go to MINI-Madness in Oregon on my way home from AMVIV to have them installed there.   But after doing some more research, talking to George and MINI Madness and others at AMVIV,   I had to re-evaluate exactly what I was trying to fix and how much effort I wanted to put into it.   Was I trying to fix a minor issue with an overkill solution, especially since I don’t generally drive my car that hard?   So the guys from Custom MINI Shop assured me that the M7 plates should be sufficient.  They have never heard of anybody having their M7 plates break or mushrooming getting worse after having them installed.  Nor have I.    Also, my car wasn’t badly mushroomed so there was not a major problem (yet) that would need a major fix.   Also install was free.   So I bought the M7 plates.   I had my eyes on the Craven plates also, but after seeing them in person, I just liked the looks of the M7 plates better.   But the Craven plates do sit flush better so others might make a different choice.

So was there any performance gain?   No.  That is not the purpose of these things.  They are an insurance policy.   Hopefully, I won’t get a repair bill to have my strut towers flattened out…ever.  I do feel more confident that when I hit a pothole, my car isn’t going to buckle under me as easily though.  

But there is a side effect.  The stiffer strut tower top revealed to me how much vibration the tower was absorbing.  I now have increased tire rolling noise at the tires.   Particularly at 31kms/hr and 53kms/hr,  the tire tread noise hits a resonating frequency and is noticeably louder.   Tire noise is noticeably louder than before.   I’m sure if I changed to a different tire, the resonant tire tread noise would be a different speed.   I’m going to play around with tire pressures to see if more or less air changes anything.  I’ll report on that some other time.

 

 

Thanks for reading. 

 

 

 

  

I just returned from AMVIV 6.   A friend just asked if I was prepared to go to AMVIV 7 because they wanted to go and would make plans.  

The dates for next year's AMVIV are already set.  It will be the last Thursday to Sunday of March 2010.  So 25 to 28 sounds about right.  If you have a classic Mini and a MINI, I would encourage you and a co-driver take both MINIs.   It really is an event for MINIs and Minis. AMVIV is a lot of fun, but I feel this might have been my last one for awhile.  It is a physically taxing drive for one person.  10 to 14 hours of driving each day on the way there and then back.   Though enjoyable, I don't think my wife and kid enjoy it as much as I do.   Also, because of them, I don't go as crazy as I would like.  I was kinda hoping I could go alone or with a co-pilot just once, but felt I would miss my wife and kid too much.  I am no longer a bachelor and have left that stage of my life a long time ago.   I am quite happy and very appreciative that my wife allows me to go fuel my car hobbies and attends these kinds of events with me.

I think every MINI owner should go to a national event such as AMVIV at least once.   Just the scenery and the opportunity to share that with hundreds of fellow MINI drivers is a priceless experience.  It's also a great place to see the sponsor's products all in one place up live and physical.  I would have had no idea how good the parts and accessories are and meeting the designers and engineers give me great confidence in the stuff I buy for my car.   Guys like Hubie Fu of ABF Tuning or Mynes Tuning, Adam and John from Alta,  Joe and Steve from Custom MINI Shop etc in person gives me confidence these folk know what they're talking about.   The best part is just making friends from other MINI clubs all over N. America.  It's like a Vancouver MINI Cooper Club drive, but 50 times bigger to places you would have very little opportunity to go to.

The demographics of MINI ownership is changing and that is reflected by the culture at AMVIV this year.  A lot of the MINI owners are second owners of their cars.   A lot of the people that were there last time no longer own MINIs and were not there this time.   Last time there was a strong contingent from Eastern USA.  Not so much this time, though there were a few.   The previous AMVIV I went to had a strong group of sponsors, mostly to do with performance modding their cars.   This time, there were fewer performance oriented booths, and more swag and accessory sponsors.  In fact, on one of the forums, there were complaints that there were too many decal and vinyl sponsors.  The last time I went to AMVIV,  there were groups of people hanging out in the parking lot way past midnight just talking cars and shooting pictures of everybody and everything.  This time I was a lone photographer when I went up to shoot my night shots with few if any people in the parking lot.  There wasn't so much a party atmosphere anymore.  But the drives were thoroughly enjoyable and I would attend an AMVIV again just for that.   However, I think I've been there enough that AMVIV would take a lower priority in vacation plans for the next while.

It is unlikely that I will attempt AMVIV7.  However, things can change and I might find myself going again to fuel my motoring addiction.

Downside:  smoking in the Casinos.   You have to walk through the casino to get to your room at the Palace Station.   However, if you stay at another hotel,  you don't really have to go there.  Not having enough people staying at the Palace Station Hotel also puts into jeopardy the ability for the Sin City MINI Club to host the event at this location.  I did overhear a some concern that there were many who registered for AMVIV and stayed at a different hotel, perhaps on the strip.   

Anyways, if you are a MINI owner or enthusiast and if you have the opportunity to go and enjoy AMVIV, you should go.  I highly encourage it.  It would've been more fun if others from my  local MINI Clubs came with me.

Here are some pictures.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beken/sets/72157615915312078/

the non-event trip pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beken/sets/72157616673664415/

and from my previous trip to AMVIV 4

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beken/sets/72157600328293422/
  

Thanks for reading.

It is now April 2009 and winter has not left the Vancouver area.  It snowed yesterday.  This is very unusual as for the last 15 years or so, we get an average of about 2 days of snow (usually wet) per winter.  I don't believe it's been this white since 1969.   We had a cold winter in 1991 also.   This causes me to theorize that cold winters here is on a 20 year cycle.   Nonetheless, we still have winter tires on our cars.  Very odd.

I just returned from A MINI Vacation in Vegas (AMVIV).  2009 marked the 6 year of this event, but only the second one I attended.   The first I attended was two years ago and it was when there was some (pellet) gun play which my car took one to save my life.  Pictures of that first one are here.  I had such a good time that I went back this year.   The attendance was noticeably down and the rockin party atmosphere was somewhat subdued.  But I still had a great time visiting with other MINI (and mini) maniacs and driving to places I would not normally go.   I thoroughly enjoyed the views as well as the company.  The gallery of pictures I took for AMVIV 6 is here.   This year, there was (thankfully) no gun play involved.  However, I performed my very first roadkill.   On the way home, not too far from the the Oregon/California border just outside of Altarus, a big gray hare jumped in front of my car as I motored down the highway and as I swerved to try and avoid it, I still felt and heard a loud thump.   It was dark, so I wasn't going to stop.  When we did stop in Altarus, I found a cracked front air dam with gray fur sandwiched in the cracks, but no bunny.   One of the plurk friends on the social networking site Plurk jokingly accused me of killing he Easter bunny. 

Social networking appears to be the next big thing happening on the internet.   We've heard lots about sites like Facebook, Twitter, and now Plurk.   I was introduced to Plurk by a friend.  I got on, and found other friends who made me a friend or a fan.  I found others who seemed to have something interesting to say and became their fan until they thought I might be interesting and we became friends.  There is lots of useless banter, but it appears to me that there are lots of people out there just simply looking to meet friends.   I've actually physically met a couple of my fellow plurkers and friends and found we do have a lot in common.  I think in the old days, adults made friends in social gatherings either at work or bars or church.  Not a lot happening in those situations anymore.  The church I attend is so big, it is difficult to make close friends.   Work is difficult as it is busy and given today's economy, many are leaving.  I'm not the type to hang out a bars.  So provided that people are somewhat careful with what they say on the social networking sites, it is a great place to meet people of like interest.   Even discussion the pitfalls of social networking sites is an interesting discussion amongst friends.

The crashed economy has a lot of people worried.  I remember questioning my (ex)financial planner about what would happen when the credit stopped and N. Americans found they had outsourced almost everything they made.  We no longer actually produce anything tangible.  We value a thought more than anything actually physical.  My concern was that our economy was totally based nothing tangible.  That if I invested in a company, I wanted to invest in something that actually produced something tangible to sell.  Licensing fees for music and software is just another issue I am incensed about.   I said (5 years ago), that our economy was in for a big shake-up, that would make the dot-com blowout of the late 1990's look like a minor hiccup.  My planner replied that my concerns were unfounded because people were buying things and things were cheaper.  As long as that kept moving, we would be okay.   I now have a different financial planner and things have stopped moving.  I wonder if the trillions of dollars spent by governments to "get people buying again" is the right solution to fix the world economy.  The fact of the matter is there are those who have too much and those who have little.   The group that has just enough is shrinking.   Those that have too much can't stop spending and continue to accumulate, those that have too little are borrowing to keep up with those who have too much.  But their borrowing, though it gives them a short term boost in standard of living, puts them in further debt.  15 years ago, I would never have imagined having a $100,000 line of credit and that appears to be the norm nowadays.  So how much is enough for each and every person to live comfortably on?  Can individuals live happily outside of the money based economic model?   Just some thoughts to ponder.

Thanks for reading. 

If you have young kids and they're not yet in grade 7, start saving.   I'm finding that grade 7 is more expensive (for the parents) than grade 12.  Especially if your kid is in French Immersion or being educated in a different language than English.   There's going to student exchanges that run you volunteer time as well as cost of the student exchange trip.   Mind you, it's less than if you just paid for a vacation, but it still costs a lot.   Then there are grade 7 activities that I never had when I was in grade 7.  I'm not sure how grade 7 became such a big deal, but it is.  Prepare to have at least $1000.00 sitting around for extra curricular grade 7 activities (manditory).  

One of the ways the schools try to mitigate some of the grade 7 costs is to do fund raising.  Bottle drives, pizza sales, etc.   Only problem is that there is recent legislation that says you cannot sell what is construed as "junk food".   So chocolates, donuts, and even hot dogs are out.  So what can you sell?  One of the things sold were magazines.  I did my part by buying a couple of magazine subscriptions. 

A magazine I have not read in quite awhile is Stereophile, and I just ordered a subscription.  Now Stereophile used to be one of those "underground" magazines that reported on "high end" hi fi equipment.  For those fanatics who became audiophiles, there were a few magazines one would seek out and Stereophile was one of them.  They were not necessarily supported by advertising and if there was something they didn't like about something, they just went out and said it.  I probably subscribed to Stereophile for 10 years of my life about 10 years ago.  I managed to put together a fantastic sounding hi fi system on a relatively low budget based on what I learned reading this and other hi fi specialty magazines.  Of course, there were mainstream magazines on hifi equipment, but they had sold their souls and pandered to their advertisers.   A funny thing happened to Stereophile about 8 years ago.   They got bought by Primedia (and are not owned by Interlink Media), a big magazine publishing company.  Stereophile was going mainstream.  Unfortunately, the quality of journalism showed.  So I no longer subscribed and spent my money buying music instead of "better sounding" equipment.  Then something else happened.  MP3 downloads.  The convenience of downloads came at a sacrifice of sound quality of music recordings.  You could stuff 500,000 songs onto an iPod and take it with you.  Who cared if it sounded rather low-fi?  To make matters worse, the music companies suddenly felt they were being robbed because people weren't paying for their low-fi music so they started to digital-rights-manage their higher quality recordings, making them lower quality.  Anybody who claims that DRM does not affect the sound quality of the recording probably has not heard those recordings on a well sorted out hifi system.  ...and Stereophile started including articles on "affordable for the real people"  equipment.  This equipment played MP3 music on computer systems.  Well, I received my first copy of Stereophile this week.  It used to take me 2 to 3 weeks to get through the magazine.  This one took me all of 2.  They reviewed a $250.00 integrated amplifier that "sounded great".   But works best with computer speakers and an MP3 source.  They did do reviews of high end speakers too though.   

Recording playback quality has become so bad, that the essence of music is no longer interesting.   I found I had lost interest in the pursuit of music that finds an emotional tie to my life.   I would still buy the odd recording that peeked my interest, but my old habit of spending hours listening to fine music was gone.  Then last summer, I was in JC Penney's in Seattle and they had music playing in the background.  Turned the song was "Hey There Delilah" by a group called the Plain White T's.   A solo voice and a single acoustic guitar.  This is a 4 member band and they recorded a solo voice with a single acoustic guitar.  What where the other 3 guys doing?   Probably in the studio producing a recording of such high quality that it would sound good even on a crappy department store PA system.   Then they've followed that up with a new recording and issued it on CD and .....vinyl LP.   I've gone and ordered the LP (not being locally available). 

I find it interesting that there has been a resurgence in turntable sales.   I had almost lost hope that there would be any audiophile music lovers in current generation of young people.   Many have never even seen a record playing turntable before.   But some of them have sat down and heard an LP recording against the CD they just bought and have been converted.   Now we find places like Radio Shack, Best Buy, even a drugstore chain (London Drugs) carry turntables.  Albeit, not the exotic really good stuff, but cheap plastic ones with USB connectors.  I would highly suggest those looking for a LP playing turntable to pass on the plastic ones and spend a bit more, but it's a starting point for many.  Hopefully, we eventually get to some good source material too.

The latest music I'm listening to is a Christmas recording.   The Spirit of Christmas by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Colin Davis and vocals by the John Alldis Choir.  This recording was done in 1980 and on vinyl LP.   The LP recording is stunning.  I have not heard any CD (or digital) play back reproduce such a realistic soundstage.  The orchestral arrangement just pulled me into the music.   It's recorded on the Philips label.  Cat # 9500 779.  I doubt this record is available anywhere anymore.

My frame of reference for this record is last night's performance of "Two From Galilee" by the Willingdon Church Choir and Symphony Orchestra.  It was a musical done in the same genre as, say, Les Miserables.   By the time most people read this, the performances will be over.  But if you do read this on time, seating in the balcony is free.   Reserved seating on the main floor costs $5.00 and all the money goes to a charity called "Basics for Babies".  You do not have to be a church goer to attend.  Extremely well done!  Christmas musicals at some of the larger churches is a great way to take on live entertainment done at a very professional level.   With the bonus of hearing the Christmas story other than the commercialism that's come upon the holiday season.  Those politically correct people who want to wipe out Christmas and just make this season a generic holiday have lost perspective of why this time of year is what it is. 

Thanks for reading. 

I now know why music sales tumbled and kids are downloading music instead of buying legitimate music.   Actually, I knew a long time ago, but this week, I experienced first hand why I should not be buying (some) CDs anymore.   I recently purchase a CD.   A group called Switchfoot.  My kid liked the music and there were a few songs off it that I like.   I will admit that I download the odd piece of music.  But for the most part, MP3's are lower quality than playing off a CD.   If I decide to keep the music, I usually go out and buy the CD.  So I bought Switchfoot's CD, Nothing is Sound.   I should have clued in as soon as I saw the labelling on the back.   It said Windows XP compatible, Apple OSX compatible etc.   Like some other CDs I have from the past, I thought it had a video included for playback on a computer.

I put the CD on my CD player and it sounded great.  I put it in my Mac and up popped iTunes, it didn't sound as good, but listenable.  Okay for putting on my iPod, but definately less fidelity than the CD itself.   So I went to my other room and popped the CD on my Windows PC.   I was only going to play the thing, but up popped my virus scanner screaming there was a virus in a program called DRM.exe.  It didn't even ask if I what I wanted to do with the CD (play it or read it as a data CD or open it with one of my various music players).  So this CD loads its own music player.   It does allow you to rip the music to disk.   It does not allow you to make a copy of the CD (for backup purposes), but allows you to rip the music.   But it does install its own driver and you can only rip the music with the program on the CD...at noticeable lower fidelity for backup or onto your iPod/MP3 player.   Making a copy of the CD using Nero renders a CD that plays screeching noises on your CD player, but unplayable in a computer.

I'm returning the CD and Switchfoot along with any other music on their label has lost music sales and a fan.