Disclaimer: this write-up was done 2 months after the fact on suggestion from a fellow member. No pictures, and done from memory, so I may have forgotten something. It was done on a 2012 Justa, so YMMV on a S or earlier car. Comments and corrections welcome.

Front Sway Bar replacement:

Approx time with wheels off the ground: 6 hrs

Tools required:
Metric socket set
External Torx socket set (for the steering rack), these aren't commonly in toolboxes but Sears stocks them.
Metric Allen Set (endlinks)
Torx Set (might not be used, I forget, I hate Torx)
Approx 3' of socket extensions (preferably with wobble ends) and at least 1 U-joint
2 floor jacks
1 long (at least 3') 2x4
1 short (~9") 2x4
Jackstands
A prying implement
Breaker bar
A nut that will thread onto the bolt on the exhaust clamp, IIRC it was in the M10-12-14 range, if you've ever wrenched on a car you should have one laying around that works.
Assorted pliers (for exhaust clamp)
1 friend/assistant with basic mechanical knowledge
A battery impact gun is nice to have too

How to:

Get the front of the car up and on jackstands. Pull both front wheels.

Remove the 2 small wind deflectors from the very front corners of the car.

Unbolt the ball joints and sway bar endlinks from both struts, allow them to hang loose off the top mounts with the uprights, brakes, tie rods, and CV shafts untouched.

Unplug sensor on drivers side A arm, I think its for ride height/level. Its on the forward side very close to the edge of the unibody structure.

Remove the small rectangular chassis brace in the middle of the car below the exhaust. It has 6 small bolts.

Remove the exhaust clamp between the header and the cat. Unscrew the nut, remove the stud by sliding it out the opposite end if possible, stick a screwdriver or pliers in between the 2 sides, and pry. The flange is pretty big but once you are partially over it will come off quickly. A small metal gasket is between the 2 sections, so don't pry between exhaust and header because you will damage it. Remove exhaust from forward hangers and drop it, or remove from under the car completely if desired. Save gasket.

Unbolt the steering rack. There are three E-xx (E8, E10?) Torx head bolts on the top side. The driver and passenger ones can be had with a ratchet from the wheel well. The middle one is a pain. This is where it helps to have a friend. One person needs to get under the car, one person needs to be up top. Get all the extensions you have, and put the U joint at the lower end with the socket on it. Thread this down through the back of the engine/intake manifold from the passenger/middle area of the engine. Have the person underneath guide it into place. You can get nearly a whole hand in there by coming up in front of the rack where the exhaust was. The socket + U joint should barely clear some random line (A/C?) above it. The main line of extensions is probably at a 15-20 degree angle to the bolt. Person below holds socket tight, person above loosens. Once in position it should go easily.

Now for the key part:
Pull the plugs in the wheel wells used to change the fogs. Start on the passenger side. Reach up towards the center of the car.There is a bracket that holds the very front of the subframe and mounts it to the bumper core. It is attached by 2 very small bolts. The top one must be removed, the lower/outside one needs to be loosened a few threads. This is easy on the passenger side. It is not easy on the drivers side since the washer fluid tank is in the way. We managed to get it without removing the tank. You can reach in between the grill, headlight and bumper, from underneath near the edge of the bumper, and through the fog light access hole. Have fun with that one. This may not be possible on a S with brake ducts. If that sounds like your Mini, plan some extra time to figure out access.

Now its time to start unbolting the subframe. One a given side there are 2 bolts mounted in shear at the very front, 1 bolt mounted high by the strut, one bolt at the lower rearward corner of the wheel well, and 2 or 3 bolts in the back under the cabin. Remove all but the ones in the corner of the wheel well. There is also one in the center of the car that bolts to a torque damper or something on the engine, remove it as well. Put a jack under the transmission with the small 2x4 and support the engine, which won't fall out but will sag in its mounts. Put a jack with the large 2x4 across and as centered as you can on the subframe itself. Remove the last 2 bolts. Keep track of where the subframe bolts come from, most of them are different lengths.

Lowering the jack should start to lower the subframe, assuming all is clear, especially the strut/uprights. Because you loosened the very front mount, it should start tilting with the rearward section getting lower until it about hits the garage floor. It may need to be lightly persuaded but mine came pretty easily. The steering rack will just hang there, don't worry, it won't be like that for long if you are quick. You can see the swaybar gaining clearance. Maybe 6" is all that is needed.

The swaybar mounts share bolts with the mounts for the rearward bearing in the A arms. There are 2 bolts securing this stack. Remove them. Be careful, the A arms are awkwardly balanced and may swing in a manner you don't expect when unbolted. Once loose, wiggle the swaybar out and replace with new one. Remember to grease the bushings!

Installation is the reverse of removal! j/k

Having a friend again helps while wrangling the A arms into place. We tried to push the mount inward as far as the hole clearance would allow in the hopes of gaining a hair of camber (somehow worked on one side and not the other). Get the bolts in the stack, tighten completely. You won't have good access to them again.

Lifting the rear of the subframe up should align the rear bolts pretty quickly. It likely did not slip out of the front mounts very far (if it did, pound it into submission). Thread in but don't tighten the rearmost bolts.

The bolt hole up by the strut has a boss on it that mates to a corresponding countersink on that part of the subframe. Jack/wiggle/pry til that mate is complete on both sides. This took a bit of effort.

The bolt from the engine damper to the subframe gave us fits. Do it first. We ended up playing with both jacks and using the pry-screwdriver a few times to finally coax it through. Make sure subframe is still set in the bosses by the struts. If so, tighten the engine bolt.

Tighten the rear bolts under the cabin. Now get back in the front of the car and tighten the little baby bolts on the front mounts. Don't do those before a few main bolts, they aren't designed to carry the weight of the subframe and could possibly fail or distort that thin metal up there.

Now its safe to do the rest of the main subframe bolts. Start with the 2 in shear at the front of the car. The rest should go easily. Tighten away.

Now for the exhaust. There must be a tool for this somewhere but we didn't have it. What we ended up doing was fixing the stud to one arm of the clamp with the nut it came with and the end foot. Put the clamp around the exhaust. Slide the stud through 1 arm. Thread both nuts (remember that extra one in the list at the top?) in together, then slide it through the other arm. Both nuts should be between the 2 arms. Tighten one nut so it secures the foot end to one arm. Loosen the other nut against the other arm to start opening it. Get it as open as the geometry will allow. Place gasket in flange. Attempt to work clamp on over flange. We still needed to use a screwdriver to help. This was the worst part of the job and many expletives were uttered. Eventually, you'll get it.

Once exhaust is up, put hangers back in their rubbers and bolt up the little chassis brace in the middle of the car.

Steering rack time. Outer bolts are easy. Use the same process as removal for the middle one. The bottom person should be able to find the hole and get the bolt started pretty easily before putting the extension combination on.

Bolt up ball joint mounts to A arms. Tried to pull those to the outside of the car but there is virtually no slop in the inner hole to work with. Also, plug in that level sensor on the drivers side.

Reattach the end links.

Make sure you don't have any extra parts laying around or under the car. Check tightness on everything, there might be torque specs somewhere but "tight" is good enough for me.

Put wheels back on, remove jackstands and lower the car. Then comes the moment of truth.

Start car.

No exhaust leak!? The car gods smiled on me and I didn't destroy that gasket putting on that stupid clamp! Didn't want to have to explain that one to the dealer.

Go for test drive and make sure you haven't gained any new clunks or rattles. Then get an alignment and enjoy your excessive wheelspin at corner exits!

While time consuming, this wasn't nearly as awful of a job as is commonly claimed. No fluids need drained, no hoists are required, no ball joints need busted, no massive bolt torque requirements. Honestly, if you can do the rear bar yourself, you can do the front too, it just takes a lot longer. This is waaaayyyyy easier than an engine rebuild or clutch replacement.

 

There is already a DIY with pictures in the NAM Alliance issues that Detroit Tuned posted. They address the front control are bushings but can be applied to remove the front swaybar. They can be downloaded on the home page of NAM.

I'm not sure what you were looking to gain with a bigger front swaybar. I hope your rear swaybar is significantly beefier or else you just improved understeer on the car.

 

There are a few of us who believe that the MINI suspensions (Sports and JCW) with the larger front and rear sway bars is a big improvement over the stock suspension with just a larger rear bar. I have had both and will take the Sports suspension over the stock with a 20 mm rear bar any day. Sure, the car rotated better with the big back bar, but it was erratic when pushed to the limits, especially when the rear wheel lifts. It didn't do much for the front end dive in corners. I find that that with the sports suspension compared to the stock with a 20mm rear bar - the front doesn't dive as much, the off throttle over-steer is much more predictable, in a long constant radius corners the rear wheel lift doesn't bite you and 4 wheels on the ground is better for traction than 3. The larger rear bar is a trade-off of rear track for front instead of improving both. Overall I find the sports suspension more neutral in more situations than my other setup. In the long run that makes for less demanding driving. And, yes, it pushes at the limits, but that is with -0.6 deg camber up front compared to my other setup with -1.6 deg camber and that still pushed quite a bit. Maybe with a lot of experience I could come to like the old setup but for now I like what I have better than what I had.

That's just my opinion from having driven both on the street, track and autocross. But as I said, I am in the minority here.

Glad to see the OP's post.

 

Pretty much this writeup is only useful if you are a SCCA stock class autocrosser and need to upgrade your front bar to go with your new JCW springs.

IMO, the car didn't rotate with the normal bar up front, and nothing changed with the JCW bar. It definitely turns in and transitions better, but you have to be real gentle on the throttle at the exits. I don't know what guys are doing alignment wise (even more toe out up front?), or if its all about having double adjustable shocks in the back, but this car is dead neutral on entry with mild understeer mid corner through exit.

 

Thanks for putting this how-to together.

I swapped from the base sway bar (22mm) to the sports suspension one (23.5mm) over the weekend.

A couple of notes from memory:

Spraying the rubber exhaust hangers with a little WD-40 or silicone spray will make them much easier to remove and re-install.

To access the two front most subframe bolts on each side, I removed a couple of the plastic inner fender fasteners that are near the fog light access plugs (along with removing those plugs), which let me fold the inner fender out of the way. This made getting to those bolts much easier.

Steering rack:
Perhaps my '09 MY is different from your '12 MY car, but getting to the middle steering rack bolt was not very difficult. The middle bolt is towards the rear of the car. Laying underneath the car, I could use a pivoting ratchet with the handle pointing toward the front of the car (over top of the rack itself) to remove that bolt. It was actually easier than the outer two. Maybe the newer cars have something right in front of the steering rack?? Also, the socket size was an E-12 for those bolts. I also bought a set from Sears....Pro tip: ordering online and picking up in store knocked $3.50 off the pre-tax price.

 

I just did this, so, I will insert my insights into the quote below.

 

getting ready to tackle this beast... anyone have a write up with pics? lol. i'm actually doing the springs/struts at the same time, not sure if that makes it any easier or harder...

 

Kyoo,
I would do everything at one time. May take longer, but it will be done. Also, I have to believe that it will be easier. I have done the front struts/springs several times, but not the sway bar. There are a few tricks that help with the struts, like using a floor jack and a piece of 2x2 taped to the strut to jack it up and out of the steering knuckle, or remembering that you may have to open up the strut clamp in the knuckle to get it to go back on, or using an old style spark plug socket to loosen the strut bolt at the top (a long reach Allen wrench will fit right in). Post if you have questions/need help. Someone will surely have an idea or two for you.

Let us know how it goes.

 

Thanks. I'm pretty set on the 21st-22nd to take care of this. I've got a buddy with a garage who's gonna help me out with it so hopefully we can knock it out.

 

thank god for these instructions - the FSB is IN!!!

http://r56hs.com/2014/03/23/fsb-is-in/

didn't take much pics or anything, i think these instructions suffice. happy it is done. not much left to go for HS prep

 

Nice. I can see a difference in size in the pictures. I find that there is a significant difference on the track with the Sport Suspension bars over the stock S suspension. I think you will like it. And, no, you would not want to run it without a larger rear bar; your stock rear bar would not be good with the JCW bar. In the sport suspension, the rear bar make the setup proportionally stiffer in the rear than the stock S suspension which helps. Your larger rear bar should work well with your new front bar.

 

yeah omg im just glad it's behind me. rest of the suspension very very soon!