Hi folks, was wondering if anyone has fitted a beefed-up rear sway bar for mini countryman all4. How hard is it. How long does it take.
Also any tips to help me. How much of the suspension do you have to take off, and do you have to remove the subframe, or just drop it down.
I took the car to a good garage for them to look at the job. They frightened me by saying that nearly everything on the back end has got to come off. And could take 4 or 5 hours. I can't afford that, as the bar that I got cost 197 pounds sterling.
Any help would be gratefully received. Many thanks in advance. Nick.

 

You just drop the subframe to squeak the bar in there. About a 3 hour job.

 

Thanks

 

After removing the rear struts and other related parts..... Lower, not Drop. There are 4 16-Point bolts holding up the subframe. Completely remove the 2 rear ones and just loosen the 2 front ones. You should be able to "pry" open the subframe away from the chassis just enough to sneak the bar in. Good Luck.

 

Many thanks.

 

that's what I meant.."lower". Bad choice of words. Not clear

 

Thanks everyone for all your help.

 

I put the NM Engineering bar in my CM. Took about two hours and required that the rear end go up in the air on the jack pads. I can confirm the above that you need to LOWER the rear subframe approximately 1-1.25 inches from the bottom of the car in order to slide the old bar out and replace it with the new one.


During the install, I had a friend of mine help me. We used metal rulers with markings to 1/32" to measure out where we were and made sure NOT to drop it any farther than what the instructions specified. It's a bit nerve wracking when you're doing it (considering you can really break the car if you're not careful,) but it's a pretty easy job.


You'll need a torque wrench as well when tightening down the subframe bolts. I can't remember what the torque was off the top of my head, but the instructions from NM have the required value.

You will need to purchase a grease gun when you upgrade the swaybar. After about six months (or a few good drives in wet conditions) the bushings may start to creak under sudden compression. I usually rotate my tires every six to eight months, so when I do that I pump grease through them until it runs clean. Expect to make a mess.

 

Thanks very much for a very comprehensive answer. I am still waiting to dip my toes in the water, and start the job.

 

My CM, post mods.



Good luck! There was one other thing I thought of after the previous post: I'd strongly recommend that you get a set of the lowering springs for the R60 from NM Engineering and do those at the same time. That said, MAKE SURE YOU GET A STEERING KNUCKLE SPREADER FIRST! ( ) Otherwise you're going to spend about an hour trying to figure out how to get the bottom of the front struts out. Prying them apart and attacking the front strut with a rawhide mallet sucks. Trust me.


The reason I'm recommending the lowering springs is that between those, the swaybar, and a front strut brace (I have the Monster brace from M7, https://www.m7tuning.com/m7-r60-r61-...brace-kit.html) you're going to notice a substantial improvement in performance. It will make the ride quality a bit harsher, but the car is far more confident under very hard cornering.


There seems (IMHO) to be a bit of float in the rear end during aggressive cornering that those parts completely solves. I haven't tracked the car yet, but I can tell you that you will likely find yourself taking corners much faster.


Going through some of the roads here in San Diego are pretty amusing. I made the drive to Julian through Warner Springs a few weeks ago and found myself wishing for better seats to avoid having to brace on hard corners.

 

Beefy.. 25 mm beef enough? Took about 2 hours (non All4) on jack stand. Lower the subframe, remove rear shocks and its a cake walk.

 

I haven't lowered but have put on 22mm sway bar, front strut brace, OEM sport shocks (I started with standard) and ditched the run flats. The car is totally different. Can take corners harder because it feels more planted, turns in easier (less understeer) and back end no longer wants to "skip out" if I hit a surface irregularity in a corner. I've been back and forth a bit on lowering because I live in the northeast and every little bit of ground clearance counts in the winter snow. If I lived elsewhere I'd do it in a heartbeat

 

I live near Boston, and the 2014 CM ALL4 will be my daily driver while the 2016 M3 will be for fun... How much did cost you the sport shocks (with our without the sport springs?).

 

So I'm unable to do this myself, heart condition, but I bought one on the recommendation of acquaintance in our club. He has a lift and told me get one and will throw it on my lift and we'll get it done in a couple hours.

Well he was always busy when I was not and I was busy when he was not now his lift is unavailable, garage is full of remodeling supplies.

So I asked the MINI dealer how much. The response from the service manager "6 hours labor and an alignment." Basically well over $1,000.

I asked if he charged by the actual time and he said "No, we charge what's in the book." PS None of the references I can find like AllData have an estimate for this job....

I replied, "Well show me the book because that's insane!

Needless to say the dealer only gets warranty and covered maintenance work.

After calling around for 2 hours, (I also have an R50 that needs some easy work,) I finally found one place honest enough to give me an estimate of time and a realistic quote through AAA. My old man was a NAPA parts jobber and I developed a pretty good sense of who can be trusted and who can't. It's not 100% infallible but the BS detector is.

Like the transmission guy I asked to do a fluid change on my R50 transmission when he said "Do you have the red one or the green one?"