It's been a while since I did this, but I thought there wasn't much problem getting it out the side of the car. You don't try and remove the bar towards the rear, it has to come out the wheelwell.


Have fun,
Mike

 

The bar will come out the drivers side, once the bolts are out, use a prybar to give yourself a bit more room, and it'll slide out with a little bit of wiggling.

 

Thanks folks. If I get up the courage I might tackle it again. Might just take it to a shop and have them take care of it. Wonder what that would run$$$?

 

It has to go in through the driver side wheelwell. I was concerned that i wouldnt be able to relocate the subframe so i left the right side bolts in and supported the frame with a floor jack. Im alive to tell the story.

 

Does both side shock assemblies have to come out?

 

Yes.

 

Hey everyone I'm new to the mini world but old to the "car modding" world. I've done sway bar kits on a few of my past projects and I've always changed both front and rear.

I would like to know why it seems like no one is changing the front sway bar on the Mini's and only changing out the rear?

I was looking to pick up the complete Hotchkis competition front and rear kit but now i need to know what everyone else in the mini community know that i don't. I tried doing a front sway bar install thread or youtube video and came up with no information.

 

It tends to upset the car's balance of grip. Changing only the rear will cure most of the understeer tendency of this little FWD car, so the front isn't really needed or recommended unless you are going to switch to adjustable coil overs and tune the full suspension.

TL:DR: unless part of a larger project it just tends to make the car swap ends

 

Sway bars work the same in these cars as they do in other cars. It all depends on your intent for the car. An autocross suspension will be different from a car that is going to the track.

Adding only a large rear bar makes the car looser in corners/turns. The intent is to remove the understeer that MINS have. But this tends to leave a lot of front corner "dive". That is the outside front corner of the car dives to the pavement in a hard turn. It can also leave you with a car with a snap oversteer.

It is, however, one of the easiest suspension changes you can make and in moderation can be quite beneficial.

It also needs to be noted that part of that understeer is due to having little to no front wheel camber (-0.3 deg max by MINI specs).

Not all of us go with the theory that MINI is better off with little or no front sway bar and that it needs a big fat rear sway bar. If you look at the progression of the MINI suspension options (base Cooper, S model, Sports suspension, and the JCW) one of the things you will seen is a progressive increase in the size of both the front and rear sway bars with a shift in the center of the roll stiffness towards the rear of the car. If you have a chance to see the MINIs that are running in the Continental tire series you will see 2 really large sway bars.

For my MINI, which sees a fair amount of track time, I have the 27mm front and 25 mm hollow rear sway bar paired with the MINI option Sports suspension springs, Bilstein B8 sports shocks, IE fixed camber plates (-1.5 deg) and Power Flex front lower control arm bushings. With the rear bar on the softest setting, the car is very neutral up to the limits, at which point it will push. The car is credible in a tight autocross course, but if I was serious about autocross I would stiffen the rear more, and not take the car to the track.

Here is a thread that might be of interest to you:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...g-monster.html

 

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but its a good one anyway..

For the convertible (only), the video says that to remove the center subframe bolt, you can make a small hole in the heat shield to avoid dropping the exhaust.. but where? Does anyone have pics of where that bolt is located so I know where to poke a hole? Id prefer not to mess with the exhaust too.

 

If you look above the heat shield you should see the bolt, you'll either remove the heat shielding or pop a hole just to the leading end of the muffler (gen 2) or basically on the center line of the exhaust crossover of the R52 (if that makes sense).

It's dead nuts in the middle and you'll want to use a 16mm swivel to get a good bite on the bolt.

 

Installed a sway bar last night using the modified Bentley procedure. The whole thing took me 1.5 hours from wheels off to wheels on. My car is 10 years old so I had to deal with a couple of pesky screws. I did it alone.

1. I did NOT loosen or remove the shocks. I did not want to get involved with the lower shock mount going into the trailing arm casting with 120ft-lbs. Why do more work than you need to? It was easy to remove the sway bar with the shocks in place with subframe dropped enough. Came out like knife though butter.

2. I did not mess with any fuel tank supports or exhaust supports as suggested by Bentley.

3. If you're struggling with sliding the sway bar out, it means the rear subframe has not dropped enough. Get in there with a big pry bar and wedge it down some more.

4. I removed all 4 subframe screws. Assembly was no problem. Use your jack to raise the subframe up, if the holes are misaligned use a rubber mallet & 2x4 or pry bar to encourage better alignment of the holes. Start the screws off by hand and thread them in as far as you can by hand, just to be safe.

5. I used anti seize on everything, because Canada.


Gonna go out and enjoy the results now :-)


sani

 

On your item 1, it is interesting that you got it out without removing at least one shock.

As for the re-installation torque for that bolt, that is the torque for the initial installation of that self-tapping bolt, when it is cutting the treads for the first time. There is strong speculation here on NAM that torque is way too high for a re-installation. But nowhere is a re-installation torque given.

Have fun.

 

I just installed a bar in a friends car this week. I took out the upper shock mounts on one side only, and that was enough to get the bar in and out. I stripped a lower bolt on the old car, so avoid removing or reinstalling the lower bolts.

Its fun having a non-car guy try and describe the feeling, but he is happy. I installed a 22mm bar on the middle setting.

Have fun,
Mike

 

Bentley procedure does not require removing the shocks, it's purely a diy guy thing probably because of the pucker factor associated with lowering the subframe enough. You have to drop the sub probably 50mm, rotate the bar about 180 degrees and then it slides slides right out with no interference or hanky panky




Whoops, thanks for validating my paranoia!


Smiles all around!


sani

 

Stripping out that lower bolt is a real problem that is discussed in others threads. Part of the problem seems to be that the wear on the threads weakens them each time that bolt is removed and reinstalled. Torquing it to 125 ft-lbs doesn't help (the wheel bolts are the same size but only torqued to 102 ft-lbs). This wear in the threads can result in the bolt coming out while you are driving, which happened to a friend of mine. That being said, it also seems that this is more of problem if the bolt is removed and reinstalled multiple times and how carefully the bolt is reinstalled each time.