just lowered the cooper last night with H sports. took it for a test spin and the sway bars, both front and rear, seem to be knocking around when the weight of the car is shifted.

took it back to the garage and double, double, double checked everything and came up with nothing.

so my question is, do you think the noise will go away after i have it aligned tuesday?

 

With my '06 I had no problems after installing the H-sport springs and never had it aligned. My guess would be your sway bars need greasing. My H-sport rear sway has a grease fitting just for this.

 

Same problem for me, with the rear sway bar. You need to grease it, especially the poliurethane supports as it's them who make the most of the noise. My mech forgot to do it, and I'm gonna need to do it soon, the noise is making me crazy.

 

Greasing is a good idea, but also check your clearance betwee the bars and the springs. Some springs coils are larger than others and can actually make contact with the sway bar under load. Just remove the wheel, and put a jack under the hub, anf jack it up. watch it through its range of motion to see if it makes contact.

 

thanks for the tip astro, after i get it back from the shop from the alignment later today ill see if i can find any contact.

now what kind of grease should i be using to lub it?

 

the mini didnt end up really needing an alignment. everything was within spec. but the rear toe is off and the shop didnt have the right tool to adjust it, so i wasnt charged.

my rear toe was: left-.35 right-.32

anyone know if i should take it somewhere else to have it put in spec or are these #'s fine?