I spent some time searching and found quite a bit of good knowledge. What a great site for Mini owners. With that said I am looking at a 02 S hatch. The car is currently lowered with aftermarket springs and struts which in turn will I am sure find their way back here. . My buddy is buying it for the wife and is considering a nice set of sway bars and OE shocks/struts. Anything I should have to consider when taking on this task? I assume with OE coilovers it is a straight forward r/r. Thanks for the info in advance.

 

Straight foward. You might need a spring compressor to get the stockers back on.

 

Yep! Do everything you did before, only backwards.

 

Wish it were that easy guys but I have never worked on a Mini. A good buddy of mine is looking at buying one for his wife and it is currently lowered. Evidently she in not that cool or he really wants to protect the underside (which would be my reasoning if it were for my wife). So instead of watching him take a huge hit on labor I said we could do it. I have lowered all my cars and other then a few sensors, a spring compressor, etc... there really is nothing to it. Being a Mini I wanted to just make sure I was not biting off more then I could chew. Glad to see I will be of great help and thats for the bit of confidence.

 

I've read of some issues with the uncompressed strut clearing the suspension, esp. on the driver's side on earlier cars. If you have compression straps, might want to use them when re-installing.

The pics are gone, but here's the how to from the 'how to' section above.

 

it's near the last page. For the stock assemblies, it depends on if you buy a set with the spring perches and strut guides on or not. If they are not on, then you can get them on without using a spring compressor. Just lean into the air wrench a bit to get what little compression you need when you put the strut assembly together. I find that mine clear OK in putting them back on, and I have an 02. But you may have to fight it a bit.

It's not a hard job, and with two people it should go pretty fast.

for the wife skip a front sway bar, and maybe even let her drive with the stocker on the rear for a bit. If they've already been changed, the rear swap is pretty easy, but the front isn't that easy. You have to drop the whole front subframe to get it out. While this isn't that difficult a job, it's a bit lengthy.

I'm just finishing off an article on suspensions gone bad for MC Squared for the next issue. Too stiff a front bar for the conditions is the start of a slippery slope to a very stiff suspension that is no fun on the streets. Especially if you don't have the best of roads in the area where you live. For the rest of the article, you have to subscribe to the magazine!

Matt

 

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