Seen a lot of suggestions to upgrade the rear sway bar, but I had to start wondering about the benefits (and reasons) to upgrade the front sway bar.

Bavarian Autosport (www.bavauto.com) carries a Eibach Sway Bar Kit for $340 that comes with both the front and rear sway bars.

Then I noticed they also carry a Bavarian Autosport Front Stressbar, but it has no description. So I wondered what that was for.

Eibach is a name that even I have heard of, and I am not all that informed. And from what I heard they are a great manfacturer of suspension products. So I got to wondering about the quality of some of the other sway bars out there in comparison to Eibach. Anyone use Eibach's kits?

 

First things first.

Unless your a serious Racer don's screw with the front sway bar. You won't need to upgrade it. Upgrade the rear to at least 19mm

Stress bar could be the bar that goes between the tops of the strut towers.

Another recommend.

 

>>Then I noticed they also carry a Bavarian Autosport Front Stressbar, but it has no description. So I wondered what that was for.

An upper stress bar is a piece of metal that mounts to the tops of the shock towers to keep the geometry of the suspension proper under hard cornering by providing additional support and bracing to this critical area. An anit-roll bar or sway bar connects the right and left suspension control arms together and controls how much the control arms move relative to each other. A front sway bar and front stress bar are two different things that serve two different purposes. Hope that helps.

amir

 

Remember that the MINI's frame is 3 times stiffer than that of a 3-series BMW. Except under extreme circumstances, the stress bar is just a cosmetic under bonnet goodie with little if any added performance.

Rear sway bar is great and I would have one if I was not racing in a stock class this year.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. The Eibach rear sway bar is 19mm from what I read. And from looking at the pics of the various sway bars, the really crooked one is the front one. With that many bends I can't see how it would help. :smile:

 

>>With that many bends I can't see how it would help. :smile:
>>

I'm sure it helps. If it truly did nothing, Eibach wouldn't sell them, neither would H-sport. And if this isn't true, then Eibach and H-sport suck like no tomorrow. (But I'm sure it's true. :smile: )

 

h-sport sway is a must have and is by far the most dramatic improvement i have done so far- well worth the money!
i have alta intake, miltek header and cat-back, pilo coil, nologys, denso plugs. pulley and unichip at l. a. pulley party in may.
cheers, jon

 

>>Thanks for all the info guys. The Eibach rear sway bar is 19mm from what I read. And from looking at the pics of the various sway bars, the really crooked one is the front one. With that many bends I can't see how it would help. :smile:
>>

OK lets take one thing at a time.

In the rear of both the MC and MCS -
You may add a rear swaybar to stiffen the rear suspension and try to minimize understeer with hard cornering. If you do only street driving and don't corner fast then you do not need a rear swaybar. Most times the swaybars come with 2 or 3 holes to adjust for stiffness. The holes closest to the bend in the bar are the stiffer settings and the holes near the ends of the bar are the softest. Usually the middle hole of three is a good place to start for aggressive driving like on the track or for autocross. For street driving or less aggressive driving the soft setting is a good place to start. MC suspension is less stiff so a 19mm rear swaybar ($199) is good. MCS stock suspension is stiffer (similar to SS+ option in MC) so 22mm swaybar is a good start. Some choose the H-sport competition bar ($230) which is oversized at 25mm but lighter weight due to thinner walls for the bar. This isn't really necessary for most people as the weight difference is around 4-5 pounds.

So for your MCS consider the 22mm rear swaybar with three holes but only if you drive aggressively. Doesn't really matter which brand as the prices are similar and the powercoat colors are the biggest difference.

Madness red Rear sway bar (2 adjustment holes) with blue H-sport lowering springs

In the front of both MC and MCS -
There is a front swaybar but generally most of us will not need to change or upgrade it because if we do it may increase understeer depending on the rest of the suspension setup. In competition it is possible to change it however those MINIs may have quite a bit of suspension mods like camber plates and coilovers to make adjustments to the alignment in the front to work with the upgraded front swaybar. The front swaybar is accessed from under the car.

In the engine bay on the top of each strut tower are three nuts which secure the top of the shock absorber to the rigid MINI chassis frame. Most people think that the MINI chassis is plenty stiff and there is no need to add a front tower strut brace. It does look cosmetically nice but it does weigh from 3.5 to 5+ pounds and costs about $200+. It is an easy install. Those who have camber plates will have less selection of which strut braces would fit with their plates. Also the strut bar may interfere with the cold intake airbox, the top cover of the ECU box, or an oil/filter change.
Some owners say that with very hard cornering and on the track they can tell the difference a tower strut brace makes. I know of no documented difference in lap times on the track or at autocross due to a tower strut brace alone.
The other critisism of a tower strut brace is you don't really know which brace is providing better stiffness since there is no way to easily measure the difference. It's pretty subjective. Don't assume that the brace is adding stiffness as looks don't always translate into true benefit.

Here's a picture of my BMP polished aluminum tower strut brace ($240). They make a steel one as well.



Red steel BMP strut tower brace $230


_________________
Aloha Hawaii

 

>> With that many bends I can't see how it would help.>>

these bars are designed to work in torsion, which will run around the curves - just like the flexible drives for sockets.

but severely changing the angle between the end links and the sway bar (by lowering) can change the effective rate of the bar and could also put it into bending. look at pictures of a severly lowered car with stock end links while the suspension is loaded, not the more common pictureson the car on stands with the suspension extended.

after i lower my car, i may experiment with a custom set of bars that would clear the uprights and allow shorter end links to keep the angle between the end links and the bar more normal.

flyboy2160

 

>>Seen a lot of suggestions to upgrade the rear sway bar, but I had to start wondering about the benefits (and reasons) to upgrade the front sway bar.
>>
>>Bavarian Autosport (www.bavauto.com) carries a Eibach Sway Bar Kit for $340 that comes with both the front and rear sway bars.
>>
>>Then I noticed they also carry a Bavarian Autosport Front Stressbar, but it has no description. So I wondered what that was for.
>>
>>Eibach is a name that even I have heard of, and I am not all that informed. And from what I heard they are a great manfacturer of suspension products. So I got to wondering about the quality of some of the other sway bars out there in comparison to Eibach. Anyone use Eibach's kits?

I have not used this kit myself, but have used eiback for other cars that I have had and have loved them..

We carry it on our site, at a great price.

www.thepilo.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?p=Eibach_Front_and_Rear_Sway_Bar&s=E IBACKSWAY

If you need any more information, please let me know.

mini@thepilo.com

 

>>We carry it on our site, at a great price.
>>
>>www.thepilo.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?p=Eibach_Front_and_Rear_Sway_Bar&s=E IBACKSWAY
>>
>>If you need any more information, please let me know.
>>
>>mini@thepilo.com
I notice that you sell the kit (front and rear), but seems we realy only need the rear one. What would you charge for just the rear, and can you answer whether or not the Eibach sway bar is adjustable?

 

I have front and rear stress bars.

Front bar doesn't make enough difference for me to notice, but the REAR makes a HUGE diffrerence.

Puts the car pretty close to nuetral cornering: understeer with the power on & a very nice OVERSTEER when you drop the throttle.

The rear bar is from PILO - simple install & even easier to remove/replace when you need full cargo access.

Fun per dollar ratio is very positive.

 

>>>>We carry it on our site, at a great price.
>>>>
>>>>www.thepilo.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?p=Eibach_Front_and_Rear_Sway_Bar&s=E IBACKSWAY
>>>>
>>>>If you need any more information, please let me know.
>>>>
>>>>mini@thepilo.com
>>I notice that you sell the kit (front and rear), but seems we realy only need the rear one. What would you charge for just the rear, and can you answer whether or not the Eibach sway bar is adjustable?

The Rear sway bar has 2 adjustment points. Allowing for a diffrent setup's

I can only get the sway bar as a set, so I am unable to sell as seperates, unless you know some one that would take the front and I could split the set.

The Stress bar is another product that we sell for the rear of the car that connects the 2 sides of the rear of the car together to increase strength.

_________________
Thanks,

Dan

Pilo Racing, LLC.

 

>>Front bar doesn't make enough difference for me to notice, but the REAR makes a HUGE diffrerence.
>>

I'm wondering because I am thinking about getting a set of bars.. Did you install both the front and rear sway bar in the same session?

 

Updated link to new website.

Page Title

 

Thanks Dan!

 

MiniPilo wrote: How much stronger is the rear of the car with the addition of the rear stress bar? What parts does it prevent from moving (other than the rear seat latches)?

 

Sorry to resurrect this thread.

Bavarian Auto now have their stress bar (strut brace) on sale for 90 dollars (normally 224) - does anyone have any experience with this strut brace and is it any good?

 

from the looks of it, it will do the job, which to be honest isnt a big one. Looking back I wouldnt have paid 200 for the m7 piece I have, the best thing about it is it looks cool, it's probably less effective at it's job because of the 3 piece construction. so for $90, why not?

someone else may chime in talking about the plates only attaching to two bolts, which may be an issue, but looks ok to me.

the BMP bar looks amazing in this thread.

youll likely get more improvement out of these: http://www.waymotorworks.com/oem-cab...oss-brace.html

 

minihune,
I have to compliment you on the cleanliness of your engine.
I want to have mine look like that but I am not sure how.