I purchased two 25mm H Sport Competition Rear Sway bars based upon recommendations from NAM vendors and members for a 04 MCS Coupe and a 05 MCS Cabrio.

The first car into the installer's shop---a MINI shop with 20 yrs experience--was the 05 Cabrio, which resulted in a phone call from the shop owner, telling me that the 25mm bar was too big and rubbed on the underside of the car. His recommemdation is to install the 22 mm Sport bar from H Sport, and possibly in combination with a front Sport sway bar.

I don't intend to track either car; but from recommendations from NAM vendors, they said to start with the 25 mm bar---which is equivalent to a 22 mm solid rear bar as the Sport HS bar was too close to the stock unit.

Any MCS cabrio owners out there that have successfully installed the H Sport Competition Rear Sway Bar on their cabrios? Please advise; and I'm open to recommendations about going with the Sport front and rear bar on the cabrio...and maybe the coupe, too

For the coupe, I don't believe they're will be a fitment problem; but again, the shop owner recommends the Sport bars--front and rear-- as I'm not intending to track or AX the car.

Charlie

 

I agree, but will check with H sport for you.

Alex

 

Sell the 25mm hollow bar and buy anybody else’s 22mm solid bar.

Should work fine for your intended use.


I have heard that the 25mm hollow bar has some rubbing issues even on coupes, requiring trimming of the insulation on the under pan.



Bill

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by CooperSS

I have heard that the 25mm hollow bar has some rubbing issues even on coupes, requiring trimming of the insulation on the under pan.

The H-Sport Comp bar only rubs EXCESS BODY PUTTY. It will otherwise fit all MINI applications. Your install shop mechanics are incompetent.

..and for the record, the H-Sport "sport" rear bar is lame, it's the exact same effective size as the Cooper S rear bar: 17mm

 

Ryan,
In going back over previous posts you wrote, you said this:

MINI suspension guide to the universe:

One hatch and Cooper Cabrio: base suspension
Cooper hatch and Cooper S Cabrio: Sport suspension
Cooper S hatch and optional Cooper hatch: Sport suspension plus

...and yes - you can put hatch suspension bits on the cabrio if your heart desires.

And in April, when asked if you were going to put a 22 mm rear sway bar in your mother's lowered cabrio, you said:

"I'm not sure I'd do a 22mm however, probably an ALTA 19mm would be sufficiently balanced with the smaller SS front swaybar."

Given that the S cabrio has the sport suspension, is the 22 mm (effective rate 19mm) rear H Sport bar that bad a choice? Isn't the front sway bar on the the Sport Suspension smaller than that of the Sport Suspension Plus bar in the Cooper S hatch?

Charlie

 

There is no "19mm effective rate" H-Sport bar, only 17mm effective rate [aka the Sport] and 22.1mm effective rate [aka the Competition].

The MINI SS front bar is 22mm versus the SS+ front bar is 24mm. Let's face it, the Cabrio MINI is not intended for performance compared to the hatchback; why else would MINI intentionally put on softer suspension? The Cabrio is marketed towards people like my Mom who value "sporty" but not racing oriented setups.

That said, if you want to put an H-Sport Comp rear bar on an otherwise stock suspension Cabrio, start off on the soft setting. Me personally? I'd have an H-Sport front bar on soft and an H-Sport Comp rear bar on full-stiff. As for my mother's suspension setup, there's no need for a big rear bar for her; she doesn't need it. Just because I recommend a setup for one person doesn't make that the right setup for everyone, you guys should know that!

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Thanks Ryan

 

Yep no problem

 

I was under the impression that the 'effective' ratings was more for the hollow bars. I have the HS sport 19mm bar on the stiff setting, and it was a tremendous improvement over my stock bar... and unless i'm mistaking it is a 16mm bar for the cooper. I got a helluva deal on the sport front and rear bars, or else I would have purchased one of the competition bars...but with the stiff setting on my bar being rated at 128% stiffer over stock(which is what bar btw?), how much of a difference is that from the 22 or 25mm bars anyways? I'm aware they go up to 400% stiffer, but is that really significantly noticable over what I have currently?

 

Got the Cabrio back, and given the softer suspension than the coupe, it really handles pretty well. The H Sport SPORT rear bar is set to the 3rd (stiffest) position, so there's no making it any stiffer in the future...but I don't think I'll want to since it's a cabrio.

Hadn't checked the tire pressures since delivery, and discovered that they were at 28 lbs each, about 10 lbs below the recommended settings from MINI (205x45x17) on R91 Bullets...so that should help as well; unless it really stiffens the ride too much, which will lead me to get a set of Avons from the Tire Rack.

As for the coupe, it's in the shop getting the 25 mm comp bar installed as I write. Will be interesting to see what that feels like in comparison to the carbio.

 

38 is the recommended pressure for 4 adults and luggage. 1 or 2 adults recommended pressure is 33. Definitely would like to hear your impressions regarding the different setups.

Mike

 

Well, I picked up the coupe today. Although I didn't really have a chance to test it out on some twisties, you can really feel the difference. The Comp Rear bar is set at the middle position, and you can tell that it's a whole new ballgame, just from doing a quick lane change. None of that dipping when snaping the wheel to the right or left; and cornering at intersections is flat.

Will have to wait for an opportiunity to get the car up on some mountain roads.

The car feels different from the cabrio...which is still much more tame. If I had it to do over, I'd follow Cooper SS' suggestion and install a solid rear 22 mm bar on soft setting. But the cabrio is a "cruiser"; and the coupe is a "racer", figuratively speaking!
Charlie

 

Well I just spent the better part of a day fitting the H Sport Comp rear sway bar to a 2005 MCSC. I can tell you that it does fit. I can also tell you it's not easy. It turns out that on all other MC's only 4 bolts need to be removed and the sub-frame drops. On the MCSC (well, mine) there 5 bolts on the sub-frame. This fifth bolt is dead center of the vehicle along the axle up behind the exhaust system and in front of the gas tank. This bolt secures to the sub frame through a rather large black bracket. This bracket makes fitting the new sway bar (and getting the old one out) rather challenging. The bracket sits pretty close the sub-frame and even leaning on a pry bar doesn't really give you enough room to get over it. In the end, I loosened that gas tank brackets to allow me enough space to push around and behind the bracket both to remove the old bar and install the new one.

Once in, the bar was snug but not rubbing against the sub-frame.

It might be that your mechanic just thought it was too much work or too hard to get the new bar in. I could see where a smaller diameter bar (i.e., not a hollow one)would be easier to maneuver into place.

The worst part was that the frustration when it seemed to me that there was a fifth bolt beyond the instruction's four but the support fellow indicated that there was only 4. He did suggest I send him some digital photos of what I did and what I was seeing to see if he could help me. (I did this but I think it was too late for him to respond). I want to thank Randy from Webb Motorsports for posting (really quickly, too) to NAM in response to my plea for help and guiding me to a resolution of the "fifth bolt" problem.