After much research and deliberation I'm planning on upgrading from the stock rear sway bar on my MCS to a "sporty" 19mm diameter bar.
Just looked at Dinan's website and they have everything but brake kits on sale for 20% off until 3-31-2006. (Dinan is a BMW - hence Mini - partner and per their website their performance parts are sold through 120 or so new car dealerships. They are known as a premium product at a premium price.) See here:
http://www.dinanbmw.com/

Their rear sway bar therefore goes from $311 to $249 making it a rather attractive buy for a premium brand product. Sway bar is near the bottom here and there is no photo:
http://dinancars.com/Mini.asp?Series...is=40&Model=91

Anydody out there use this bar and care to comment before I pull the trigger?

Looking on their website I found a BMW dealer near my home that caries their line.Hmmm their performance intake also looks tempting at $200! Only 600 miles on my car and in the immortal words of Norman Bates "It's starting again".

 

$280 SHIPPED! Retails $450+ Shipping. H-Sport Comp Sway Bar Set. This is where I got mine. It drop-ships straight from H-Sport. Great service from the seller. It has 1 auction to bid another for a $300 BUY NOW price. They sell all the time. I LOVE MY SWAYS!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/02-MI...QQcmdZViewItem

 

I always thought the 19mm was standard on an S which is why most of the aftermarket bars are 22s...

 

from my internet scouring:

Front Bar:
One 16mm
One or Cooper with SS 22.5mm
Cooper or MCS with SS+ 24mm

Rear Bar:
Cooper or MCS with SS+ 17mm

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Is there any reason not to go with the 19mm Alta bar from Coast to Coast? For $152.99 with free shipping, it seems like a better deal to me...like just about $100 cheaper. I get the whole sold through dealers, thing, esp. on some items, but I don't know if I can see a huge reason to spend an extra $100 on a very similar 19mm sway bar. I have no problems if anyone else does though - it's not my cash!

http://www.coasttocoastusa.com/zenca...products_id=57

YMMV...

 

To fishbulb:
Thanks for the input!

I'm leaning towards the Dinan, since, as I understand it they use rubber bushings. Most aftermarket swaybars come with poly (plastic) bushings. For swaybars and shock/strut mounting I much prefer rubber bushings because:
1) Rubber is more compliant (less ridgid) than poly and therefore absorbs some impact harshness leading to a smoother ride.
2) Rubber will not tend to squeak over time as poly is known to do.
This is why OEM bushings are rubber. The down side is that rubber bushings can be more expensive to manufacture becausing of the initial high mold tooling costs (poly can be inexpensively machined from tube or bar stock).

On the plus side for poly; since it is less compliant it is, and feels, tighter and more direct.

It's a trade off and we each have to weigh the +/- to suite our own preferences.

 

To Risu -

My resaerch indicates:
Mini Cooper uses 16mm rear sway bar
Mini Cooper S uses 17mm rear sway bar

Recently did some calculations based on info from Grass Roots Motorsports website and figured out that:

19mm solid bar is +56% (x156%) stiffer than a 17mm solid bar
22mm solid bar is +180% (x280%) stiffer than a 17mm solid bar

For more details and discussion look here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ffective+rates

The 19mm aftermarket bar is listed by most bar manufacturers as the street performance bar while the 22mm bar is listed as a autocross/racing bar. Why? During emergeny avoidance at high speeds and/or with slippery road conditions the stiffer the rear bar the greater the tendency to +oversteer+. While oversteer can be fun under controlled conditions (like an autocross) and with a highly skilled driver at the wheel it can lead to an accident when things go wrong. Note that race cars soften their sway bar settings when it rains. Frankly I'm not prepared to do this so I'll run a more compliant bar all the time! The choice each of us makes must take into consideration our own local road conditions (SoCal or Arizona vs. Washington state for example or an urban area versus a rural area) and how we drive. I'm doing mostly highway in crowded metro NY. High speed avoidance manuvers are a part of my daily life (it seems nobody follows the hands free cell phone law here). I'm more comfortable with the thought of using a somewhat softer 19mm bar because it give me an extra margin of safety - plain and simple.
My somewhat trite motto is: +It's always more fun when you don't have an accident.+

 

That's a great price for the Dinan! If you want it, I say go for it.

Give us a review on how it performs.

 

Called Dinan sales department today and they were very helpful.
(I asked - it's pronounced "Dye-nen")
In response to my questions I learned the following about their rear sway bar:

1) The bushings are indeed made of a high quality, long life rubber with the advantages this brings over polyeurethane:
- smoother, less harsh ride
- won't squeak or require relubrication
- will not crack
Apparently Dinan uses high quality rubber for most applications.

2) color = blue

3) levels of adjustment = 3 holes

Looks good to me!

 

We must be driving the same highways in NY; cell phones use, triple heart attack burgers - not finger food, reading novels and the news paper...emergency lane changes are a fact of life for at least two hours a day.

 

Coming down I-95 yesterday I was surprised to see a new black Porsche 911 cabrio languishing in the middle lane not far behind the bumper of a semi trailer, not a great place to hang out. Pulled up next to the Porsche to see what was wrong and had to do a double take. Some guy in a suit, steering with his knees, was using both hands to type into his Blackberry (or Crackberry as I prefer to call it). He never even noticed me next to him. Scary, very scary.

This might beat women who put on eyemakeup while looking in the mirror and driving at 60mph.

Talk about multi-tasking!