I purchased a M7 bar from aother NAM member and it was new, but I noticed that the assembly on the driver's side is loose. The bar section is made up of 3 parts, the center bar and the 2 outer sections. The fit between the driver side sections is fastened together with 2 counter sunk allen bolts. I received the bar with the 2 bolts tightened down but the driver's side bar sections still shift like they are loose. I have not measured the plates for thickness to see if that is the problem.

Does anyone here had this problem?

CARL

Here is a picture:

 

ummm...did you try to tighten it down?? If it wasn't torqued properly, it could loosen up. If you are referring to the three nuts on each plate, you want to be sure those are tight as that holds the suspension in place.

 

I just got the bar this past weekend and have not yet installed it. I took the bar out of the box and I notice that one side was loose. The bar was never installed. I tightened the bolts down as hard as I can without striping the threads and that section still shifts back and forth. It looks like one of the sections was milled incorrectly or the counter sink holes were drilled too far or incorrectly.

I just emailed Randy and see what he thinks.

 

it's supposed to be loose (mine was in four pieces out of the box). install it and tighten it up on the car. Or, do you mean something's broken?

 

the big bar is supposed to be slightly loose... So that it flexs with the car.

 

Why is it just one side? The passenger side is snug. The side that goes over the CAI is loose.

 

Nothing looks broken. I just noticed this before I was going to install it on the car

 

if you tighten the whole thing up before installing, it wouldn't fit properly. keep it all loose, put it on the car, tighten up the flush allen screws and the strut mounts and one set of large allens, then jack up one side of the car and tighten the other to 'preload' the bar. At least that's the advice Randy gave me when buying the bar at MOTD.

 

ISn't that contrary to the purpose of the bar?

To further that why would the recommendation be to jack up one side of the car for "preload". Although why you would want to preload in tension instead of compression I don't know.

So something is just wrong with this guys bar.

 

It seems like the one side is machined incorrectly, but I wanted to get some feedback from NAM and hopefully from Randy.

 

yes
jack it up to flex the chassis, then tighthen the bar down so that it's under load when all four tires on the ground....the chassis that is, not the suspension.

quite possibly....so:

 

That's what I meant though. The chassis spends the most effort dealing with load compression. Having this bar under tension would(I'll exaggerate for effect here) pull in more negative camber(not all bad) but worse would promote the tendency to lift the wheels.
What you really want to counteract is the tendency for the towers to move towards each other under compression loads. The only time being under tension will help is under suspension droop conditions. If you have enough droop going on that you're trying to correct the towers from moving away from each other then you're pretty much flying or close to it. Which can be fun but changing directions under those conditions is a bit challenging.

 

Okay,
Here is what I am refering to.

 

do the allen bolts sit flush? they should.

 

They look to be flush. I just called Peter from M7 and he said that he might have replacement parts by this week. He said that since I bought this second hand that he could not warranty it for me. The bar looks to be new, never installed, but I bought it from another person. I will try a few things tonight and see if I can figure out what is causing the loose condition.

Thanks for help in here.
CARL

 

Have you tried swapping bolts from either side? Next I'd spec the depth and width of the countersink. Compare sides. Compare bolts.

 

When you say we would not warrenty it for you I hope you are referring to the fact that we would not replace the entire assembly . We will make it rite by replacing the defective part if it is indeed the case even tho you are not our customer . I would think that most would find that satisfactory. I got your PM just now and called Peter to see what was up and ,as you said, we will try to have a replacment part available by the end of the week. In the meantime there appear to be several good suggestions here that hopefully will help.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Carl on the bolt issue, I believe the bolts uses at that joint are 2 different lengths. See if they are reversed.

 

Hi Randy,
Peter said that M7 would replace the defective parts for a fair price. That means that M7 would not warranty the defective parts, which I assume means replace for no fee on my end if the parts were warrantied. Like I said, the bar looks to be new and never installed. The person just needed the money and sold me this bar. I will investigate if I can see if I can fix the problem without doing any damage to the bar. Otherwise, I would appreciate what you guys at M7 can do for me to solved this issue and deliver satisfaction to a possible future M7 customer.

Thanks again,
Carl Santiago

 

MARK(MDSBrain),
I will check to see if the that is the case. It was weird to see one side not tight.

Thanks,
Carl

 

 

another suggestion - take the center piece off and try to thread the allen bolts into the threaded sections to check visually to see if they all sit the same. As I recall, all the allen bolts are the same size. Perhaps the issue is that the outside section itself wasn't tapped properly, allowing some movement.

 

Thanks all,
I measured all the holes for ID and plate thicknesses. I visually checked to see if there was any discreprencies. I observed none. I switched the bolts and tightened them using a longer allen wrench then the one supplied for more leverage and fixed the problem.

The driver's side connection was just a little different than the other and tightening the bolts took more effort than I thought.

I apologize to create any undo finger pointing, which was not my intent. I just wanted to make sure I had a good product and wanted to ask questions.

Peter and Randy(M7),
Thank you for your help on this matter. Great Looking Product and this should prevent this common Mushrooming problem most of us MINI folks have.

MDSBrain,
Thanks for the deal on this and you a good guy to deal with.

Thanks,
CARL

 

Arly was using those free Ikea wrenches...lol

 

I have a drawer full in addition to my nice ball-end sets. "Why do I need them?" my wife asks all the time. To fill up the toolbox of course!!!