Hi all,
I have a 2013 Mini Cooper S. It has the sport package but my understanding is that it does not have the sport suspension. I just replaced the strut shocks and noticed that the front stabilizer/ sway bar on the Mini easily moves side to side (Left to Right on the car) about a half an inch when both wheels are off the ground. It stops firmly on either direction of this half inch movement and there is no play in the up and down direction or front to back. I replaced the stabilizer end links as well when I did the struts. The movement was present before and is present after the end link and strut replacement. I searched around on Google after finding nothing in my Bentley manual on this and did not find anything specific to Minis on this topic. I did find a person saying that sway bars are supposed to move side to side a bit, this was on a Miata forum, and several others saying they should not. Does someone on this forum know about this side to side movement?

 

So to add to the info on this topic, during more googling of the issue, I came across a product by a company called Whiteline that is meant to stop any side to side movement on sway bars. There was no information on Minis in particular, but this company sells clamping collars that clamp onto the bar and keep it tight to the bushing mounts. I am still searching for information on whether on Minis there should be allowable side to side movement of the front sway bar, and if not, what the likely cause of such movement is. I'll post more info as I come across it. Below is a pic of one of the Whiteline products.

 

I just so happened to work on my mini yesterday chasing a clunking noise in the front. it turned out to be something else BUT in the process, I did see rubber stops on both ends of the bar right next to the bushing. I don't know if these rubbers, with time, can move, but you might want to check them out. use something to tap them back into the bushings to see if that helps.

 

HI MiniToBe,

Thank you for the info. I will check those out and see if that fixes the issue. Just curious, because I am still getting clunking after changing the struts and sway bar end links, what was the cause of your noise?

David

 

In my case, the transmission mount bracket bolts were not tight enough. So on takeoff and sometimes on stops, o would hear the clunking or like shearing sound. I had my wife operate the brakes and gas at the same time while the car was lifter and was able to narrow it down to that.

My paceman had clunking in the back and that was from the metal bushing stopper hitting the subframe because the bushing bar was bad.