That does not sound right.

With a stiffer sway bar, you have put a stiffer torsion bar between the rear wheels, making them less independent, but I never noticed louder or harsher, nor have others complained of such.

 

The only time that it should feel harsher is when one wheel hits a bump, and the other does not, basically when the bar is flexing. I'm not exactly sure how much harsher your ride became, so I cannot tell you if it is right or wrong. I know that the stock suspension is already pretty darn stiff and the ride is semi rough to start with. Could that be it or is it somewhere in the order of magnitude of 10x worse? If that is the case, then something is definitely wrong, and you might want to check for binding in the bar. You can do this by unhooking the end links, and trying to rotate the bar up and down to see if it moves. If it doesn't move at all (there is still some resistance, so don't contuse the two), then you may want to loosen up the sway bar brackets and torque them to spec to see if that helps. If not, pull the brackets off and figure out what is going on. Post back here and let us know how it goes.

 

tracktoy990: You got the scenario right- one wheel hitting the bump while the other doesn't. Rarely does both wheels hit bumps at the same time (potholes are never symmetrically aligned 0.o). I did the test you mentioned and it does move with slight resistance. I rechecked the suspension struts to make sure everything is sitting right and there's no issues. It's not really a magnitude difference-basically it's not twice as harsh(or half the comfort) but it's definitely more harsh. I never noticed the stock set up to be harsh riding and only noticed this post rsb mod.

 

What you are noticing is definitely normal! I'm very surprised that you noticed a difference, as most people I know wouldn't. If the sway bar is moving nicely, and everything is hooked up as it was, then you're good to go! As for symmetrical bumps, there aren't many potholes that match up side to side, but on freeways around here, there are bumps that run across 4 lanes because of shotty construction. You have the 19mm bar? I have the 22 bar, and it is only slightly more harsh for me, but not enough to complain about. Enjoy your improved handling and reduced understeer!

 

1. Added harshness from a rear bar is my biggest concern. My daily "commute" includes rough bitumen with big, rolling bumps that throws the car around, and I can imagine the rear leaping all around the place with a stiffer bar.

2. Back on the negative front camber thing - I agree with all that's said eg increasing contact patch. That's my point - it increases the cornering grip at the front of the MINI and, since the standard setup pushes wide, increasing the cornering grip reduces the pushing/understeer and balances the handling. My preference is to reduce understeer by increasing grip at the front rather than reducing it at the rear with a rear bar - either way you improve the balance of the handling but the first way gives you more overall cornering grip so it's faster (all else being equal, which it never is! )

Now my quandary is - I want to reduce the understeer still more, and you can only do so much with camber, but a rear bar may be unsuited to the rough roads I use. It would be fun in the smoother mountain roads though

Thanks for the idea of a softer front bar (above) - I have the sports suspension so I guess I could go to a standard front bar. Is it worth trading some responsiveness for handling balance? Hmm - let me think about that one...

 

Koni FSD will do a better job of keeping the tires on the pavement. Rear control-arm helper bushings help the tail end track better.

 

All I have to say is... suspension mods are essentially an endless cycle of improvements/trade-offs. Sway bars are meant to help fine tune the rotation, and control body roll. They are a supplement to a well thought out system of shocks/springs. My approach is always to design the suspension the way you want it to drive/handle, and then fine tune later with sway bars/camber/bushings, etc. If you have the money, go with a new set of shocks/springs/coilovers first. If you have the mechanical knowledge, its a piece of cake to do an install on them yourself to save money. These BMW/MINI suspensions are so easy compared to some others that I have worked on!

 

Thanks - put that way, it does seem like a good approach. I'll start looking into it and see what I can make of it. It's going to require an interesting set of compromises to work on the range of roads I use. That could be fun but expensive

 

Can people with the Alta 22" sway bar post pictures? I feel like mine is hitting the undercarriage and wondering if my car is too low.

 

I feel the opposite....with the Alta 22mm sway bar on the center setting I feel the car is way more predictable and I feel much more confident pushing the car to its limits.