front subframe bushes

[Matt~Attude]

hi all, going to put a new front subframe in soon and im considering a solid mounting kit for it, i currently have a mixture lol i have standard floor mounts poly top mounts and the front is solid as i have strut bars cos its flip fronted.
has anyone had any experience with the solid mounting?
i shut imagine it would transfer alot of vibration into the car?
what effect would the floor mounts have on the floor ie stress, cracks?
where does the mot stand on them?
or is it best to go poly bushes?
cheers matt

[Miniböttcher]

i would not use solid, like you said alot of vibration and your may rip your floor unless to strengthen it, due to the amount of torque you engine gives, it must want to twist backwards under accelertion

go poly. you need something to take up some of that vibration.

on the mk1 i have gone for all standard except the bushes which came with the geomety kit, but saying that the mk1 is solid mounted as standard any way.

word of warning never buy the rear subframe bushed they dont compress enought to get the bolts in for the rear heel pan
and also the engine mount are i pile of poo.

[Matt~Attude]

was reading the other day about bushes on the mini forum and someone said about poly bushing the floor mount and solid mounting the top mount giving it stiffness but also reducing vibration through the floor
sounds abit like it could work, what do you recon?
matt

[Simon1275mpi]

Hi Matt, good to see you project is coming along nicely.

Depends what your after, track? Solid all round. That subframe moves a lot, locking it down sharpens up the steering a surprising amount. But you need ear plugs and dentures as your teeth will fall out.

Road warrior? Poly only on the towers to stop it moving side to side. Supprise even how much noise vibration these transfer! I'm with dean, stick with rubber on the floor mounts, I always broke one every few seasons, but that was preferred to new floor pans.

A single poly bush on the tie rod, tie rod side, stops the car wiggling so much under braking. You want rubber on the other side. A lot of advice from minispares about that. The bottle arm bushes also benefit from it with adjustable tierods. Get it all setup and ubber sharp steering.

Have a play with the rear subframe to, that moves around and rear steers the car just as much as the front.

Daily drive? (Thinking of the majority of owners) Original rubber all round. If you bash the curb etc its only a rubber bush to replace, not welding. Plus it's so much quieter. A lot of road noise/vibration is absorbed by the standard rubber. Hence near all standard production cars use the more expensive rubber and not cheap poly.

But all these mods are the sacrifice of comfort and increased wear and tear. Something has to give when you drive it hard, if its not rubber it going to be metal failure and more expensive.

Moral of the story, do what you want and find out for yourself. subframe bushes are cheap and easy mod that takes less than an afternoon to swap it all around again.

Enjoy!

[MiniGT5]

Did this on my Cooper as your supposed to solid mount the subframe with a flip front and solid brace bars.

I ended up ripping the front floor pan. I had to brace it in the end with 5mm sheet steel.

N.

[Stephen]

I've had a solid mounted subframe for years and never had a single problem. Didn't make it noticeably noisier either.

Maybe I've just been the odd one out...

[MiniGT5]

I never noticed the noise increase

Although it probably split becuase my shell already was rusty and had 125K on the clock, the floor split after 25K at 150K miles

Stephen how many miles have you done in yours since fitting them?

N

[Simon1275mpi]

Apr 22, 2010 11:53:05 GMT Stephen said:

I've had a solid mounted subframe for years and never had a single problem. Didn't make it noticeably noisier either.

Maybe I've just been the odd one out...

Erm, how many miles in those years Stephen...? ;D

[Stephen]

Not a clue, prob about 8-10,000. My shell is relatively sound though and the floors are excellent.