More of a rant than useful information.
Earlier this year we were engaged in a dicussion regarding odd creaking noise eminating from the front struts while turning at low speeds. One user had pointed out that they had replaced their top front strut mounts with OE / Lemforder. Only to have them begin to fail @ 6k miles. At that time, I too had begun to experience noise and failure from my 20k + mi, Saches top strut mounts. I purchased and replaced them with pair of Lemforders @101,184 mi.
Eight months and 7k mi later the Lemforder top mounts have begun to fail making a that all too familiar unsettling, creaking/groaning noise.
Lemforder = Never Again!!!

 

This appears to be a problem across all brands of strut mounts. I have Monroe QuickStrut assemblies on the front and they do the same thing - but only when it's cold. Warm? Not a sound. It's fortunate that I live in Texas so for most of the year there's no sound but right now? It's driving me crazy. This must have something to do with the transverse mounted engine/weight and the poor strut tower design in MINIs.