Hey all I just bought my first Mini and I seem to have run into a problem, as displayed in the pictures below my rear left wheel is a couple inches lower than the rest of my wheels and the ride is a little rough. I'm thinking a bad shock or strut? Any help is appreciated!

 

How many miles?

First thing to do is get both rear wheels off and see what you have for rear shocks and springs - aftermarket or stock. Could be anything from a broken spring, broken spring mount, or adjustable height coilovers with one side mis-adjusted.

Get a pair of jackstands so you can work on the car safely with both rear wheels off the ground.

 

166,000 miles and from what I can see the springs and shocks are definitely stock, I'll get her up on jacks though and see what I can figure out. Thanks!

 

You might make sure your sway bar end links are still attached while your down there.
The rear shocks are super easy to replace if that turns out to be the issue. A telltale sign would be oil all over the shock body.
Does it ride harsh or does it seem loose and bouncy?

 

At 166000 you definiteley need new suspension components to bring your minis handling back to life. Oem will give you a nice ride and decent handling or you could just upgrade the shocks to konis and keep the old springs for a stiffer feel but not as harsh of a ride. If you plan to do any spirited driving I would definiteley reccomend upgraded shocks and some higher rate springs or an adjustable coilover setup. If you're looking for decent affordable coilovers you might check out the bc racing BR series. I dropped an inch in the front and almost 2 in the back and the handling is completely different now. They're pretty stiff but the adjustability is awesome and I've been running mine hard on the streets around 200 mi a day for over 3 months without a single issue.
"I constantly travel for work so 200 is an avg"
This is what they looked like installed out of the box with no adjustment.

This is after raising the back a bit for tire clearance and dropping the front a 1/4 in.

 

It wouldn't hurt to check all corners of the car. The stock shocks and springs are black, many of the aftermarket parts are colored.

You could also pop the hatch, and bounce the rear corners with your knee. See if both sides feel similar, or if one side is noisy.

Have fun,
Mike

 

All really good suggestions guys, especially on the replacements, but I'm looking at the 1" plus difference in height left vs. right. The spring provides the support, the "shock" is a damper to damp the oscillations of the spring compressing/extending. So for the shock to affect the ride height, it would have to be stuck either compressed or extended.

Zechariah, where are you located? At 10+ years and 166K, if you have snowy winters with salt on the roads, I'd bet on rust and a failed spring or spring perch on the shock body.

Definitely check sway bar endlinks and sway bar bushings while you're at it, probably both due for replacement. Check out our forum vendors for replacement parts when you have your shopping list ready.

 

+1 check those things above and check out the upper rear shock mount, see if the foam insert is saggy or smooshed more on one side.

 

Hey all thanks for the replies and and advice I really appreciate it! I got the car up on stands and although there was a small amount of rust on the strut tower nothing was visibly wrong that I could tell with the strut tower or any of the other suspension components. I bought a complete rear strut assembly off eBay and installed it earlier and the ride is evened out and back where it should be. I'm still not 100% sure what the cause was (spring or shock) but the entire assembly fixed the issue whatever it may have been! Thanks again for all the help guys!