Sharing some findings that will hopefully help others.

I have a 2013 Mini Copper with 97kkm and have been chasing a weird issue on the passenger side front suspension.

When you push hard on the top of the front wheel while the car is on the ground, you feel a slight movement and a click. The top strut mount is good so I suspected it was the lower inner ball joint that’s pressed into the control arm.

My mechanic put the car on the lift and assessed they the ball joints were fine but there was something unusual with strut or strut bearing.

The strut was removed and it was clear it was blown - there was a section where the chrome plating wore off and surely destroyed the strut seal and bushing causing some play.

I asked how this could happen - manufacturing defect?

So so I elected to replace both front struts and top mounts/bushings.

the drivers strut was fine but I wanted it replaced as well. I’m glad I did as upon closer inspection I noticed it was also going to suffer the same fate. There was a blemish on the strut shaft as well. Wtf?? I’ve owned a few German cars and no way this type of would be specd as OEM. The struts were made in the UK by BWI - garbage. There should be a recall on these due to the poor manufacturing practices.

Ill post a picture of the other strut shaft as well. It seem s these shafts were reworked before chroming, but the. Rework is rough. Utter crap. The new Sachs strut shafts were silky smooth.

These should have been recalled.

You can see in the photos the blemish on the shaft (from the other strut still functional) what seems to be from some manufacturing process - the surface is not super smooth to the touch - wtf - why would this be allowed on this car as mini OEM?

Just a matter of time before it fails.