I had some repairs done on my car after an accident. The right rear wheel of the car slammed into the curb during the accident and has had most of the suspension components in that area replaced. The body shop replaced the tie rod, bearing, but not the cv joint. When I picked up the car on Friday and drove it home, I could hear some creaking coming from the right rear, especially during right turns, although the sound is audible sometimes while driving in a straight line.
Today I was driving and made a stop at the store, got back in the car and the flat tire light and DSC light were both on. I checked the tire pressure. I checked the DSC module under the hood - not hot.
So I headed home and both lights went off after about 2 miles.

Any insight into the origin of this weirdness?

 

take the car either to the dealer and have the body shop pick up the bill or back to the body shop. the creaking noise i would be willing to be is the right rear trailing arm bushing and the bolt that goes through the center of the bushing. it is common for this bolt not to get tightened all the way. not to say it is loose enough to fall out but the torque on those bolts is 165 newton meters. and if they are not torqued proprly they will still be loose and make noise just like what your explaining.

the two lights on are most likely the steering angle sensor. if the shop disconnected the steering column from the steering rack and the wheel was turned and reconnected to the rack with out reallocating the steering angle sensor it can casue this problem.

 

I took the car to the dealer on Monday, about 2 hours after I posted initially because I couldn't stand it.
They're still looking at the car, and I just got a message from the service advisor about the sway bar... they wanted to put in a stock one to replace it. Their assessment of the car thus far has been that the cause of the noise was the rear sway bar (aftermarket Alta 19mm), which apparently was damaged in the accident. So, I will undoubtedly be upgrading to the Alta 22mm bar...

As for the two lights MINI has said it may be due to the poor alignment it had while at the body shop. When the car is aligned, the steering angle sensor needs to be reset appropriately, which the shop has admitted it did not do.

Thanks bryan1970, I told the body shop and MINI to check the trailing arm bushing. And you were dead-on about the lights.

 

I also get a creak in the rear (mostly right side). I suspect it's the swaybar bushing in need for grease. It could also be the endlink. When my friend replaced his on his '89 MR2, the stock endlinks could not take the extra force and clashed/creaked quite a bit until he replaced them.

 

MINI called and said they can only replace the swaybar with the stock one. For the low, low price of $700!