hello out there, i've had my mini about 8 months and its a little cracker lucky enough to have brought it off my old dear and she brought it from new back in 2001 so i have one of the 1st she spec it up as much as she could apart from reversing sensors thank good!!! so needless to say it has been well looked after garaged for 9 years only managed to clock up 23000 miles much to my delight

i have enjoyed driving her as she came out of the shop and it has been fun but i can't help but keep look at her and thinking it needed something so i have ordered some new wheels and dropped her by 30mm on on h&r springs ( i did want eibach but they are discontinued for the R50 01-02


) but the h&r's feel nice however when the front passenger side shock came off the bearing case had cracked managed to get the shock back in so went looking for a front strut mount and the one i got shown didn't really look like the one that came off does anyone know if the has been a modification to these? and i also 2 noises coming from my drivers side wheel ( there b4 i lowered it ) one is a skwelching sound and the other is a grinding has this happened to anyone else if so can you help?? and i'm looking to get a new exhaust but only from the cat back i have a place local which is where i was going to go so i have some where to go back to or would someone recommend i buy of the shelve if so which one??
Thanks for reading hope you can help
i'll include a pic of her for now this is her out the box but a bit dirty i'm afraid
i'll add one when i have my new wheels on 27/1 is the day i have booked