This might have been covered before? On my 05 S there is an electric fan in a vent housing. Why is it there? Thanks!

The power steering fan is below the engine

Why, and what could a 4" fan possibly do? There is nothing above it but the starter and behind it the steering rack.

It is the power steering fan, but I don't think it does much. Put it this way, mine hasn't worked in years (too lazy to fix it) and I (touch woood) have not had any problems.

I would question the effectiveness of the fan anyway seeing as it's not really in a proper cowling and all it would be doing is drawing hot air from teh engine bay.


Cheers,

Dave

Why, and what could a 4" fan possibly do? There is nothing above it but the starter and behind it the steering rack.

Directly above the fan at the rear of the engine is the electro-hydraulic power steering pump (not starter), the fan should only cut in under high underbonnet temperature conditions, usually when the second stage speed of the main coolant radiator/air con fan comes on.

The 4" PS fan is only fitted to the Cooper S in the UK market because of the higher underbonnet temperatures reached by the supercharged engine, also the larger 17" wheel/wide tyres combinations usually fitted to these models make the EHPS pump work much harder/hotter particularly when parking.

The fan was also fitted to the One and Cooper but only in the hotter climate export markets.

A special ducting kit is available from MiniMania to improve the fan cooling of the PS pump here:
MINI Cooper - POWER STEERING FAN DUCTING OEM - R50/52/53 MINI CO - new.MiniMania.com (http://new.minimania.com/web/Item/NME7640/InvDetail.cfm)

Oh ok then it draws air out from under the engine through the duct to the front of the car. Thanks!

It was also fitted to any automatic mini which had ac.