[jhwh]

Hi, anyone else experienced the electric servo just going off?

I was attending the scuderia hanseat at the nurburgring and we were on the GP track, they had also put a slalom course on the straights (was actually fun)

i was done with the slalom, fast right, fast right, sharp slow right... then bam... car wouldnt turn and I went straight thru some cones at low speed... car running, no lights... but NO SERVO... hmm I try to stop, restart.. nahh still no servo..stop car wait 1 min.. start.. yay! servo.. so I start driveing back to pit.. bam no servo again so I muschel myself around some more turns and have about 200meters left when.. yay servo is back, since then it has also been working, but haveing no servo on a 170degrees turn was not fun, especially not fun since I had hot streetlegal slicks which didn't make turning any easier.

it was very hot that day, and I suspect the left-right-left-right etc highspeed slalom just overheated and some protection kicked in?

as a bonus I did win the event! 944 2nd place and 997S in 3rd (95% porsches in the group)
it was the only place on the track I could gain something as I didn't have enough camber for the turns and not enough power for the straights.

[Tonyt3]

I would suggest you have a dodgy electrical connection, and the increased 'G' caused by the slalom course highlighted an issue that you didnt previously know you had.

The electrical connection that causes these problems is right down under neath and often gets corroded, leading to failure of the power steering.

[Al]

The schematic in the Hanes manual doesn't show any thermal protection. but that doesn't mean it's not in there somewhere.

If you find out from MINI, please let us know.

[greyghost2004]

We have had several cars ,mine included ,overheat the steering servo pump on hot days with lots of tight turns in the canyons. Additionally about 30 minis went to a track event last summer and about 5 of those had problems as well. Just by stopping and letting ti cool down they were able to continue. The funny thing is no one had their servo fluid bottles overflow .

Mark

[jhwh]

ahh thanks greyghost! knowing others have it is good.

however its not good it happend, I almost crashed!

imagine if this happend at 200

[greyghost2004]

No problem . I do recall that when it happened to me you got about one turn warning. In the middle of a left , right , left sequence you would get one turn where it would start to feel tight . Before you can say " what the hell " your opower steering assist was gone.The wheel still moved as you know but it was very difficult. I do not want anyone to think the wheel locks and you cant move it as that is not the case. It is just VERY hard to move.

Mark