Power Steering goes out, high speed fan and power steering fan aren't staying on.

[Niko]

Hey guys. I noticed my power steering stopped working the other day after sitting in traffic. That was the second time it had gone out. On the other hand, it has been fine. I've driven from NY to MA without any power steering issues, probably because the wind was cooling the pump.

I tested my power steering fan by turning the AC on. The power steering fan spins along with the high speed fan. They spin for about 5 seconds, then turn off for a little while. Then they kick in again for about 5 seconds and turn off again. They repeat the process.

I've checked some fuses and they looked good. The only fuse that's missing is a 30 amp under the hood. The icon looks like it would be a windshield defrost. I don't know if that's supposed to be there, or if it's for an option that my car doesn't have.

The issue must lie within whatever keeps the high speed fan on. Anyone have any ideas on what I can check? I didn't check ALL the fuses, so perhaps I checked the wrong ones. If it is a fuse, however, wouldn't the high speed fan not turn on at all? I'm not 100% sure if my low speed fan works. I will turn the car on and see if it kicks on in a little bit

EDIT: I'm wondering if the power steering fan is even coming on at all. Should it run while the car is idling? Should I drive it around for a while, then get under to see if it's spinning? I'm going to look out for that and the low speed fan coming on in a little bit. As I mentioned earlier, both the power steering fan and high speed fan come on for a few seconds at a time while the AC is on, so they can both physically spin.

[mab01uk]

Some useful information which may help in this recent thread on this topic :-
http://www.mini2.com/forum/faults-fi...iator-fan.html

[Niko]

Quote: Originally Posted by mab01uk (original)

Some useful information which may help in this recent thread on this topic :-

Thank you sir. So it seems the fan is the culprit. Looks like I'm going to have to shell out a bit of cash to replace it. I guess the days of $20 Honda fans are over, .

[oldmots]

The radiator fan is two speeds. The way it works is that the voltage supply is always battery voltage, but the voltage for low speed is routed by the body processor through a big ceramic core resistor on the back of the fan housing under a cover called "gate". The high speed circuit bypasses this resistor and turns the fan faster. The resistor is poorly spec'd for its function and fails, causing the fan to lose the low speed but still work on high speed, but the resistor is soldered in and only comes with a new fan assembly. This is pretty sneaky of Mini, the resistor is a $10 part. If you know about resistors, you could buy one that can handle the load and install it yourself. Things like this are very aggravating from an experienced manufacturer, the fan design guy must have been an accountant, not an engineer.