Power steering failure that ended up on fire

[Anagomes13]

Hello everybody!

I was one of the bad luck ones to whom this incident happened...

My Cooper's power steering pump failed and started a fire.

From what I've seen under the car seems that the pump got on fire and burnt the plastic and the wires. Although the vision from upwards it is everything in black.

Here are some pictures of it:





The car is now at BMW/MINI dealer and I am waiting for diagnosis and costs...

[mab01uk]

If the PS cable harness or connector is burnt or damaged it can be easily removed from a scrap MINI (or replaced with a new harness) as it is only about 2 feet long with just 2 wires in it, only attached with cable ties (easily cut to get the loom out) and the other end, 1 wire is plugged into the bottom of the engine bay fuse box (the box is secured by 2 x 8mm headed bolts, remove them and the box lifts enough to unplug the connector) the other wire is bolted to a earth point on the chassis rail under the fuse box... (they are really thick cables, and carry alot of current so not worth trying to splice into your existing loom.) even a novice should be able to remove and refit this cable in around 20 minutes.

What year and mileage is your Mini?

More:
Power Steering Pump replacement - Forums

[Anagomes13]

Hi.

Thank you for your help.

My Cooper is from 02/2003 and the mileage is 61.000 kms or about 37.903 miles.

I am not very certain in my dealer assuming any responsability :-( which is really sad if it happens so much...

Anyway thank you for your attention.