power steering lock up ?

[maxmini]

Interesting development during some hard canyon driving this afternoon. After about 30 min of constant left and right turns the power steering started to act as if it was totally gone. I thought perhaps i over heated it as I have heard about on some track minis and when i opened the hood expected to see it boiloing over from the reservoir. It was not the case and everything appeared to be normal. I let cool for a few min and then drove off . After about 5 min it did it again. This time i waited for about ten min and drove slowly the rest of the way off the mountain with no reacurance. Outside temp was about 80 degrees and i was glued to the bumper of the Europeon Car SL 600 twin turbo test Mercedes at the time Much fun until the steering glitch. Any ideas guys ?

[Leadfootlen]

I had a similar problem when I was (dont laugh) teaching my girlfriend manouvers (she is learning to drive) in my mcs in a car park.(Dont trust her anywhere else!) After about an hour of non stop parallel parking the power steering packed up. We would wait a few mins and it started again.
I assumed it was just overuse as ive never had this problem whilst driving.

[maxmini]

And I thought I was the brave one running the mountain You get the award mister ! Yes it sounds like the same thing, over worked and then cools down and is ok. I have had the car a ywar tho and this is the first time . It was one of the more extreme workouts tho but there should be some way we can get more use out of the steering system before it locks up. Anybody out there have some ideas? Like your quote by the way. I should send that into the guys that built my radar detector/ laser jammer system. Could bcome the company motto !

[Leadfootlen]

Thanks , She wasnt too bad although I have given up now. Let the pros take over, they must have soooooooooooo much patients, I could never be a driving instructor.

Mines going back to BMW next week for yet more warrentee work, I will mention it see what ideas they come up with.

TTFN

[Tonyt3]

Quote: Originally Posted by maxmini

Interesting development during some hard canyon driving this afternoon. After about 30 min of constant left and right turns the power steering started to act as if it was totally gone. I thought perhaps i over heated it as I have heard about on some track minis and when i opened the hood expected to see it boiloing over from the reservoir. It was not the case and everything appeared to be normal. I let cool for a few min and then drove off . After about 5 min it did it again. This time i waited for about ten min and drove slowly the rest of the way off the mountain with no reacurance. Outside temp was about 80 degrees and i was glued to the bumper of the Europeon Car SL 600 twin turbo test Mercedes at the time Much fun until the steering glitch. Any ideas guys ?

I thought the power steering 'pump' was actually an electric motor on the Mini? I'm sure it is.... my wife had to have hers replaced under warranty earlier this year. You could barely move the wheels at very low speed, but was OK once you got the car going, just a little stiff...

[sjbartnik]

The pump is an electric motor, but it's still a hydraulic fluid pump and otherwise the MINI power steering system is the same as a conventional system.

Symptoms like those described above by maxmini are indicative of overheating power steering fluid. That the problem went away after the steering system was allowed to cool down reinforces that diagnosis.

Some cars that are set up for track or race use fit power steering fluid coolers to keep this kind of thing from happening -- maybe that should be an aftermarket mod for the MINI

Most street cars don't have such things because street driving almost never gets the power steering fluid hot enough to cause a problem. However, high speed canyon driving on a warm day with lots of steering action apparently can do the trick
Those engineers didn't count on people driving the MINI that way on the street, apparently.

[maxmini]

Just got word from a sponsor that something is in the works and should be available after the SEMA show. Will post news as soon as I am allowed,Randy

[Johnboy]

After 3 weeks of sitting idle on the roadside whilst I was on holiday (during the summer), my pump has got noisier, and I too have virtually lost all power steering below 5mph.
Glad to see it's not just me whose had this though!

Interesting regarding overheating - Do you think this only happens on cars with the wider profile tyres, or on all of them?

I'd like to know what people think causes "low speed only" failure. I'm guessing it must be corrosion of something, or sediment blocking something up?

[maxmini]

The wider tires could certainly be a factor.I am running 215/45's on 8 inch rimms. It only happened that one run and will be fixed in the next month or so I am not considering it as a big deal at the moment in my paritcular case anyway.

[Johnboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by maxmini

The wider tires could certainly be a factor.I am running 215/45's on 8 inch rimms. It only happened that one run and will be fixed in the next month or so I am not considering it as a big deal at the moment in my paritcular case anyway.

Yeah - I know what you mean! I'm just waiting for my fault to be a little less intermittent before I take it in - Otherwise i'll just have to keep going back! I've discovered in the last week it only happens at low speeds.

I did wonder if all the testing was done with skinny tyres, and the wider profile just tipped it over.

I read in an old post a reference to a "power steering pump fan" - I take it that's a "red herring" and the only form of cooling would be the fluid reservoir?

[maxmini]

When you lose the power steering pump fan you also lose the radiator fan as they are on the same fuse (: Trust me if you lose that your problem will not be intermittant. We are talking about a over heat situation here as it goes away when it is allowed to cool even for a few min. This is differant than some of the other steering related problems I have seen. In any event a fix is on the way as far as cooling the system goes.

[sjbartnik]

maxmini and johnboy are right, the power steering fan is sort of a red herring in this case. The power steering fan is apparently designed to cool the pump motor itself, and not the power steering fluid. So it seems that to avoid fluid overheating in extreme situations you would need an add-on power steering fluid cooler (a little radiator for the power steering fluid).