IMPORTANT. Have you had a power steering pump failure? Please vote YES or NO!!!

[tadlaj]

Quote: Originally Posted by tadlaj (original)

On the way home from work 2 days ago I attempted to turn right on a roundabout and my '53 mini cooper s wanted to go straight ahead! At first I thought I had a flat tyre so I manhandled the car to a layby (not easy with 18" wheels for a nine stone female!) and checked tyre pressures. They were ok so got back in car, reversed and the steering came back. All was ok till today when i came out of shops and its gone again! Limped home and steering hasn't come back since. Checked fluid level thanks to help from this site! (No thanks to the handbook).Level ok so a trip to the dealer tomorrow by the looks of it. Car has only done 42,000 miles so hoping to get the parts paid for at least (again thanks to the posts on this website!). I'm just glad this didn't happen when I was doing any decent speed and trying to turn!

Update on the power steering failure. It was the pump, booked into dealer, mentioned how common a problem it seemed to be and they said they would submit a "goodwill" form and see if mini would pay anything towards the repair. Picked up the car today and the parts have been paid for ( a not insignificent £500!!!). Only charged for labour and fluid. Came in at a more respectabe £88.

[oldnell]

Good result, Tadlaj. Your dealer sounds like a good one -- care to name them?

Parts should be a good bit less than that -- £300 or so, as I recall.

Oli

[MINIdriver85]

This summer I got a three minutes blackout of the power steering. I was on a narrow street, it was very tight and I spent more or less twenty minutes parking and unparking as I was trying every spot I found, but none were big enough for my mini one. So the result was three minutes (more or less) of rock hard steering wheel, it was three months ago and no problem since then...I guess I overheated the pump that night...however, do you think wise to have it checked at a dealer? And possibly changed?

[woodnut22]

Ok, steering pump failed on my wife while in a corner she ended up stacking my MCS 03 and bending the wishbone. Are BMW recognising this as a safety fault as seems like way to many occurences of this failure for them to ignore.

Really appreciate any feedback from anyone who has tried to go back yo BMW on it.

[tadlaj]

I think by the way the dealer didn't quibble about submitting the goodwill form and how quickly bmw coughed up for the parts they must know the power steering pump is a major problem and they are basically just riding their luck and hoping no one gets hurt! The dealer was Menzies of Stirling but have had problems in the past with them over repairs to a z3 under extended warranty and wasn't hopeful with the mini so was happy with the result.

[Kinghighpoobob]

Well here is my fun filled story. I was a proud owner of a fully loaded (all packages) '05 Mini Cooper-S 6-speed. While traversing a particularly windy road, i was confident that my mini would have no problem, i apparently was wrong. coming into a moderately sharp 90 degree turn with a minor bank in my favor, i thought everything was going smoothly as all the previous turns had. Posted speedlimit on the road is 35 mind you. i was traveling at around 25-30 MPH tops. Once halfway through the turn my car seemd to stop its turning driving me off the road, up a hill which i proceeded to roll back down, just not on my wheels. Both sides + roof of my mini hit pavement, all side windows shattered, windshield toast, and sunroof gone. By the fate of god i wasnt thrown off the other side of the road and down the cliff. now to me it would seem that this could be a power steering failure beacsue i had been making all previous turns before this fated one. there was no excessive speeding, there was dry roads with a slight bank in my favor. At the time i had no knowledge of this extreme problem. Input? does it seem like it would be my power steering pulling its random deactivations. I mean if they are going out on straight highways, taking turns puts more pressure on the pump and thus higher chance of deactivating.

[rocky79]

Another story to add to this very long list -

Bought my 04 MIni Cooper S about a month ago privately, 30k on the clock. Had a full RAC check done on it, the didnt pick anything major up and noted that the steering fluid level was low, but not dangerously low and they hadnt spotted any leaks even after the test drive. Advised I may want to get it checked but at the time it didnt seem like a deal breaker.

Had been driving the car for a couple of weeks and checked the oil level and thought while I was at it to check the other fluid levels, I noticed the Power steering fluid level was very low, decided to take it into Mini just to be safe .

They confirmed it was the steering rack, a seal had gone and it need to be replaced. I asked if the RAC could have spotted this and they said they wouldnt as it was sealed within in a boot so no fluid would have come out, and they wouldnt have checked this anyway.

Bill - £858 pounds - the did a good will claim and ive just been told they will pay 100% parts, 50% labour - so its about £158 now - so not a bad result considering and the Mini bloke said that was a good result as often they dont pay the labour.

Pick the car up tomorrow - was Mini Oxford and so far they have been very good, so well done to them.

[CobraV8]

We purchased a 2002 MCS just over two weeks ago. 1 week later - and I came home to find a strong smell in the garage. My wife thought she had overheated the clothes dryer. It turns out - that the power steering pump had melted itself, along with the wires attached to it. So... next morning there was no power steering at all. Wife is not happy, and now a but nervous about the car. The car is still being repaired, so currently the garage has had it longer than we have.

[CobraV8]

Quote: Originally Posted by MINIMANIAUK (original)

This may be of help for the cooper S owners, it gets more cooling air into the fan,not that expensive -around £45 , -in stock !!!! easy to fit item ,only 4 screws and about 5 mins to fit,certainly cheaper and easier than a new pump replacement-send me a PM if you would like me to send you one
regards Adam

Can you post a part number for this? I am in New Zealand, and would like to get one of these for my wifes car.

[Loulou13_123]

On Tuesday (27th November 2007) the power steering on my car ceased up, only allowing me to steer straight on. I phoned my Mini/BMW Dealership on Wednesday who informed me that they would need the car in so that they could diagnose the problem. I also spoke with another dealership where I bought my first Mini from and they told me that there was no fix for this problem and that Mini were aware of it.

The car was taken by Mini on Wednesday afternoon and I heard nothing back from them until Thursday afternoon when they told me that the power steering pump had gone and the bill for the same would be £619.00. After reading the various threads on this site I refused to pay this knowing that this was a problem that Mini should be sorting out and asked for a goodwill gesture. They e-mailed Mini the same day with my request and got back to me this morning (Friday 30 November). I am pleased to say that I had a good result and Mini have agreed to pay for the part and 50% towards my labour which gives me a two year warranty on the new pump (the warranty is due to me paying a contribution towards the same). The car has ended up costing £160 instead of the £619 they quoted.

If you have this problem, be persistent.

[Ceej]

December 5, 2007, the power steering went out on my wife's Mini Cooper S (I believe it's a 2004; about 39000 miles). Fortunately it didn't happen while she was moving. She got it home, and in fact it started working again after the car was parked. Anyway, it went to the dealer (Niello Mini in Sacramento, California, USA) this morning. They diagnosed it as a failed power steering pump, which they replaced. Fortunately this was under warranty, so no cost to us. The pump also has a two-year warranty of its own, starting from now.

I grilled the service tech a bit about the issue, and he said he was aware of certain reports of the pumps either running down the battery or very rarely causing melting or fires - although in his opinion the latter is an extremely rare occurrence, not indicative of a design failure. I was a bit concerned because a couple weeks ago, the cigarette lighter in the car also stopped working - they replaced the fuse today. Two electrical problems that close together made me worry a bit about a more serious short somewhere. Anyway, he believes that was coincidental.

So, fingers crossed, this isn't the start of anything!

[paulGC]

I have had what appears to be a power stering failure.The steering-wheel becomes extremely difficult to turn. The strange thing is that if one turns the ignition off and then on a few times the steering appears to come back, but mine is progressively getting worse. And worse still is myu Mini Cooper S is an 02 model and no more warranty left. I intend to use this thread as proof that Mini definitely have a problem but are just not telling anyone about it !!

[curenz]

Just had the power steering pump replaced on my 04 MCS Works with 27000 miles. Replaced for free on my Mini Cherished warranty.

[NeuroBeaker]

Some time ago, I had previously voted on this thread to say that I had never had a power steering failure. However, I now must report that I've had two failures in the last week and one about a month ago (although at the time I hadn't realised what it was).

Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to modify my previous vote - so this post will have to suffice as my report.

My Car:

• March 2004 MINI ONE
• Collection date: 26th March 2004
• Warranty expired: 25th March 2007
• Miles covered: ~42,700

Failure One (~1 month ago):

• Car parked facing uphill on the road outside my house.
• Early morning: started the car, power steering whines as normal and I drive off.
• Less than half a mile from home, I'm straightening up after a right hand turn onto a main road (accelerating briskly from stationary) and the steering goes very heavy! The car tried to steer itself up onto the pavement but I yanked the wheel around to get it into the lane as intended. In the excitement, I didn't notice whether the power steering whine disappeared throughout this.
• After a few moments and the odd tentative wiggle of the steering wheel (trying to figure out if I'd blown a curb-side tyre or something), the car behaved exactly as normal. I assumed I'd run over an odd ridge in the road or something and carried on.
• Ambient air temperature: ~3 degrees Celsius.
• Car condition: cold.
• Speed: ~10-12mph.

Failure Two (~1 week ago):

• Car parked facing uphill on the road outside my house.
• Mid-evening: started the car, power steering whines as normal and I drive off.
• Less than 300 yards from home, I'm driving down a residential street and steering right around a parked car. The steering again goes very heavy! Having experienced a similar feel to the steering wheel before, I pull over and check the condition of my tyres - all seems normal.
• I get back in the car (no switch off and restart) and drive on a little ways. Steering now seems normal and I continue on my journey. Again, I didn't notice any lack of power steering whine throughout this.
• Ambient air temperature: ~0 degrees Celsius.
• Car condition: not hot, but warm (had been driven home from work ~45 minutes before this happened).
• Speed: ~20mph

Failure Three (tonight):

• Car parked on even ground in Sainsbury's car park.
• Mid-evening: started the car and drive towards car park exit.
• After approximately 50 yards, I make a right turn and the steering goes very heavy when completing the turn. I wiggle the steering wheel a little and it is definitely very heavy steering in both directions. After a few twitches of the wheel, steering returns as normal.
• Ambient air temperature: ~ -3 degrees Celsius
• Car condition: hot, had been driven into the car park less than 10 minutes previously.
• Speed: ~10mph

After reading a few comments on the site about people ending up in hedges, losing control on roundabouts, or nearly driving off cliffs - I've become extremely concerned about this issue!! After reading a little about the symptoms people describe with the power steering (notably, it's complete and sometimes catastrophic failure), I'm now convinced there is a problem with the power steering pump on my March 2004 MINI ONE. Therefore, I have decided the car will go to the dealer tomorrow morning for an inspection.

Having seen here how widespread this problem is, when it is diagnosed I will request that the dealer get in contact with MINI to request their assistance in rectifying this known problem with the power steering pump. I may print out a copy of this thread to show to my dealer should they be reluctant to contact MINI on my behalf.

Wish me luck!
Andrew.

[Jammy Dodger]

Mine power steering failed last Tuesday (12.18.07). 2002 MCS. Has anyone got any help from MINI of Peabody on this matter? This should definietely be a recall!