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2003 Cooper S Power Steering Fix and subsequent dealer issues

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  SeanC 
#1 ·
2003 Mini Cooper S

Power steering pump went last year. Car would be off and the pump would continue running, draining the battery. Had to disconnect the battery so it didn't die.

Car was still under extended warranty recall in the US but not where I'm from, Canada. Called around to a few places, spent a few hours on the phone, and they agreed to fix it under extended warranty in Canada.

Fixed last December at a local dealer. I don't drive it in the winter so it was in storage. Take it out on the road this spring and after 50 km, PS stops working again.

Call dealership. They will look and fix it under the warranty process again as long as I didn't cause the problem.

Bring it to dealer for Friday AM appointment, leave keys in drop box. Call Friday afternoon to see what's up. No one checked the drop box that morning.

So it's now there all weekend. Pick it up today (Tuesday). I'm given a $250 bill for diagnostics and to reconnect a loose battery cable.

Ummmm?

When they fixed it the first time, would they not have to take the battery cable off in order to stop the PS pump from running while the car was off? My thinking is that the dealer left this cable loose.

Dealer said it was an unrelated issue. That the battery cable being loose from the battery caused the power steering to fail this time. And they have a special machine to cut all the power from the car without disconnecting the battery.

I can not remember the day back in December if I disconnected the battery when I parked it in their lot. I would lean to that I did, not knowing when a mechanic would pick it up, and therefore avoiding a dead battery if they did not get to it until later in the day.

So, essentially the issue is a $250 bill for 2 hours of labour to reconnect a battery cable.

My questions:

1) How does a loose battery cable start the car, power the engine, etc., yet not run the power steering pump?

2) Does BMW/Mini have this magical wizarding wand that cuts all battery power to everything when they connect it to the car?

3) Can I do anything here or do I just have to bite my lip and let the powers that be win this round?

Sorry this kind of sounds like a rant, but it just seems like very shady actions by the dealer. I wonder if the loose battery cable claim is just there to cover up another issue that they found but would have had to have fallen under a warranty fix.
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like you'll need to bite the bullet this time. Once bitten, twice shy and all that jazz!

Best thing to do is to buy a manual if you haven't already got one and familiarise yourself with the cars mechanicals as this can save hundreds of bucks on repair bills. The Generation 1's are fairly simple cars and easy enough to work on even for amateurs with a basic tool kit

I don't know anything about BMW having a tool to isolate the battery without disconnecting it but when you picked the car up the first time around the tell tail sign to have noticed that the battery was disconnected would have been that your trip computer/ clock/ mpg memory etc would have been reset ;)
 
#3 ·
Just needed to vent maybe :)

My dad and I do a lot of work to our own cars. And he's good friends with a mechanic who has his own shop.

Just this BS about a loose battery cable, which they would have had to take off when originally replacing the warranty PS motor pump, as an excuse to be able to charge me for the service, ground my gears.
 
#5 ·
Frustrating it is buddy and on this occasion it has cost you hard cash. Maybe a bit of regular inspections on your part could have spotted this loose terminal and you could have addressed it sooner rather than a year after the work was done?

All my cars get a visual inspection once a week and this includes all fluids, tyre psi, lights and a visual check under the hood to make sure everything is in order ie hoses/ clips etc and every 3 months my cars are subject to a more detailed inspection which consists of checking the underside ie balljoints/ cv joints/ brakes etc

This might sound extreme but my day job involves vehicle maintenance on a bigger scale and regular inspections is just natural for me plus I like to know my cars are fit and healthy and more importantly reliable!

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#6 ·
That is a very thorough check-list you do!

I try to keep my car in top shape, and usually do. Just feel like that isn't the issue here.

I brought the car out of storage in December to just get the pump fixed. It failed again after sitting 4 months in storage and then 80 km's of road driving.

This seems like a connected issue, and definitely is, because they would have had to take the battery cable off to disable the PS pump from spinning. I wrongly assumed that the dealer would treat this issue logically, but alas...
 
#7 ·
Well hopefully it's all sorted now buddy and if something else go wrong it's always worth turning to the forums before visiting the stealers!

My maintenance schedule is strict but it's part of my job at work so it's sort of drummed in to me and I wouldn't feel comfortable driving a vehicle without at least checking it over on a weekly basis. At work our vehicles are checked daily and a full inspection/ service is carried out every 28 days!

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