Great driving today Jason and Sean. Nice way to end the season with a fast course and 9 runs!

 

Same to you. Now if I could only locate their photo repository...

 

I can't believe that I missed that last AutoX of the season. We've been so busy with work, the families, school, and everything else, we didn't get to plan to race this weekend.

Oh well, I can always hope for next season right.

Well I'm looking forward to it. Did anyone find a new parking lot to have the races in yet or are they still looking?

Well. See you guys later.

 

Oh carp did they lose their parking lot privileges at the Hysterical Society? If so that sucks big time.

 

Good news they were able to convince the CFO that they should allow them back next year. The arguement went something like this "It cost you $0 to host us and we pay you $$$$ to use your facility. CFO's tend to like no money out money in situations!!!

The photo link should be up by the end of the week from what I hear. Fun fast course yesterday with enough slow parts to really level the playing field. A F-150 was able to run faster than a NSX!!!!! Note the driver skill level in this matchup was heavily weighted to the F-150. Buy then again I think the V12 Mercedes only beat the Minis by a tenth or so.

Best part of the day was an afternoon duel between a turbo Miata and a MR2 with engine from Lotus. The Miata ended up getting fastest time but by only a few hundreths.

 

Maaaaaaan... We were literally on the way over to participate and had car issues. I was in Fiona and Amy was in her new Cooper S, and after getting coffee her power steering motor crapped out while backing out of the parking lot. ARGH!

Oh well... better it go out in the Tim Horton's parking lot than, say, in the first fast corner after the launch straightaway, but it was still terribly disappointing. Amy was looking forward to it for WEEKS.

I'm thrilled that they let the Miata Club back on next year though - awesome news!

 

Good news Allen!!!

Matt don't worry about Amy losing control because of the loss of power steering. It will be hard to steer, but it will steer. A woman I work with has been driving with a dead PS pump in her Cooper for over a tear. Man are her arms big.

Worst thing about the PS dieing is all the money it costs to fix it.

 

Yeah... MAG advised to just keep driving on it until it just fails altogether. Good to know it's still drivable even with the pump out. QUESTION: Is it hydraulic or electric in the 04 Cooper S? Maybe the fluid level is low? Sounds like I need a Haynes manual.

 

It is hydraulic pump that is run by a built in electric motor. There was no room on the front of a MINI engine for an engine driven pump like most cars have.

 

Matt, cross your fingers. Does her power steering currently work with no issues?

This past Spring when I drove my 2003 MCS on that 7500 mile road trip, I was filling up at a gas station on the Las Vegas strip. When I turned the car back on the power steering was completely dead. I still pulled out and the power steering intermittently worked for the next several miles of driving. I parked my car in the Luxor garage for the night. The next morning I got in the car expecting the worst, and to my surprise the power steering worked perfectly fine. I've driven almost 6000 more miles on the same power steering motor and never had an issue again (too bad I can't say the same about my engine).

However, in the unfortunate event that her power steering motor does completely fail, I wouldn't bring it to the dealer and pay twice as much to get it fixed as most other independent shops would charge.

 

One other thing Matt....

If the reservoir is low on fluid, DON"T just put in any fluid. It must be the correct stuff & that escapes my memory at this time. I have some in the garage. If you need to know what it is PM me & I'll run out & check.

 

So what generally goes out? The pump or the electric motor? I can hear the motor whining when I turn the wheel, that's for sure.

Up to now she's had it go out for a few seconds at a time intermittently - maybe 3 times in a month. Sunday morning though it went out for several minutes. We parked the car, shut it off and swapped drivers (5 min. tops) and it ran fine afterwards with no issues, but by that time neither of us were comfortable running the car in AutoX with a fluctuating system.

 

Hey,
Sorry to hear about the PS pump Matt and Amy. Let's hope that you get lucky like Cooper did.

With my knowledge of cars, (may not be huge but there is a lot) it is more likely the Pump and not the electric motor. From my experience when an electric motor goes out it usually just stops working altogether. However there are always those special cases. I would say that it is more than likely the pump.

If you need/want any assistance possibly replacing it let me know. I'd love to help. Becoming a white collar worker really sucks, I miss working on cars all the time and learning new things about them. But the money is better, just not good enough to have many hobbies.

Oh and one other question, does it seem to be leaking anywhere? Obviously if it is then you would want to start there first, like a hose or line. They're cheaper than a pump I'm sure.

-----Totally can't wait 'til next year to race again. I'm glad that they worked everything out.-------

 

I'll dig around but I'm not seeing any place where there are leaks and when I checked the fluid level the week before last it looked full. It was dark though, so maybe it needs drained and replaced?

I heard on a forum that intermittent failures like this can be heat-based when the bearings are ready to go out - apparently the heat causes a marginal bearing to fail, then when the car cools off the bearing can function again. I'm not sure if the fault is with the bearing in the electric motor or inside the pump itself, which makes it hard to decide what to buy. However, I found THIS PART online for $540 which appears to be both the pump AND the motor... I asked at MAG today and they advised that it was 3 hours labor to swap the part... Seems high - after all, the unit is right under the bonnet and even with a fluid drain and replacement, it seems like it would only take a short amount of time to unhook the hoses and electric contacts and swap the part. Odd.

 

The fluid is a dark green color. Changing the fluid is a hail marry play at best, it won't hurt, but it most likely will do nothing but lighten your wallet.

Matters not if it is the pump or the motor, both are in the same assembly, Siamese twins of a sort. Once either goes fubar the only fix is a new or rebuilt one.

As far as how long the swap takes, well if you have never done such a thing & worked on cars you can't realize how long a job can take. If you do this job yourself better figure 12 hours unless you are handy with spanners.

IMO, MAG does a great job servicing MINI's. Not cheap, but worth the money.

Now if you buy that part yourself & then pay MAG to install it, if it goes fubar again you are on your own. If you have MAG supply the part & do the fix you'll have a 2 year warranty on the repair. Something to think about.

When you are under the car check the condition of the power steering cooling fan. My MINI is on it's third one. If the fan is bad it will hasten the demise of the Siamese twins.

 

Ahh, agreed. The fan could very well be a culprit as well. I agree that MAG does a great job and it is well worth it, too bad they can't weld the body or check it's alignment. LOL

 

Personally I wouldn't expect them to be able to weld or check the alignment of a cars tub to see if it is tweaked. I'd guess they'd send you to a shop that specializes in such work. Maybe Tru Performance.