but I might have one that doesn't seem to be complete failure of power steering, but who knows...

'03 Cooper S
completely stock, only had it a month or so...
80k-ish miles
Right away when I bought it had it fully inspected by the MINI dealership, they told me mechanically perfect.

soooo a few weeks ago I hit a nice pothole going roughly 30, hit it hard, I live in Detroit, it happens.
Noticed right away steering a bit funky now.
Coughed up the $200 for an alignment (from the dealer, which is soooo against my ideals as a car guy, but belle tire told me they could do it, they just couldn't promise me it'd be done right because they suck at imports)
so the alignment fixed like 90% of the problem, but the steering is not the way it was when I bought it still. (I know I've only had the darn car for a few months and already I F^$ked it up, right?)

Well now to the core of the problem:
steering is a tad bit loose, what I mean by that is sometimes now the surface of the road seems to be having more effect on where I'm going than the steering wheel does.
It only seems to happen at low speeds, mostly while braking.
Sometimes it will pull to one side while braking usually towards the right, and most often this happens when the road is angled for drainage.
At high speeds it happens very minimally.

Someone please give me a simple answer to this that doesn't involve replacing the pump and or rack. And I swear if you say tie rods I am going to be very angry at myself for just getting that alignment.

This is my first "nice" car and I really hope to keep it that way I have a haunting past of steering issues and bad luck (once ending in a horrible crash that I was lucky to not be harmed by)
thanks, Joe

 

ok so I read that it could be a sign of a bad battery, and only happening at lower speeds because the alternator generates less current at lower rpm, especially while cruising to a stop at idle engine speed, and therefore the electrically powered power steering pump receives less juice and is therefore less effective letting the roughness of these d$mn detroit roads determine the direction of the wheels...

any ideas? I know you guys are sick of power steering issues but please respond!

 

More likely it is Control arm bushings. They get wiggley and you get the "shaking all over..." feel. Search LCA and you will probably find similar issues.

 

Does the car have any mods....camber plates, etc....they result in the car needed a custom rather than an oem spec alighnment...
pump failure results in very hard steering...or intermintently hard...not squirirly like you state.
it sounds like you are a bit new to cars..your battery should be fine..feed back is the physical set-up...toe-in, camber, etc, along with tires interacting with the road, and physical parts..bushings, rack, etc.
Possible you bent something...and the alighnment is masking the issue...
if you have the before and after spec sheet for the alighnment it is a good start.

 

Not sure if your problem is the same as mine but I have a very similar problem that rears its head every once in a while. I replaced my suspension and everything along the way (lca'S, bushings, ball joints, wheel bearings, tie rod ends, wheel carriers, rotors, sensors, etc) and the inner ball joint sometimes will loosen up on me giving me a slightly "loose" feeling while turning. the car has more of a tendency to follow the contours of the road and feels slightly loose when i turn to the left (the right inner ball joint was my problem). I have torqued the bolts down but they still manage to vibrate loose somehow after some time. You don't have a lot of room to work with though as the bolts are directly under the CV axle making it tough to get a torque wrench in there. You need to jack the car up in order for you to notice it's loose also. This is what has caused this similar problem in my car, and it could be an easy fix for you if you have the same problem. Hope this helps!