05 Mini S........... Ok I have replaced the Harmonic Balancer and alternator. Now my son told me that his battery light came on and his power steering stopped. I havent checked the battery yet to see if it may be bad, but would that cause the PS to quit on these cars??

 

The PS pump turns off when the alternator is not working....
it has a "sense" wire....does this to allow you to drive a bit longer with a failed alternator....the PS pump is after all a BIG DC motor.

 

Turns out the battery is shot. Will not hold a charge. I did find another post on here explaining how a bad battery can cause this type of a problem.

 

I was pretty skeptical about all of those issues people blamed on failing batteries (or dirty terminals). Until it happened to me. Good luck.