With everything under weather warnings today, I thought I might catch up on a few things with the MINI that have come with the cold temperatures. This is the first winter for me and my 04' MCS. The garage is probably in the mid 30s, but that's still 35 deg. warmer than it is outside! So here are my issues and initial fixes. Aside from installing a DIY AUX input, a haven't touched anything on this car yet. Any advice is more than welcome.

Squeaky steering on cold mornings - NAM searches turned up everything from bad power steering pumps and steering racks to bearings inside the steering column. As the noise seems to be coming from behind the wheel, I'm going to lube the steering column bearings before looking at anything else. The lower driver side dash seems easy enough to remove, but there are two bolts on each side of the plastic that runs under the column. Are these two bolts the only thing that hold this plastic on ?

Stiff clutch on cold mornings- When the temp gets near 0°F my clutch gets fairly stiff. Everything still works as expected but it takes some extra force to depress the pedal. I'm thinking maybe a fluid change is in order here?

Squeaky clutch pedal feel (always) - The squeak is more of a rubber on rubber or rubber on metal feeling, and not really a noise. If it is, it's very quiet. I've seen some posts here that mention clutch fork issues throwout bearings, clutch pedal bearings, and return springs. Seems like many people have different causes for a similar issue. My hope is in the return spring or pedal bearing. With any luck, a liberal coating of silicone lube will fix this. If not, I'll probably just deal with it until a new clutch kit is needed.