Hi all! At low speeds around parking lot or local road, I hear some whining noise when turning steering wheel. I have heard that before in some other cars, but those cars had hydraulic power steering. My 2016 MCS F55 has an electric one. To me is sound more like steering column noise.
Any reason to be concerned?

 

Not a sound I have encountered in any of the four Minis I have owned, so I would consider it the beginning of a problem.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Thanks. I will try to take an audio sample and upload. I searched for few videos about wining noise, but my car has a different one. Imagine when a kid is sitting behind the steering wheel(car is running) and turning it right, then left, right, left half way, quickly. Maybe something is rubbing as the sound doesn't come from the wheel or the steering motor

 

The noise was kind of coming from the right side of the car as from under the glove box area when I would turn the steering wheel right, left, right left... Basically when it is cold outside, the noise is heard.
So I made an appointment and took my car to the dealer. They didn't really listen to my audio file and took the car in. Next day, called me saying it was fixed and the mechanic replaced clock spring in the steering wheel. The day I got the car back and following day, there was no noise and I thought, nice, maybe that was the clock spring... Now it is third day, noise is back!

Maybe some one had this before and can isolate the issue? To me it sounds like something is rubbing vs rubber or maybe the part that is helping the car turn(tie rod/ball joint?)

Listen to the sound: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Lz...YRIRb5CrvSLMN4

 

I don't get any sounds at all from your file.

When you bring the car in you need to test drive with shop foremen or tech who will work on the car and make sure they hear the noise. Otherwise you will probably be chasing this while they replace everything but the correct part.

 

I was going to at least show them the audio, but the service writer said if we need it, will ask for it. Tomorrow will make another appointment, but there is an issue because I drive about 15-20 miles to the dealer and by that time, the sound maybe there, but at 40 % volume of when environment and car are still cold.

The file is in m4a format and maybe you can hear it through PC, this is how I tested it. I have re-uploaded an mp3 file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Lz...YRIRb5CrvSLMN4