Hey all, new to site and to MINI. Got a '16 F56 base last month and had a couple issues to start with. First, the clutch was squeaking pretty bad at the pedal, and the click n drive unit was broken. Brought back to selling dealer (not a MINI dealer) to have repaired. Took them a couple times, but got the clutch sorted out and replaced the click n drive.

That's when the power steering issue came up. The day I got it back, the power steering would activate about 2/3 times I started the car, otherwise would just be my arm power turning the car. There were also some odd electrical things going on with it: auto on lights not working, parking lights not flashing when unlocked, and an error on the screen regarding "Chassis stabilization". Brought it back to the dealer and they ended up replacing the battery. Said they tested it a bunch and was working fine. Brought it home (with power steering) and went to leave a couple hours later and NO POWER STEERING! I drove straight back and left it running so the service advisor could confirm that I'm not crazy.

Just got off the phone with him and they sent it to MINI for a code that needed to be cleared by the dealer and said they found that there was a grounding issue and had to re-wire the click n drive. Supposed to have the car back today or tomorrow. Fortunately, they gave me a loaner car which I'm not responsible to fill it back up with gas before I give it back, so I'm not out a car.

Does this power steering issue sound familiar to anyone? Anything else I should ask them? I have 90 day warranty with the selling dealer, so it's not costing me anything, just a pain to deal with. TIA

 

cjv2 had that issue, PM him, or do a search.

Bottom line, it was the way the click and drive was connected to power and ground.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4642512

 

Yep, I had this issue. Short version is that if you wire the Click & Drive exactly as the BMW/MINI instructions tell the dealer to, you can end up with this. Electrically disconnecting the Click and Drive’s in-cable USB charger and then clearing any unhappy codes will get you your power steering back, and reliably so.

Longer version is at the link @TVPostSound provided — I authored the post the link goes to.

There are other ways to wire up the Click & Drive to do what one wants. But the by-the-included-instructions way is bad. I disconnected mine mid-circuit to keep it from causing any shenanigans (see the post for details - I did not disconnect any wire splices, because one spliced wire is a fragile and critical computer feed) while I decide how to rewire it.

@Mr. Squeak , I would recommend having them show you & document how they wired it in (meaning which wire to what pin number on what connector number). There are only 2 wires, so this should be easy enough for them to do for you. Even if they rewired it and got things working more normally, it’s information you’ll definitely want to have and keep.

 

Hey @skywampa — looks like someone else had the same thing I did. FYI in case of interest.

 

@Mr. Squeak , @skywampa , did you ever get your no-power-steering / EPS intermittent-fail issues sorted?