I have to replace the lower steering shaft on a 2006 R50 MINI. There is excessive play in the steering column, about 15 degrees movement side to side on the steering wheel. I traced it to the lower joint being worn (the black joint in the picture).
Has anyone replaced one of these, and if so, are there any words of advice or tips that you can give. It looks to be a right royal PITA given the accessibility or lack thereof! I don't have access to a lift and will be doing the work with the front of the car lifted as high as is safe and me laying on the garage floor.
I purchased a new, genuine unit from ECS.

Thanks, in anticipation.

 

I did this job about three weeks ago and it is actually very easy! I didn't even crawl underneath the car.

My approach was the following:
1 Get the front wheels in the air so there is no tension on the shaft
2 Remove the battery, tray and airfilter housing. This will give you a straight view to that lower column bolt. Don't undo it yet
3 Rotate the steering wheel so you have perfect access to undo that lower bolt in step 2. Don't undo it yet
4 Lock the steering wheel by removing the key from the barrel
5 Inside the car, pull down the panel below the steering wheel
6 Undo the two bolts in the lower half of the steering wheel covers
7 Pull the lower cover off, remove the rubber grommet surrounding the ignition barrel first
8 Remove the bolt from the upper part of the steering lower column
9 Press the steering column so it gets shorter
10 Now undo that lower bolt which connects it to the steering rack
11 Pull the entire shaft out from inside the car

Putting a new one in is reverse order. The bit thats annoying is that rubber "shoe" making the hole in the firewall waterproof.

Obviously you can also do it crawling underneath to undo that one lower bolt. If so this job needs only 4 bolts removed. I opted to do it from the top as I had the battery and tray already out for another job.

Let me know if you have questions.
Good luck!

 

Awesome Luke!
Copied and Pasted in my procedure notes for when I will also have to do this job.
Thanks!

 

That's awesome. Thank you.

Were you working on the thermostat housing, and removed the battery/airbox?

Ray.

 

Not sure if I would do it from above on a R53, there is much more stuff in the way.

Sort of, I had replaced the headgasket.

Also, the reason for replacing was the steering wheel wouldn't center after a corner. That's awkward and dangerous. The lower ujoint was frozen solid, I think spilling coolant was the final straw. I tried replacing just the ujoint but these are so tiny and so pressed in hard that I bend the ears of the shaft and the cups wouldn't point straight at eachother. Too bad, otherwise it would be a $10 job instead of $100.


Undoing that bolt from above

Inside the car

Fail

 

Good diy here: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...mc-w-pics.html

 

I fitted the new lower steering column yesterday using the method of removing the airbox and battery tray as suggested by LukasH. Worked like a charm with plenty of access to the lower eccentric bolt and the steering column. I had two issues however, both with the bolts holding down the battery tray. A nutsert came loose on the bracket that holds the back, right of the battery tray down. The bolt was just spinning, so I had to cut thru the plastic to be able to remove the tray. Then I cut thru the bolt with a cut off disc and the nutsert fell thru the bracket. Also, the 6mm bolt on the front outside of the tray snapped off. So, I drilled it out and tapped for an M8 bolt. All of the bolts holding the airbox and battery tray were replaced with stainless steel flange bolts and lots of anti-seize.





When I inspected the old steering shaft, it looks like one end of the pin going thru the joint had snapped. There is a lot of movement on the center part of the joint, but the ends of the pin that is pressed thru the flange are tight with no movement. I am going to try and cut it apart to see if it has snapped.
The new joint was well packed with grease after fitting.




Many thanks for all of your suggestions, especially LukasH. His method has to be the way to go on an R50.

Ray.

 

So, I cut off the bottom part of the UJ and this is what I found. As you can see in the first picture the bushing on the right has worn to a significantly bigger diameter that the one on the left. When measured with calipers it is about 100 thousandths of an inch or 2.5mm bigger that the one on the left. The other two pictures show just how worn it is, almost to the point of breaking thru on one side.