Thanks for looking, all. :smile:

Driving along at 35mph & suddenly she was quite hard to steer, - obviously no power steering.

MINI Roadside came to get her & the mechanic said she "felt odd, not perfect" when lining her up to load.

Any guess or diagnosis as to what this could be, - caused it &/or whether warranty will cover it since she's under 50K miles?

Thanks in advance!

 

If the PS is really dead, likely the PS fan died, either of natural causes or due to an obstruction, and the lack of cooling burned out the electric motor.

 

Very common problem with the Mini S. Pre 03 seems to be the most common victim.

My pump almost burned up the whole car. This will be a warrantee fix if you are still under it. If you do a search here you'll find a very large thread about it.

 

power steering motor replaced ... so I guess the issue lingers on...

 

Here's the computer fan screen I put on my '02 MCS just yesterday.......




....Les

 

A couple of months ago I had a seal go out on my 2003 MCS. All the fluid drained out and no power steering after that. The dealer replaced the pump, the seal and the entire rack system under warranty (23,000 miles). Plus, I got to drive a loaner with the JCW package for a few days.

 

My '03s fan started making a sound like a coffee grinder & was replaced under warranty. Took about 15 minutes & the new fan came with a guard on it.

 

Yep.. it happens and it will be covered.

Mine is being replaced right now.

 

It happened to my '02 a couple of years ago. Click here to read the NAM archives about my "incident" . It was repaired under warranty and it is still working after another 25k+ miles.

There have been a lot of similar reports. In early '02, the Power Steering pump shared a fuse with the main engine fan, causing much consternation. People have ingested road debris (like platic bags) into the fan and many have added an aftermarket grill over the fan. Personally I use a full skid pan.