Just a heads up for all of you. I recently had a loud grinding noise that I thought was something to do with the A/C unit--possible the compressor. Turns out it was the power steering fan. MONS replaced it under the warranty as I expected they would. SA said it happens once in awhile--not the first time he'd seen it.

 

I had the power steering fan go noisy on me after about 7000km (4700miles approx) and also had it replaced under warranty by my dealer.

Be interested to know how common this fault is as it surprised me that, what is basically a computer-fan has been field-proven to run for thousands of hours with no problems. The Mini's power steering fan doesn't even run all the time, and not many people leave their cars running 24/7 like their computer.

This is pretty much the only problem I've had with my mini after 12000km, so I'm not complaining...just a little surprised by this part failure. I recognise that a computer fan doesn't get dust & road-debris sucked through it all day, but I thought the bearing was a sealed unit in this fan? I guess I am wondering if this was a straight-out hardware failure, or if it was caused by me sucking something bad into the fan (though I have a 2005 with I believe has a better fan-gaurd than the earlier models???)

Gregg

 

Just add my MINI to the list of cars with defective power steering fans. I lost mine at 20,500 miles. CLASSIC MINI replaced it under warranty with no problems. In fact, so far, their service has been very good. They got me into the shop the next day, and out the door in an hour and a half. Like you guys, there was no real reason for the fan going bad, it just started to make a lousy noise. I was told that it was the bearing that went bad. Yeah, I sure wonder why this crapped out so soon, and I would certainly hope that they last longer than 20,000 miles. I didn't ask what this would cost without the warranty, but we all know it wouldn't be cheap, and I really don't want to be replacing these every 20K. Outside of that, the car has been great. 20,000 miles since July 1st. Rollin' rollin' rollin'. Mike Predina Chagrin Falls, Ohio

 

Mike, you coming this sunday to the fall MINI Neo rally?

 

My PS fan went out too, but on the 02 MC it is on the same circuit as the coolant fan, so when it died it blew the fuse and stopped the coolant fan as well, causing it to overheat. Had to have it towed in, once again, to fix the fan and re-route the fuse problem.

 

I'm on PS fan #4, always fun when it goes

 

FOUR???? What miles on MINI when they went? I didn't drive in mud or thru water or any bad consition. I wonder what happens when you drive it in the snow??

 

Yeah, 4. I think one had some water sucked in around 15K, another was a bag or something around 20K, then it just went around 35k when the fuse blew, blowing out my thermostat and causing the car to overheat, resulting in the overflow tank being replaced as well.


Snow has yet to be an issue though, and with the new fans with the grille, it should be safe from now on.

 

Mine did the same (what a horrible noise it made while running!). I just removed the fan altogether, I'll probably get a replacement in the spring but for now my undercarriage is going commando-style.