I have a '03 MCS and looking for some powersteering advice. My wife was driving it and said last week the steering went hard in parking lot. Then the other night as she was pulling in to the garage she reported having no power steering. The next morning When I started the car it had power steering. However with the wheels straight and hands off, I could hear the pump whine cycling and the interior lights would dim each time. We had the PS fan go **** up and cause the car to overheat a couple years ago. Fan replaced under warranty. Anyway I assume I am looking at a PS pump replacement or rebuild. Any other diagnosis I should perform?? Don't want a BBQ after all...

 

Sounds just like what my '03 was doing a few months ago. Most of the time it was fine, but the steering started feeling weird, and then it would randomly lose the power assist. They replaced the pump, and it's been good since. Any chance that you've got a 100k extended warranty and are still covered? My p/s pump was the last warranty item I had done.

 

Unfortunately I think our extended warranty is up...Guess I will pull the pump this weekend and send it to BBA for a rebuild...

 

Well got a reponse form BBA after they looked at my pump. "Nothing wrong with it." Soooo, what else could cause an intermittant loss of power steering? I am gonna put the pump back in next weekend and see what happens...

 

The fan is most likely seized up again, which is causing the pump to overheat after use. Once the pump cools down it'll work again for a while....for a while. The power steering cooling fans crap out ALL THE TIME, buy two and plan on replacing it again next year.

 

When I pulled the fan I bench tested it with a 12v source. It seems to work fine. Is there a relay that might not be functioning? After I put the pump back in I'll see if the fan triggers when the engine warms up...

 

They heat-soak, then sieze. Running them on a bench doesn't get them hot enough.
-s-

 

Thanks AM. I'll look int to that. If it fails I'll just put a 80mm computer case fan in there. Maybe with some LEDs just to pimp it up. No wait they can be my fail lights...no glow no go.... jk

 

Wait a moment, the fans heat soak? I have never heard of this. How long until they "seize" after they are running?

 

Basically what I meant was that for some reason--poor quality, maybe-- the fan on the p/s pump stops turning when it gets hot (I speak from experience), but runs when it's cool.
Mine would work fine when I first started driving it, but after awhile (especially in traffic or at low speeds), would stop. Sometimes an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less. I'd let it sit for a period, and it would work again. When I finger-spun it cold, it turned easily.
Finally crawled under there when it was hot and not working, and I couldn't move it with one finger. Let it cool: it turned.
Finally failed completely, called the dealer, they came and got it and replaced everything and did the wiring harness upgrade (under warrenty, thank the car gods!).
Shop forman told me that he figured the bearings failed when it got hot (heat soak). Go figure.
-skip-

 

Mariner, do you know when this "wiring harness upgrade" came to fruition? Wondering if I need this done on my 05.

Thanks.

 

Not positive, but I think it was 02/03 that had the problems. The 'engine fire' sticky will have the exact info, but you'll have to dig for it. Unless some kind soul-in-the-know jumps in with the answer.
This one: Spontaneous Engine Bay Fires!

 

How long ago was the fan replaced under warranty? I think dealer-installed replacement parts are warranted for either the remainder of the factory warranty period, or a fixed amount of time, whichever is longer.

In other words, if you have a failed part replaced at 49k miles, and your warranty expires a month later at 50k miles, and then the part fails again a month later at 51k miles, there's still a warranty on that particular part, even though the factory warranty on the rest of the car has expired.

 

I know that my transmission (done at the very end of my warranty) had an additional two year warranty added to it (no mileage limit, apparently).
-s-

 

That's good to hear - I knew it was two years for dealer-installed accessories, but I wasn't certain if it was two years for repair parts as well.

 

how big a job (or how expensive if the dealer does it) is replacing the fan?

I just posted my situation on another thread, but from what I've read on this one, I may have overheated something by teaching my daughter how to parallel part her '03 CVT... out on the street in front of the house with two cars parked and her trying to get between them... lots of hard-left then hard-right turning with very little vehicle movement... probably getting hot under the hood.... after parallel parking 5 or 6 times the PS just quit...

pull it out on the street and drive a few car lengths, everything's fine.... PS no problem, no funny noise, no drips/leaks, etc.

come back and parallel park a few more times and the PS quits again.... pull out on the street and drive a couple houses down, all's well....

??????

thanks for any thoughts.

 

Goodwood, The PS fan is really easy to replace. 2 bolts and a power connector. All can be accessed from under the car. I hear the fan is $125 or so. As for my situation I recieved my PS pump back from BBA after they found no fault with it. I installed it this weekend and now have zero power steering. It didn't even attempt to power on. We took it in to the dealer on Monday and are waiting for them to work it in.

 

I've had this happen to me about 10 times. Each time I was at the dragon. I just attributed it to MINI not putting a power steering pump that was up to par with the handling capabilities of the car.

Each time my power steering failed I would just pull off, stop my car, open the hood and let it sit for about ten minutes. Start up the car and be on my way. First one or two times it had me really worried, though!

 

How long has this been going on? months? years? I'm wondering if you eventually got to a point where you had to go in and replace something, OR, is this something you've been able to live with simply by letting the car rest for a few minutes each time on the dragon?

Has this happened to you any other place/time?

 

Never happened anywhere except the dragon. Never replaced anything, and I have never noticed any problems whatsoever after letting it sit and cool down. I've owned the MINI since June '07 and it has happened about 10 times since I've owned it.

I'm starting autox this summer, it will be interesting to see if I run into the same problem. Each time it has happened on the dragon is when I have been driving all out full bore for at least 10 minutes. (I've been to the dragon over 200 times I know it like the back of my hand, I can usually average over 60mph (NOT SAYING THIS IS SMART). So in autox if it starts to happen with the short runs (less than a minute per run) I'll probably look into getting it replaced or some kind of pump/fan upgrade.

 

I've posted my experience on another thread too... somebody there said there's an overheating-protection circuit for the PS pump that will shut down the PS if things get too hot...

makes sense that your driving and my parallel-parking exercise could heat up things enough to cause such a circuit to activate...

also provides some relief for me that, if true, there's nothing else likely wrong... actually the car is doing what it was designed to do... shut down something to prevent damage.

food for thought.

 

Ya, you must either parallel park like a maniac or I must drive like a granny, though. It would seem that parallel parking wouldn't heat up the pump as much as aggressive driving would.

But true, no matter what it is it shouldn't be anything to worry about.

 

my experience involved teaching my 16-year-old daughter to parallel park... by putting two cars on the street in front of our house and having her try to park between them...

lots of hard-right, then hard-left, repeat, repeat, repeat, with very little movement of the car.... really putting the power-steering system through it's paces.... no ventilation under the hood to speak of... the engine wasn't getting that hot because it wasn't really doing much, therefore cooling fan not on very much during the exercise... sounds like a situation where things could heat up pretty quickly under the hood, and therefore cause the PS system to overheat???

 

If the pump overheats it will shut down. The little fan right below it (10 minute job to remove and replace) often goes bad. Swap it out for a new one and see if it fixes your issues.

 

Your power steering pump shouldn't be shutting down that often. I drive my car hard, and track it regularly, and it's never shut off on me. The fan is probably shot if it's shutting down on you.