Hi all,

I've seen great info past along these threads so hopefully someone out there has run into a similar situation.

I have an '02 mini cooper. 85,000 miles. I bought this car about 4 years ago and put about 10K miles a year. I get a high pitch whine when i turn the steering wheel. It doesn't matter which direction i turn is still get the whine. The noise increases and turns a higher pitch when i make a hard turn.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

 

Different from the normal P/S whine?

 

this is the first car i've owned that does it so i can't tell if the normal p/s sound. A friend mentioned it could be the p/s pump, or maybe the fluid is low. thats about as much as i know.

 

Yea, I'm no expert but every MINI I've ever watched pull out of a parking lot has made that whining noise.

 

I guess, first off, my question would be, has it made the same noise during the period of time that you have owned the car or has it gotten worse?

I own a 06 mcs and it also has a whine when turning the wheel left or right, but not a real load, obnoxious whine.

Lon

 

some 'beginners info' here ... just in case you did not know or read up (2 posts??)

the MINI has an electric power steering pump. hearing some sort of electric pump noise when u turn the wheel is normal. how much is normal? well, if it has increased you might be rightly concerned.

the pump in the 02 was very exposed and could easily suck in some crud. it is also easily seen under the car and you might want to familiarize yourself with it. sometimes they get a plastic bag caught on them. sometimes they burn out (or up) ....

There are aftermarket guards that can be placed over them for additional protection.

Yours might be fouled or failing....

but b4 you panic after reading other threads about them blowing up. when I sold the 02 last month with 95,000 and change the original pump, with no guard, was doing just fine .....

 

When I got Emily ('02 MCS) 2 years ago, I freaked when I heard that noise.
Come to find out, it's supposed to whine.
Reminds me of my ex-wife.....
As long as it's not louder now than when you got it, you gots no worries.

 

It's not abnormal for it to whine, but I'd check the fluid level anyway. Mine had lost a little fluid after 70k or so and it just took a little fluid to make the whining stop.

 

P/S Whine is perfectly NORMAL and Free of charge with any MINI purchase. Don't worry about it. If it doesn't whine it's broken. The later and replacement P/S pumps are a little quieter, but they all whine. Don't worry.

 

I was worrying about this same whine in my '06. I've had it for about 2 weeks and I guess I'm just used to noises being bad. Good to know though