I've been on a journey trying to fix all of the leaks that my '06 has, as I'm tired of seeing oil stains on my driveway, making it look like an autozone parking lot.

1, put the car on jacks and clean the undercarriage, engine, and chassis with like 54 cans of brake clean.
2, wait. Wait for the oil to seep out from somewhere and trace it's path.
3, after seeing my oil filter housing a little wet, I replaced the gasket. Recleaned, and wait.
4. Well, crap. Still leaking oil. Rechecked, see oil seeping at the valve cover gasket. Replace that too. Reclean, and wait.
5. Oil leak still... but it's coming from the other side of the engine. Did I magically fix one leak and create another? But this seems to be the power steering fluid now.
6. Order new PS reservoir, and hoses that go to it.
7. While waiting for the PS parts to come in, PS goes out. Low fluid. Fun. Refill, purge. PS working again.
8. Day the PS parts come in, PS goes out, again. Refill... this time seems terminal, as the PS stays dead.
9. Replace PS parts, refill PS system. Purge. CLEAN. Go for a drive. Still no PS. ffffuuuuuuu
10. Check prices for PS pump... fuuuuuuu
11. Do a quick PS delete, looping steering rack with parts on hand. Go for a test drive. Holy jesus, no improvement to steering feel.
12. While the PS pump is sitting on the table, decide to open 'er up and bench-test it. From the motor side, roughly a cup of dust falls out. Air hose out the innards and clean it up as best as I can. Freehand spin it to ensure rotation. Good. Put my benchtop power supply unit to the motor and the motor spins when powered. Interesting.
13. Clean the hydraulic side of the pump, ensure pump spins and is free of debris. Nothing out of the ordinary. Put all back together, bench-test again with power supply... pump spins freely. Hmm...
14. Reinstall everything, after cleaning again. I spend more time cleaning and wiping grime, grease, and 150k miles worth of caked up oil from the chassis than I spend on removing/reinstalling parts.
15. Go for a test drive... PS works. I'm not sure if I actually did anything different, other than dump out a TON of dust from the motor side of the pump.


Lesson learned: nothing. I think my Mini is messing with me.


CN: Trying to fix oil leaks on the mini, replace a bunch of stuff, PS goes out. Pull system, bench test, everything works. Reinstall, all is well. Leaks may still be present, though.

 

Don't know how long you've owned your car -- do you know if the PS recall was ever done? You can check on the Mini website or call the nearest dealer. I just bought my 2003 in August. In October, Mini put a new pump on at no charge due to the open recall.

BTW, great work on getting the pump going again.

 

I have a 2006, so I heard that that year wasn't covered by the recall... unless I am mistaken.

 

They can run the vin to see. If i remember right it was to 2005, but a local MINI dealer can check your vin.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-recall-2.html

 

Welcome to the Wonderful World of MINI ownership. It's like a dog or a Harley - always marks its spot.

 

I don't accidentally fix something; I usually accidentally BREAK something.

 

Well, yeah. We all do that. That's an essentially part of working on cars.