It’s 8pm and we were running late eating dinner. As we’re cleaning up, there’s a terrible smell that smells like rubber burning.

I drove Oscar about 8 hours ago and he’s been sitting in the garage. Up until about an hour ago when I was in the garage, everything was cool.

So we chase the smell down only to open the garage and SMOKE IS POURING OUT... HOLY CRAP.

The only thing I can deduce is either Oscar is smoking or a new refrigerator we placed in the garage is on fire.

Fearing the worst, I pull Oscar outside so if there is a fire, he doesn’t get damaged and if he IS the one on fire, I don’t want to burn the house down.

So as I start Oscar up, there is no powersteering. I can’t see anything wrong and have no idea why the damn thing was smoking.

I’m not even messing with him this time, I’ll tow him to the dealer and see what else they can screw up. In the meantime, he’s parked in the cold in the middle of the driveway so if he does catch on fire, no other damage will be done.


That could have been ugly...

Mark

 

Dang mark, almost had Oscar painted in burnt orange ..lol That sucks for sure.

 

OMG, more bad luck??

Hope it's all sorted soon..

 

I remember reading a thread where someone's Mini caught on fire while parked. I think it was caused by some hot wires rubbing together starting an electrical fire.

I really hope you get everything with Oscar sorted out. I would hate to see such a sweet Mini burn

 

Remember, we have electric power steering. I'm thinking the power steering motor is locked up. Could have been a big issue. Good catch!

 

Not good, not good, best of luck.

 

The power steering problems were all in the early first gen cars, there really haven't been any in the second gens....and the first gen steering problems were actually caused by the power steeering cooling fan, not the pump itself.

Mark, I'd be concerned that you have a wire chafed somewhere, given the teardown you did I'd probably look it over pretty carefully before allowing the dealer to get their hands on it, if they can trace it to something your shop might have done, it will cost you handsomely unless you let the insurance co take care of it.

Worth a look anyway....

Oh, and you did disconnect the battery, right?

 

I found my 08 Cooper in the garage about two months ago with the power steering motor running about a half hour after I shut the car off. I turned the ignition on and off and motor stopped.

 

Towed the car to the dealer today. They called and said the power steering motor was burned up and so was the wiring harness.

1000 bucks with my body shop discount. I was going to do it myself but my shop is so busy right now, I don’t have any time.

500 dollars in parts and the rest in labor.

Hope this doesn’t happen again...


Mark

 

With an '09, I'm assuming your just out of warranty ? What's their explanation for how this could have happened with the car parked in the garage ? Scary stuff...

 

And I wonder if the pump didn't shut off causing the burn-up (which doesn't make a lot of sense considering it must run all the time while driving) or the wiring shorted out causing the pump to continue to run. It is scary stuff indeed.

Seems it is a very big issue with the first gens:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/..._failures.html


And here is a recent class action lawsuit that contains many R56 & R55 references of fires.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/10/13/BMW.pdf

 

My car was totaled and I purchased it back. Being in the body shop business, I bought it back and fixed it.

The car came back with a salvage title. There was no frame damage. Except for a lower control arm and bumper bracket, there was no structural damage.... 99% of it was cosmetic.

Point is, I can’t confirm or deny any problem, I’ve been driving the car for several months and haven’t had any problems.

I thnk there is definitely a problem when a car after sitting for 8 hours starts to smolder so bad that I couldn’t see the car in the garage when I opened the door.

Of course, with it not having warranty, right or wrong, I may as well pound my head against the wall.


Mark

 

I'm still going with the motor seizing and causing the wiring to burn. If the wiring had been the cause, then power would have stopped there and not caused the motor to fail. Of course I would have figured a fuse should have blown. Maybe a relay stuck.

 

I’m thinking strobeyphobey hit it on the head. I’m thinking the motor kept running and burned up the wiring harness because as you said Dale, if there was a short in the wiring, the motor wouldn’t have burned up... the harness would be melted but the motor should be in decent shape.

Strobeyphobey, did you ever take it to the dealer or document it or just never messed with it again?

Thanks,

Mark