When I first got my all4 mistress, I noticed that at full steering lock I would get what felt like a little drive train binding. Other posts on the internet seemed to suggest that a little binding at full lock was normal. Well, now she's binding when even making a regular left hand turn from a stop light, meaning, I'm barely half way turned on the steering wheel. Seems to happen forwards or backwards, left or right hand turns. Seems to be way more apparent when the drivetrain is warm than when I first start it up.

So I changed the xfer case and rear diff fluids. It did seem to be a little better for a bit, even with the drive train warm, but now I'm not sure there's been any change.

I just reset adaptations to see if somehow something in the DME is contributing, and I'll be taking her out here in a bit to see.

Next up is changing the manual trans fluid.

After that, I'm not sure where to go. I do have an ext warranty, but I hate being without her. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned this to the Mini dealer when I had her alternator replaced under that ext warranty, but they said they didn't feel what I was talking about (this was before I realized it did it when the drivetrain was warm). They did highly suggest getting a xfer/diff/manual trans fluid change for $350 (uh, no thanks, I can handle that myself) So, any other "fluid change" type of maintenance that you can think of that might be causing the binding?

And I have scoured the internet looking for others with the same issue, which is also what prompted the fluid changes, but haven't found alot of definitive causes yet, outside of it being a diff/xfer case issue.

(cross posting on FB Mini 5280 group, and FB Countyman group)

 

got all fluids changed, and it is probably 10-20% better, it's deinfatley still there.

the MT fill and drain bolts were SUPER hard to break loose, but finally got them. It's an 8mm allen socket.

will be making an appt with mini dealer for ext warranty work.....boooooo. i hate being without my mistress.

 

I had the exact same problem except mine was a LOT worse.than yours. If i was rolling at 10 miles an hour i could turn and actually stop the car the binding was that bad.

Mine turned out to be the Rear diff locking all the time. In front of the rear diff where the propshaft enters there is a module which locks there rear diff. Mine was faulty. I think its called EOCD module

 

thought i'd circle back to this.

mini dealer said the rear clutch pack failed, causing the rear diff to fail. unfortnatly my ext warranty didn't cover the clutch pack, and since the CP caused the diff to fail, they wouldn't cover the diff either.

found a "donor"/junkyard rear diff assembly, and swapped the whole thing out. no more binding after that!

but now I'm haivng a new issue with the rear drive train that i'm going to make a new post about. :(