My 02 mini is having some power steering problems. In November the p/s went out, turned the car off & back on again worked fine. I read a bunch of threads and decided to send the pump in to BBA reman. They sent it back & told me that there is nothing wrong with the pump. I put the pump back in and everything seemed to work fine. A week ago the same thing happend. This morning the p/s never came on. I tried 3 more times and nothing. This car as many of you know is not easy to drive without p/s and being in WI in the snow makes it even more fun! (oh, and being a little whimpy girl doesn't help either )

Any advice on what to try next? I would like to do whatever I can without taking it to a shop. (only one shop besides the mini dealer within 50 miles so you can imagine what they will charge) I do not have much experience working on cars and my friend that has been helping me has never worked on a car with electric assist p/s. I have been told that if there was a problem with the steering rack it would just not work, that it would not be an on again off again problem. Same thing with a fuse, if it's out it's out. Could there be something with a relay, and if so, any help on how to replace would be great! Does the fan need to run in order for the pump to work??

 

I am experiencing the same problem with my 04 MCS.

 

I think you've found your problem, if the fan quits the pump will get hot and shut down..........

 

It's very hard to believe your pump is overheating in WI in the winter, in the snow no less! I think you were on the right track when you mentioned the "relay". Unfortunately the controller circuit that acts like a relay to start and stop the pump is built into the pump itself. I think you sent the pump to BBA when it was still an intermediate problem and, as luck would have it, it happened to test fine while it was there. Now it sounds like it failed completely.

Mine behaved the exact same way, intermittently cutting out and restarting immediately upon starting the car again, until failing completely. The only difference was that when mine failed it failed always on so I had to disconnect it until my replacement (used, from a salvage yard) arrived so the battery wasn't killed.

I think you need to replace/have rebuilt the pump. It sounds like you've already taken the pump out once to send to BBA so you know what's involved and its usually easier the second time around. It's hard to diagnose stuff over the internet so definitely see if there are other suggestions but that is what I think.

Your fan may be bad too, but I don't think, from what you described, replacing it now will solve you problem.

 

Thanks for the information. I found a used pump & fan at a salvage yard nearby for $300. Hopefully that will solve the problem!

 

I am pretty confident it will but, please let us know how it turns out.
Good luck!