The steering in my '04 Cooper S has gotten a little "crunchy" recently. There has been a minute and hardly noticeable little catch when turning sharply at low speeds for quite a while now, and recently I think this has gotten worse. Now pretty much anytime I turn the car in a parking lot I can feel the roughness in the wheel. I can also hear a creaking/groaning noise accompanying this at times. The problem seems worse in cold weather.

I imagine (but don't know for sure) that this is the common steering column issue others have had. Is this dangerous, or just annoying? I have heard that some get relief by having the column lubricated - my car is no longer under warranty (64,000 mi.), so could I do this myself?

 

Wheel bearing?

 

I hadn't thought about that. It isn't noisy at speed, so that wasn't my first guess, but it's simple to check out. I've got to change the oil and rotate my tires soon, so I'll check it then.

 

you can lubricate the steering column joint yourself with whatever lubricant/rust penetrant you would like. just raise the front of the car and spray the joint that connects to the steering rack.

 

Hey JeffM,
I had the same problem of a slight click/notch/detent felt through the steering wheel whenever making sharp turns at very slow speeds. Try rocking the steering column up and down though its tilt range a few times.
I don't know how but it did the trick for me (perhaps it smeared around the lubricant on whatever universal joint or telescoping section was making the click).

Hopefully you'll find the same results

 

Just a quick follow-up with the fix here:
I read a bunch of posts over on MINI2 about creaking steering being the upper steering column bushing, and my creaking had gotten much worse since I first posted. So I checked my Bentley manual on how to access the column (easy to remove the trim) and sprayed the two upper column bearings with some white lithium grease and it's fixed! Smooth steering now, and no more noise. Took maybe 15 minutes. Both of these bearings are above the interior u-joint in the column, and both are hidden until you remove the lower column shroud (two torx screws and a few snaps/clips). The lower of the two bearing is pretty easy to see, but the upper one (closer to the steering wheel) is really up inside the column so you'll need the straw on the spray grease and pretty much have to be upside down in the driver's seat with your head on the floor to see it. I think that's actually the one making the noise, but I lubed both for good measure. I should have taken pics, I know, but I was in a hurry.

 

Anyone have a picture or diagram on this? It is driving me nuts and need to fix it. Thanks

 

nevermind, I just moved the steering wheel down a bit and the noise is ALL GONE!!

 

If moving it down fixed the noise, it might be the u-joint that was dry in a particular spot. Since this joint doesn't actually rotate but just goes back and forth, I would think it can get dry in a particular spot and that moving the steering column up and down and turning the wheel ought to help spread the grease around.