I have a 2003 MCS with DSC.

Has anybody replaced the steering angle sensor themselves?

Was it hard? Any tips ot tricks?

Or should I just take it to the dealer and have them change it?

Thanks,
Brad

 

it is not that hard, but it has to be encoded and calibrated after replacement.

 

Would it be best to replace the part, have an alignment on my MINI and then take it to the dealer (80 miles away) for calibration and encoding?

Could I damage the sensor without it being calibrated or encoded if I drive it that far?

Thanks for the help and responce.

Brad

 

No, and an alignment is not neccessary either. But, why do you say you need one. Do you have a light on with fault codes? Is your steering wheel off center? If you have something wrong with your suspension and your steering wheel is off center, the DSC will set a fault code. Fix the mechanical issue and recalibrate the steering angle sensor and your good to go. I've just seen a bunch of sensor replaced just because had a fault code and not the root cause.

 

I have had the DSC and flat tire lights on for a while, I replaced a front a rear wheelspeed sensor, but that did not fix the problem. I finally had time yesterday to take the MINI to the dealer and they diagnosed the lights.

They said that the steering wheel sensor needed to be replaced. They tried to reset it a couple of times but it did not work. They said that the sensor may have gone bad or I hit a pothole while turning and that damaged the sensor. They want to replace the sensor, give it an alignment and reset the sensor.

They also said the steering wheel is off, I am very conscious of small details like that and I do not notice that wheel being off at all.

So what I wanted to do to save some money is try to have all of the issues taken care of and then just have them reset the new sensor.

What type of mechanical problems could cause this or what should I look for?

I have had camber plates and KW V2 coilovers on for about 4 years along with adjustable end links, but I think that is all I have done the front suspension.

I have looked through the Bentley manual and I did not find how to replace the sensor, can anyone descibe how this done, or is it self explanitory when you see it?
Thanks for the help.
Brad

 

Bent tierod ends, anything that affects camber(because that changes toe and makes the steering wheel off center), like struts, control arms etc.. You could even take a hard enough whack that has something tweaked that you couldn't see and flat out just need an alignment. My plan would be to look at the car and see if anything looked bent. Do an alignment, if nothing else to verify that the camber is in spec and adjust the toe if everything else is ok. Recalibrate the LEW(Steering angle sensor). Like I said if the steering wheel is obviously off center, red flag.........fix that first. You could put a hundred of them in there and would still have a light on after some driving if the wheel is off center.

 

Thanks for the info. I will go under the car this weekend and see if I can see anything. If not I will have the car aligned next week and have the sensor reset, to see if that takes care of the lights.

Thanks for the help.

Brad

 

hi, did you fix the problem?
Did you bring it to dealer to replace the steering wheel senor? Please update us~ thanks so much!
-g

 

I haven't done anything to the MINI yet, the sensor is about $175.00 from Classic and the alignment is another $100.00 and finally getting the sensor initialized is $60.00 and a 75 mile drive to get the dealer. Right now I just don't have time or the extra cash laying around. So I am going to wait for a little longer before I do the work. I did find out how to change the sensor in the Bently manual, it doesn't look thast hard.

Hopefullt it won't be long.

Brad

 

Just an update.

I finally fixed my car. I replaced the Steering Wheel Sensor (took about 30 minutes). The was one weird thing, when I took off the old sensor, you are supposed to have 1 "wavy" washer between the u-joint and the sensor(below sensor), I had one washer there and 1 above the sensor. All the diagrams I found showed just 1 washer below the sensor. I called the dealership to confirm that only 1 washer was used and that is correct. This may have been the problem, but I replaced the old sensor anyway with only 1 washer and the new sensor.

I had new shoes and an alignment done, then drove it to the dealership in Denver and they programmed and reset my codes. The best thing is that there are no more yellow lights on the dash.

Later,
Brad