I have an 05 MCS with 36k miles and in the past month my power steering seems to be noticeably louder making a whining sound whenever I turn the wheel. It was never this loud before.

In the past week I also started to hear a sound coming from my dash that sounds like water with air bubbles flowing through pipes. When I turn my steering wheel the sound goes away but then comes back upon centering the wheel. I tried listening under the bonnet but there was too much noise from the engine. I can only hear it from inside the car.

I think I saw some spots in the driveway as I was backing out last week but thought it was just condensation from the AC. It's possible that it could have been power steering fluid now that I think about it. Looking in the manual I didn't see anything about how to check the power steering fluid levels. Where can I do this?

Based on the above description what are your thoughts on the problem? Is it low fluid, pump going bad, fan going bad, etc..?

 

Upon further searching I found where to check the fluid and the reservoir was completely dry so there must be a leak :(

 

and one Mini owner up where I live actually cured a leak with some seal rejuvinator! I never would have thought it would work, but it did and saved him from a full rack replacement.

Good luck and let us know what you find....

Matt

 

Just got back from filling it up and driving about 20 miles. All symptoms seem to have disappeared. Will keep a watchful eye on it for the next few weeks. I did notice the fluid turned cloudy but that may have been from doing a hot fill.