So after searching almost endlessly to figure out my power steering issues a couple of months ago, I finally came to the conclusion that my cooling fan needed to be replaced. I replaced it and all was well with my power steering up until a few days ago.

I had been driving the car for almost 8 hours in heavy traffic last Friday. On my way home, my power steering went out again. Over the last couple of days, it would work at first and after driving for a few minutes it would go out. Yesterday it was out from the moment I turned my car on, and never really came back. Today, something interesting happened. I turned the car on and it felt like my power steering pump was really trying to work. I turned the wheel while idling, and instead of that high pitched motor sound, I got a lower pitched sound followed by a clunking sound.

I'm assuming that was the sound of my dying power steering pump. My uncle, who is a mechanic, is telling me that these cars had issues with the harness as well, but I'm thinking it's the pump. I'm hoping if I replace the pump, I don't see power steering issues for at least another 6 months, lol.

On another note, I just hit 100k miles.

 

Take a look at the motor brushes for the pump. It almost sounds like they could be wore out. I would say replace the pump anyways due to the miles but the info might help someone later.

 

your uncle is right....mini decided to run the power lines in series on the radiator fan and the p/s pump which over loads the line on certain cars. there is an update to seperate the power for each component.