I have a 2003 Cooper S with 47 000 KM and it has been flawless so far.

However over the past 3 days I have noticed that my steering is creeking.

I will try and explain as best as I can.

With the car stopped if you turn the wheel left or right there is a creeking noise for the first 10* degrees of the rotation and then maybe 1 or 2 small creeks for the rest of the duration untill lock. It makes the sound like an old wooden door creeking open almost just a bit more metalic..

The noise is aslo there when the car is rolling however hardly as bad, it is quite loud when parked or in parking lots. I have not noticed my powersteering giving out or coming on and off intermitenly either it works perfectly.

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? (Car is out of warrenty)

 

My 04 MINI Cooper S makes a bit of noise sometimes from the steering. I had my local MINI dealer check it out and they said everything was operating as expected...

 

I have the same thing more or less with my 03 MC

I am thinking the steering knuckle (please correct me if this is the wrong term) is in need of lubrication I am going to pull appart the dash some time this weekend and see what i can see

 

Easy fix... Remove the bottom cover from the steering column under the steering wheel and spray some silicon lube on the upper and lower ring bearings. Both are accessible from this location. Mine made an terrible noise for a long time and I finally stopped it by lubing these.

Wombat

 

Thanks!

Will do that this weekend.