The power steering pump in my 2002 S started to fail and I ordered a new one from not BMW and while I was waiting for it my battery went totally dead. This had happened a few months ago but seemed to be associated with the a/c fan not shutting off. In any case I got a new battery then.

I was able to charge my MINI and drive to my mechanic who did a full recharge and then replaced the pump. When he gave me the car back I wanted to know about the battery and he said that according to some service he subscribes to the problems are related

Anyway the pump works just fine but I noticed that an old 'problem' had cleared itself up. For as long as I can remember if I was running at really high revs (I have a Shark Injector and can rev to 7,600) and got out of the gas quickly - say to brake hard for a corner - the car lurched as if the gas had been slammed off. I just got used to it but now I am finding that all is smooth on these types of liftoffs. Nice but too weird.

Anyone got any insight into how steering pumps/batteries/ and engine mapping are all related.

 

The steering pump wont work if the battery voltage is less that 10 and greater than 16VDC.

The Injector on time will automatically adjust as battery voltage changes.

Not sure if any of this applies to you, but the only connection I can see.

 

The pump is electric if it stuck on it will drain the battery. Alot of the pumps you read about fail this way.

 

Thanks for info - modern cars are very difficult to diagnose and it almost makes you want to give BMW the $125 per hour they ask to fix stuff.

Until you remember it was their design which caused the problem in the first place