So, MINI's have been out there for almost 2 years now. When I first logged onto this site a year ago, one of the big topics of discussion was the power steering cooling fan and it's susceptibility to damage.

The question is how many people have had any real issues with the power steering cooling fan??

BB-

 

I haven't heard of any problems with the location of the fan. No one has posted any problems, that I have seen, but you may want to do a search to confirm.

 

Is there anybody out there ??? (Pink Floyd reference)

C'mon, there must be some recent thoughts on this subject ...

Anyone....

(Insert sound of crickets here)........

BB-

 

I haven't had any problems myself and to my knowledge, none have occured among local owners here. Haven't seen it ever mentioned on NAM either. Windshields are another matter.

 

Seems like it is not currently a problem. Maybe someday a similar question will be posed about windshields and stumbles and there will be similar lack of response. Hope lives.

 

I have 8000+ miles on my MCS since Feb and there are no problems but I would be careful about running over an orange rubber cone at autocross and getting it jammed into that fan.

At a tech session before the track while checking the car on a lift, a BMW mechanic said that fan was for making snow cones out of road snow.

Just put a fan cover or protector over it if you need some extra safety.

 

I remember reading about this topic, perhaps at another forum. Seems like someone had a piece of plastic bag get sucked into the fan housing and caused overheating or something to that effect. Anyway, many, including myself, have bought the Moss Motors Power Steering Fan Shield.

 

Would you reccomend getting that shield?

 

My 04 mcs has 2300 miles on it and I installed the Moss shield. Its an easy to install item, stainless steel and will protect the fan from ingesting plastic/paper bags, stones/rocks, etc. When you look at that open fan sitting right in front, well.. I just feel the shield is worth the cost for piece of mind.

 

I have a box of 5 amp fuses in my glove compartment.

2002 build MC, currently 27K miles. Overheated during the summer sue to the power steering issue. Warranty repair, I now keep an eye on my temp and try not to remain motionless for too long...bwahahahahaha.

 

Well, while picking up my Blue Brummie the other day, I asked my sales guy his thoughts on the subject.

He told me how this past summer, a piece of trash jammed the motor, blew the fuse, and left him by the side of the road (because he didn't want to overheat his enginer.

So, with that thought in mind, I think I'll spend the $40 for the Moss Mini shield. Seems like a prudent insurance policy.

My final $.02 on the subject.

 

Is there anybody out there ??? (Pink Floyd reference)

Dave's Not Here!

The MotorShield is my only mod. Other than having four Italian Job ***** as Valve cover caps.

My nice enamels jobs were stolen.

 

Blue Brummie

While this may or may not be ralated to the fan not working properly. As we can not monitor the fan while out driving. Nor do I know if the fan should kick in at a certain temp.

But, I do know there is a not well known over heating issue with the PS units. Cy was on a run with about a dozen other MINIs in the hills that had 3 units under hard cornering and high heat conditions were the power steering had turned to manual. 1 car was Cy's, the second was a well known S, the CSI car, and the third had crashed.

Last summer what I had thought was my CVT burping under these same conditions was actually my P.S. boiling over.

_________________
Tracy Hemstreet

 

There's a guy in Houston who was on the track. In the middle of a turn, his power steering went out. He was able to control the car, and get it to stop.

He had some mods done at Momentum (exhaust and bmp airfilter) and even though they told him that those mods would NOT affect his warrenty, they told him that he had to return the car to stock before they could lookat it. IT turns out (news to me) that the air filters actually divert air from the powerstering fan so the dealers can use that excuse even if it has nothing to do with it.

I think the mesh cover makes sense and I'm strongly thinking about it.
Another guy in Houston put a mesh grill on the scoop, and that looks really good too.

Louay

 

Hold on a second. I may not know a whole lot, but I don't see how on earth an alteration of the air intake have anything to do with cooling the power steering fan. The air intake is right in front of the driver on TOP of the engine. The power steering fan is hanging on the BOTTOM of the car, right in the middle, with air blowing onto it constantly. This is just silly. Either the story has been garbled on its way here, or the dealer is the biggest liar yet to surface in these forums.

On the other hand, I *have* heard of power steering fans going out and the dealers claiming that aftermarket skid plates had hindered air flow to the fans, thus causing them to overheat... :evil:

 

Air intake messing with the power steering pump cooling fan??? HOGWASH. That person does not know their *** from a whole lot of things! :evil:

 

I had my power steering go out. No fun. But it didn't have anything to do with the fan. It was actually my computer that went out. They replaced it at 2300 or so miles and I haven't had a problem since.

 

I've got almost 28,000 miles on Peanut and I've only just today put the PS fan shield on. I've never had a problem and I've run over a number of things that I thought would catch the fan for sure... I'd been meaning to get a shield and install it for some time, but I've only just gotten around to it now.

 

This is somewhat related to the topic so I thought i would share it. I was one of the Minis mentioned earlier that over heated the power steering system during some spirited canyon driving. It was a hot day, very tight turns , and i do have a full bottom Moss Mini skid plate. The power steering fan was working fine just not well enough to prevent the seizing of the system. It was a rather attention getting experience when it suddenly went from power steering to manual instantly . I was able to get the car thru the turn and pull over safely but it was tricky. I got out and expected to see the power steering bottle over flowing as I had seen before on other mini's at the track but there was noting like that going on. I let the car cool for about 10 min and everything went back to normal. Drove semi hard for about 20 min and it locked up again. Let it sit for about 15 min this time and took it slow for the rest of the day. I do think that the skid plate may have been a contributing factor although the other car which had the same problem did not have one installed.I will not take it off however as it has already saved me a ton of money during a couple of of track excursions already . My solution to this problem will be upgrading to a more performance oriented fluid for this summer season and when i find it I will post accordingly. The screen which is sold by Moss is certainly cheap insurance and if you look under the car and see that little plastic fan hanging out in space you might think it a good idea as well.On a side note I have also noticed that the 04's have started coming with screens factory installed and you know if it isn't in their best interest BMW would not have gone to the extra expense to put them on .

Randy
Team M7

www.m7tuning.com

 

i heard that the fan blade is also differntly shaped so it's not so inclined to let dirt and junk gunk up in there. I could also be entirely wrong.

 

I knew of several people who had this problem, but it was in the earlier 02 builds and the problem was addressed by MINI and corrected.

I’ve not heard of anyone having this problem for quite some time now.

 

I believe that earlier MINIs had the power steering circuit on the same fuse as the radiator fan. This meant that if you sucked-in a Wally World bag into the PS fan and blew the fuse, your radiator cooling fan shut down. This resulted in the potential for engine overheating. From what I understand, starting late 03, the PS circuit was isolated from the cooling fan circuit.

Also, someone on the boards used a computer power supply fan grille to retrofit on his/her PS fan. Light, tidy, and brilliant!

Theo

 

That would be the fix. Last spring (within about a month of the first ever Tail of The Dragon run) there was a rash of people who injested crap into the power steering fan and jammed it. The fuse would then blow and the car would over heat...

The shroud over the fan was the fix for the earlier cars, and MINI isolating the PS circuit on the new cars resolved the issue.

 

I just had my p/s fan replaced @ 16k under warranty. It sounded like a coffee grinder when it was running. The replacement has a screen over it.