I drove for an hour and a half/70 miles to work this morning. I got in at 8:30, shut the car off and went inside. I've been at work now for over an hour and my car is making an electrical humming noise. It's not the wooshing of the fan, but something else. The lights are off, the key is out. There are no lights on inside. The sound is coming from under the hood.

Is this "normal"?

Not that I think we did anything to cause this sound, but for what it's worth yesterday the motor mount and expansion tank were replaced and the oil and coolant were changed as well. Only remotely electrical thing we did was re-set the oil light.

And for what it's worth the car does have an aftermarket stereo system.

 

I would suggest opening the hood and trying to isolate where the noise is coming from. Maybe it will be louder when you open the hood so you will know it is coming from the engine compartment. See if the radiator fan is still running. See if it is the power steering fan or pump. Maybe turn the steering wheel to see if the noise changes. Maybe start the car and see if the noise changes. Turn off the car to see if it still makes the noise.

 

...only if it doesn't know the words...

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

packimocity

 

:rofl great joke packimocity

Thanks for the tips Quickmni, the sound eventually stopped, if it does it again I'll try and figure out where it is coming from. It is a very electrical sound. I hope something isn't draining the battery.

 

It is probably the air from the A/C actuators (The things that regulate your vent openings) leaking down.

I would get it checked out anyway. I could be wrong. If it is the A/C vent actuators it usually does not happen all the time. Only when it wants to for some reason. The vents are air actuated by vacume.

 

There is a chance it was the PS pump...has a bit of a buzz oe electrical sound to it...it should turn off, but if it fails to turn of due to having failed electronics, or a cut/chafed electrical harness, it can continue to run, kill the battery, or even start a fire. Keep an eye on it.
Depending on the sound, the ps fan makes s bit of noise too..different pitch than the radiator fan...
After 90 minutes, both the radiator fan and the ps fan should have been off a long time, most other sources should have long ago bleed down or shut off. Monitor this closely, and plan on getting it fixed ASAP.

 

So now the battery is dead. Central locking doesn't work, car wont crank... the gauge lights dont even turn on in 2nd position

Any ideas now?

 

Bet the ps pump ran, killing the battery...it was likely almost dead last time, but you started it just before the battery gave out. Jump it...and find the scource of the sound...simple... Easy....if it is something you will likely Diy...if not, then have it towed, and let the techs trouble shoot it.....

 

+1 on Zippy's good advice.

 

THIS IS SPECULATION - But... if the power steering pump overheats & the cooling fan - power steering - does not work, spin freely... this could be a BIG time problem = fire.
If possible - lift the front of the car - locate the power steering fan - see if it is able to spin. If it does not spin - disconnect the battery. Your car is an 04 & would have the first gen PS fan which is no longer in production.
This fan is a direct connection - no fuse - no fuseable link.
PLEASE check this ASAP
This is SPECULATION - lets hope for the best, better safe than sorry

 

Ok I jumped the car today and the sound is gone. I checked the power steering fan and it does spin easily. I'm thinking about changing it out just to be safe. I'm a little worried that something may have stopped working during it's marathon run yesterday, but the car drives fine, and the power steering does work.

 

Before you go spend $$$ to swap something out that may or may not be broken, I'd pay a tech to look it, and get an opinion. I'd hate to see you spend $500+ to swap out a PS pump when it was a stuck relay or something...
If the PS fan is the orgional, I would swap it out to the newer one...the one with a thermal fuse right behind the plug...but that would not solve the problem is the PS Pump burns up...still, a good mechanic that knows MINI's should be able to help you a bunch...he might even be able to re-create the pump running with the car off...so you can determine if it is the same sound.....It might be well worth an hour of diagnostic time....(a good independent MINI mechanic might be able to run the PS pump and or the fan for you independent of the engine....I kinda doubt dealers would...it is kinda thinking "outside the box" if you will.

 

I really don't think the pump is burned out because I can spin the fan freely and I still have power steering. I am more worried about the fan. I will replace it as it is an inexpensive part and it would put my mind at ease.

Fingers crossed that the car starts this morning. It didn't hum when I get home, so I don't see why it won't.

 

Does the PS make any noise?

If the car was some distance when you were hearing the hum, there are several other posibilities. Just want to elimate the PS fan & pump first

 

Battery was dead again this morning. The hum only comes back when the cables are on the car then goes away after the jump. I couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from but it is under the hood. I just dropped it off for some diagnostics. I hope its just a fan. I'm waiting for a ride at the shop. The car has been sitting for about 10 mins with no hum.

 

And it's a hum.... Hmmmmmmm... pun intended. No fan is running - you would have seen that..

At the shop, I'm sure they'll check the relays. Strange the hum was not present the last time the engine was shut down... Something's running

Best of,
Steve

 

unfortunately i think it's a bad power steering pump. it's not common but i have seen this before. somehow the pump shorts itself internally and just stays on by itself and the only way to shut it off is to disconnect it.
and obviously the only way to fix is to replace the pump.

 

Wouldn't the first symptom of a bad power steering pump be the loss of power steering?

Anyways, dropped the car off at the shop this morning. It turns out that something was ground incorrectly. He re-ground it at around 10:30am and let the car sit all day to see if the battery would drain. It started up around 5, I got there a few minutes later, started it up and drove it home.

I went to start it up about ten minutes after I got home and it started-- but with hesitation, and the temperature read out went down to 36 before going back to the real temp and the head unit went back to demo mode. It didn't completely die, but got close. I left the car for a few hours and tried again, again it started up but with some hesitation, this time temp and head unit were fine.

I'm HOPING that it is fixed but the battery isn't completely charged yet and thus is struggling to start a little bit. I left it running for about fifteen minutes to help charge up the battery and I'm just praying it starts tomorrow morning because I really don't want to wake up my roommate at 7am so he can jump my car, and it's going to be tough to roll start the car on a flat surface in heals.

Fingers crossed.

 

not necessarily. i've seen it where the pump stays on all the time and kills the battery but the car still had power steering. like i said, it's not common but possible. although i hope this is not the case for you.

 

Each time I start the car it gets easier and easier to start, but now it is stalling out on me-- kinda. It's done it twice. Everything turns off- stereo, power steering, gauges drop down to zero, engine noise stops, then it starts back up a second later.

More diagnostics tonight.

 

If you have a battery charger....plug it in for a bit....or connect it to second car with a set of jumper cables for a few minutes.....
Some battery's never return from a complete draining...so do....some don't.
Remember...with all th computer these cars have, odd things happen when a battery is very weak, or have a failed cell....odd, unexplainable things.

 

The battery is the original. It's six years old and the car has low miles from mostly short trips. I'm guessing that it was unable to come back completely from being completely drained. It was something that when I bought the car I figured I would have to replace soon enough.

I'm hoping that's the answer.

 

Yup, 6 years for an OE battery... It's time!

 

Battery was changed out. Since then no humming or dips in idle. This weekend I drove it about 500 miles, 200 of which were on the racetrack and the car did great. I never lost power steering on the three mile, eleven turn track in near 100 degree weather, so I'm sure the power steering fan/pump is fine. I'm still planning on changing that and the thermostat out soon (temp also stayed in the center all weekend long). I'm also going to be forced to upgrade the brakes. In the words of another drive, "You're going way too fast for stock pads" I appreciated the complement!

 

Sounds lile it's FIXED......

And - " If you aren't useing the breaks, you're not going fast enough "