Ok so I am new here and I am very worried that something goes wrong with my mini cooper and I am just trying to due any preventing maintenance to prevent any major repairs down the road since I didn't received any maintenance records. So any help will be appreciated . But right now something is going wrong with my cooper I took my car to get a good detail saturday and they cleaned the motor and I hope that is the only thing thats wrong with it . Its making a weird noise when ever I turn the car on after a few seconds it sound like something electrical starts and then it starts to sound like a bearing with out grease or like if the catalytic converter is going out but more like a bearing with out grease and it sounds like its coming out of the bottom part of the car center part does any body have any clues please help ! I hope is not the tranny , its been shifting good with out any problems .

 

You have to put it in the air and listen from under the car to see. Electric fan for power steering and (worse) the power steering pump itself are in the area you describe. You need jack stands (or a lift) and a friend to turn it on.

 

I have just brought it to the dealer and they said it was going to be the electric fan and cost to fix is 270 They said it was 210 for the fan and 60 of labor so since this is my first mini and don't know alot of it I will pay for thus one but am getting the manual for sure because I am not afraid of getting dirty and working on my cars so next time it's on.