I have been having intermitant power steering problems for the last few days and it totally died the other day.

So, the power steering has come back to life.

Last Thursday I was heading home from work on Germantown Road here in the Portland, Oregon area. I am not going fast as it was wet and I really don't want a tree shaped dent in the front of my car. Anyway, I am coming out of a turn and the engine dies, stalls out, when I depressed the clutch to change from 2nd to 3rd. Lucky for me that was done in a short straight. I dump the clutch and the motor starts right up again.

On Saturday, heading to the Duck game, no issues like that, but the Check Engine light comes on for about 1 second and goes out. No other issues or noticeable issues with the car. When we arrive in Eugene, when I pull in to park, the steering dies briefly and the puts a huge strain on the motor as it almost dies - which is strange because as we all know the two are only connected by a wire or two. After the game, PS is back no issues. On the way home, the brake light comes on for about a second and goes off. I am on I5 at the time and traveling at about 70 mph. Brake handle is obviously not in use.

Could the PS pump with it's silly fan issues cause this kind of electrical gremlin or do I have a larger electrical system issue.

Thanks,
Craig

 

How old is the battery?

Bad battery can cause all kinds of weird problems.

Oh....and how ya doing Craig.....lol

 

put the car up onn the wheel ramps and fired her up. No PSP fan movement at all. Left it running for 10 min, nothing, turned on the AC sill nothing. Pulled the factory fan prtoctor off and TRIED to spin the fan manually. Lots of grinding when I finally broke it free. Fan still didn't move. I think that the fan is dead. BTW - the PSP was working. Whinning away like it had a fan to keep it cool.

Doing good! Cannot remember who you are though....

 

PS Fan will only work when A/C is on and the high speed rad. fan comes on. Sounds like a dead PS fan, but this shouldn't have anything to do with the other problems. How old is your battery?

And this is your friend from Central OR!

 

Power steering fan is activated any time "low" speed rad fan is activated, will also stay on if high is activated

 

I recently had the a similar problem. I live in sunny, hot SW Florida, where batteries can a do go dead with no notice or warning. This happened to me last week, I came out of a restaurant and my battery was dead, i always carry a self contained battery jumper in my car so i was able to start the car and drive it the short distance to my home. the next I put a brand new Optima red top battery in and the car started right up, two hours later I went out to make sure everything was ok, and the battery was dead. Luckily for me the car was in my garage, so i put my battery charger on and set it to 2 amps and let it charge overnight. the next day the battery charger indicated that I had a full charge. I backed it out of my garage and lo and behold, no power steering. I called my local Mini dealer and was told that it would be ok to drive it to the dealership, which i is about 3-4 miles away, so i fought with the steering and just as i was turning into the dealership, the power steering started working again. I left it and they found out that my alternator was kaput, so i had them replace it under the extended warranty I had bought from them. now i have my car back and it is running great.

So, it could be your alternator

 

Oh! Hey Man!

battery is about 3 years old. The PS comes and goes, twice on the way home from work. Put the car up and wheel ramps and it is dead. Talked to two techs and the PS fan the the main coolant fan only share a fuse on the older models with the old wire harness. Mine may have the new harness. But with the car running at normal operating temps then turning on the A/C - still no fan and no PS. This morning, when cold, it turned on for a second then stopped and like I said before, tonight on the way home from work, came and went twice. Only there for a few minutes. It's heading to Mini Madness next week. The new Portland Mini can't be bothered with answering my emails. They didn't bother picking up the phone when I called today either. Not really happy with Lithia Motors at this point. Either way I am going to be $1100 lighter in a week or so.

Going with replacing the fan and motor, don't want to have to take it back since the motor has to have been damaged now.

 

Yep...sounds like the pump is shot. The pump only costs around $400 and there really isn't a good reason to take it to George is there? There a plenty of other shops around that could do the job. Have you checked with Bronson to see if he has a shop to recommend?

 

Anyone know how to bypass the Video turn off , by pass emergency brake shut down?.