Hi all, I'm psyched to be back in a mini, it's been a few years since I sold my 2002 JCW, I'm now back in a 02 MC 5 speed and in love! However a few days ago LA got some serious rain and I'm not sure if it was a problem before hand or not (I bought the car on Saturday 3/24) but I've started having intermittent power steering outages- the first I experienced was in a parking lot doing low speed maneuvering after driving through some standing water. I shut it off and started it again and it was fine. It happened again last night, started it up and no PS, turned it off and back on again and good to go, today I turned to all the way left to lock and it stopped when I turned back.

I've read a bunch of stuff about PS failures, but I haven't found much on intermittent failures, especially on the regular MC without the fan. Everything else about the car is perfect.

Can anyone tell me where to start looking to determine the issues?

 

Not at all mechanically minded, but this is exactly how my PS failure went. I bought a used MCS 04 with around 5k miles left on the warranty. It happened exactly as you described, but without the rain. I would be driving, frequently at lower speeds, taking a turn, etc it would suddenly feel like I was driving a tank. I would park, panic, restart, it would be gone. only to occur again randomly, weeks later.

My solution won't help you, though. I sent it to the dealership. it took several trips, 120 miles each way, but they would not repair it until it failed for them, and thankfully, one day it did, or they were tired of me, I'm not sure, and it was replaced under warranty. Never a moment of trouble since. At least, with the PS. God knows there have been other issues!

Good luck.