yep just a joly drive out in royal oak and bam my power steering dissapered so i tuged it off the road ! then turned off the car knowing that maby it could be a computer glitch then restarted and my power steering was returned to me, the mini feels like turning a semi without powersteering to help out !!

so has anyone else had this what should i look for and does this mean anything very bad and expensive in my future!!!

thanks all and hope to come to a good conclution on this weired prob.

 

Have you checked your power steering fan to see if anything got stuck under there?
Also check the power steering fluid reservoir (Black bottle) and make sure you still have fluid level in the system.

Other causes could be a failed power steering pump or a leaky steering rack.

Sounds like a trip to the dealer is in order.

 

that sucks, you have 70,000 miles and the steering went out. Let us know what you find out. I try and see what the dealer says, they should still have to help you out with it if it turns out to be a costly repair. Were you going thru twisties or anything, or just straight line driving when it went out?
good luck.

 

A local member had that happen to him repeatedly, mostly when the car
got hot. The dealer could not repeat it so they did nothing at first. Finally
it happened one day and he called them on his cell phone and drove directly
there. They replaced his fan and it has been fine since then. That's been
a month or more ago.

 

Huh, why should the dealer have to help out at all? Even the owner admits, the warranty is no longer valid, it's not MINI's responsibility...

 

well i pulled it into the garage over night so it was cold this morning and now it wont come on at all so i out ruled over heating it was intermeadiat now all the time the fluiid is perfect and im thinking the moter could have just took a crap,
funny thing is usually with electrinics when they die its dead not on and off, oh well any other ideas should i buy a new rack and pinion or moter ?

thanks all!!
funny now i feel like im restoring my mini, never thought id have to be doing maintenece on it after a year and a three quarters

 

Not a true statement at all. Heat can have a great effect on electronics and bad capacitor can cause an intermittent problem i.e. works when cold, stops when hot.

I would have a dealer look at it if you’re not sure.

 

i hav a feeling it's the fan, when you bring it by later this week we can see if things are hooked up right and working. then try to replace the fan (by taking the one off my car). that is where my money is.

 

well yes as in like an amp turns off when over heated but i was just getting at was it was working then not working at will even turning off the car and restarting it it worked or if it sat for a while but now that it sat all night and no change i thing it could be the pump wich is a 350 doller hit!! my take is if it where a fan pproblem then it would have been fine this morning when everything is cold but if its the pump dieing then that would explain the power steering going on and off

 

There's actually a bit of history of flakey PS pumps/motors in 2002's. I know of several that have failed and have seen several more at my dealer with the same problem. Depending on your dealer, you may or may not get confirmation on this (i.e., I don't believe that there was ever a TSB or anything on this from BMW)...but let's just say that I'm not surprised that you have this problem as it's by no means a rare failure on 2002 MINIs.

I've NOT heard of it being a problem on later model years.

 

sorry to hear about your power steering. My power steering went dead at ~5000 miles. Nothing wrong with the fan, didn't come back after cooling and I'd swear driving big rig would be easier than driving the mini when the power steering is dead. Dropped it off the same day at Princeton BMW/MINI (a Saturday, so no service going). They replaced the power steering motor on Monday.

I'd see what happens if you press MINIUSA on this issue. It's clearly a safety issue when the power steering just drops out (I was going around a corner when mine failed, put me well into the oncoming lane of traffic).

You might also file a report with the NHTSA http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

Best of luck,

Cricket

 

I had a similar problem (although mine started at around 10k miles). Initially, they topped off the power steering fluid, and that helped...for a week or two. The problem resurfaced and they then had to replace the entire steering rack. An operation that would have run me about $2k had it not been under warranty. You'll find this has been a recurring issue for many owners. It seems to me that Motor City MINI should suck it up and give you a replacement. Good luck!

 

Its still a pretty new car man. There's no way in hell I'd accept steering faliure after 70,000 miles ..... F- that.

 

i ordered a whole bunch of parts to fix his car. the parts to replace the fan, pump, hood latch, and fog light all came in around 350 for parts. so add a rack and i bet the whole system could be replaced for less that 450 in parts. install is where all your cost is. but it looks like an easy job so i bet half of the mini owners could do this job if it happens out of warranty.

 

well i checked on the rack and that little @#$%($ is 750 bucks give or take a few dollers man i hope that ain the issue!!! then ill really be up a creek!!!!

 

ok as many of you may know my power steering had been out for almost over a week now and yesterday it came back on and has worked since very strange,


it had come off then on before it went out completley after a week goes by it came on again yesterday for a short while, i got gas it was on again now its been working ever since,


i tell you its the ghosts in the machine

but anywho just a little gremlin does this sound like a motor problem to you guys!!!

 

hahahaha even after you cut the fan out!!?! i bet it's the motor, and with out the fan it will not be too long till you don't have it back again..

 

Does anyone know the part number, for the bearing, in the power stearing fan?

 

It is a sealed unity....
A few folks have tried to open it up....I remember one person replacing the bearings at one point...but to unseal the unit, then close it back up, not sure how long it lasted for the effort... The thread is around.
This thread is so old...2004, it is kinda unlikely the op's are around or remembers...
You can buy the new fans for anywhere between 150-180$....
But in newer threads you will find that by the time the ps pump is turning off, the pump is toast...the issue will worsen, till it stops...a few even caught fire..possibly from the pump running...as they fail, some will activate with the motor off or keep running till the battery dies....

I found that the oem ps duct at $80 has a done a good job of protecting the fan and it's bearings from grit...if it does nothing more than extend the life of the fan, it will pay for itself...if the ps motor lasts longer, all the better!!

 

I thought i might be able to save sum money , bbut it was worth a try. Thanx

 

Yeah just get a new P/S fan there aren't replacement parts for the fan available.

 

Same thing happend to me with my 03 MCS. Turned out to be the power steering pump. Since I was under warranty, the dealer did the entire rack for about 1400 parts and install.

But to your point, when it was going it would come out of nowhere, stiffen up and then would work again. Sometimes all it would take was letting the car sit off for about 20 minutes other times it would be a quick off and on and still others it wouldn't matter... sometimes after a day or so it would come back. I finally caved (after doing a little research of my own) and took it to the dealer and had it fixed under warranty (drove a loaner minivan for 4 or 5 days...)

Good luck to you. Mine crapped out in the 50k range so you're not earlier than most i don't think. Hope you get it fixed without breaking the bank...

 

I just had my ps pump replaced at 65k miles. When it started to go south, it sounded like a radio-controlled plane under the hood. It would cut out occasionally, like on a freeway entrance ramp (not fun), but never went completely bye-bye.

My ps fan was still trouble free, but I was told that if the fan stops, the pump will go soon after due to lack of cooling, and then both the fan and the pump will need to be replaced. Poor design, just like a number of other parts on the car, afaic.

 

I have had mine (2004) cut out while driving... you never notice until you try to turn at low speed... I have found that all I need do is turn the key off and then back on, and it comes back. Making me think it is a Circuit Breaker, but I need to spend a little time looking into it.

Let me know what you find...

Motor on!

 

Wow, what a resurrection!!!! If you wanna simplify life, look into this $50 PS Pump Delete Kit:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...able-soon.html

Get it from Condor Speed Shop:
http://www.condorspeedshop.com/colle...teering-delete