For several months now, I have been having an intermittent noise coming from my front end, mostly at low speeds and when the car is stationary. I also hear a occasional (not often) clunking when going over speed bumps at low speeds in the office garage. The noise when turning the wheel is a grinding noise and seems to be only when the wheel rotation hits a certain area and I also feel it through the wheel.

I took it to a local indy shop and he came back with an estimate of $2,345 to replace the steering rack. The majority of it for the part, 4 hours labor, reprogramming fee and then realignment.

My Clubbie is a '10 S with 52K, straight stock, never been tracked and mostly highway driven. What is the likelihood of a gear crapping out in the steering rack?

 

Have not seen too many steering racks go on the Gen 2 MINIs. 32106856876

Most of the time its damage from a wreck or the EPS unit goes bad which throws a steering wheel red icon on the display.

https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2007-Cooper-R56-S-Coupe-L4_1.6L_N14B16A/Steering/Rack/



I would check the wheel bearing first, those can go bad and make noise. Also the endlinks that attach to the rack can get play in them and make a clunk over bumps.


Tie rods:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...r-tie-rod.html


Wheel Bearing:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-bearings.html

 

I had spoken to the mechanic after posting this and he said that he ruled out any issues with ends, bushings, bearings etc and that the only thing left would be the steering rack.

I am not too keen on dropping that much money on something that it is not a much greater certainty on.

Any advice on how to proceed with this? This has been a slowly and slightly progressing issue, but I don't want to just wait until it gets more consistent and noticeable if there is a potential safety issue with it.

Thanks for the info, ECS.

 

I guess the rack can go bad, its pretty rare. I would rule out those others 100%. Then I would disconnect the tie rods and move the rack back and forth. If it feels bad I would replace it. Are the boots on the end of the rack torn and did water get in there?


Let me know how it goes.

 

Another option is to take the car to another indy shop and see what they say. dont tell them you already have someone looked at it.

as ECS said, steering racks are solid and almost never go bad. the link ends however can go bad. In my clubman, the sway bar links became loose somehow.

Do not over trust shops! they are in business to make money, not necessarily fix the issue. (not all of them of course)

 

When I went to pick up the car, the mechanic threw it up on the lift and pointed out several items that would be a concern, but all of them were not showing any issues. From talking with him, it sounded like he spent a fair amount of time trying to track it down.

I'm not comfortable with spending that amount of money to replace something that we're not certain is the issue. He was not able to get it to repeat the issue, so we've left it that I will try to pinpoint the circumstances that produce the noise.

I may try another indy, but until it does it more consistently, I may be tilting at windmills.