2009 Mini "Justa" (non-S) R56 hatch, Canadian car. 6-speed.
A lot of water fell yesterday. Went around a turn and got very surprised and hit a ginormous puddle of water probably close to a foot deep, completely across the road.
Car didn't stall, but I almost instantly saw the dreaded yellow steering wheel error with exclamation point.

I cannot find a fuse for this motor and mechanism.

I searched the internet almost dry but find no reset procedure.

My absolute last hope is to take it to a dealer 4 hours away and miss a day from work. I don't want to do this.
I am not w/o skills and do most of my own work on my car, classic car, motorcycle, electronics, etc., but I am not a mechanic-LOL

Is there anything I can try as far as a reset? Fuse # and location? (under the hood fuse box shows nothing obvious)
(I already scanned it with an OBDII reader and as expected, nothing related to steering showed up....had to try)

I have nearly 500kms on the car since this happened yesterday, so I am pretty sure now that it's not coming back on its own.

One small pc of info I noticed late today, is that I can kinda/sorta get the assist motor to engage just a little when the car is FIRST started (and systems are booting up) but it's not true power steering....it's more like in a car with a real power steering pump and a slipping belt you get that jerky feeling and the wheel moves slowly, gyrating......then after 2 seconds, the cars systems have checked and it goes back to "straight non-assist steering".

It's not impossible to drive., but it is annoying.

OTOH, the longer I go like this, the more I'll look like Arnold Schwartzenegger !

Thanks for anything folks,
p.s.-I ordered a Bentley manual last night but it'll be 10-12 days before it arrives.
Mike

 

Small update: Unhooked battery for ~3 minutes today.
When I hooked it back up, error was gone. (just running car in the driveway, I had 'power' steering again).

Shut car off.

Three or four hours later, drove car to town (~30kms). Worked 100%....I was a happy guy, UNTIL

Came back to car 30-40mins later, error reappeared. No power steering.

I'm not a happy boy anymore.

Curiously...when I unhooked the battery earlier, I lost the time & odometer readings, but not the radio presets, nor date.
(not unhooked long enough?)

Will try unhooking the battery longer tomorrow and do another test.

 

So, one day later, left battery unhooked ~2 hrs, steering problem and warning went away.
We're good for steering again, HOWEVER, I fully expect once I park the car, then later, restart, I'll be back to
square one.

I expect, since it works again (or will work) 100% in on my drive to town tomorrow, some 45mins drive, that somewhere, some sensor
or possibly some resident error code will rear its ugly head.

Does anyone know which sensor(s) are involved with the electric power steering?

Bentley manual arrives in ~10 days.

Thanks

 

Took car for short drive . All good.

I am NOT convinced issue is resolved.

Someone must know what sensors are involved with the electronic power assist steering system (module?) or how to clear errors laying resident.

I would bet $100 that in 24hrs I'll be posting that I am back to square one with no power steering.

 

 

actasci:

My ABS seems to work. I locked the brakes up in my long icy driveway yesterday and today to test. (feeling the pulsing of the pedal and examining the scratch marks seem to confirm they're working) HOWEVER, maybe I have one that's waterlogged or intermittent?

DSC is not showing as being disabled.

Thanks for the lead though. I am sure the wheels were "engulfed" in water when I hit that small pond, errrr...."puddle" a few days ago.

 

OK, so I get 35minutes into my drive this morning and the power steering goes out in the middle of a round-a-bout which is snow covered.
I presume I had a little bit of wheel SLIDE of some kind (but DSC light did not show up like it normally does for wheel SPIN.

So, that tells me it's some sensor somewhere doesn't like a small slide or wheel spin (or inertial forces) and not being able to compensate?

(this seems illogical to me....I mean if you think about it....OK, car is spinning or drifting ever so slightly...what shall we do?

DISENGAGE the guys power steering to make it tougher for him to steer of course !

I think I like Lucas electrics over German technology.

I am going to reset it (unhook battery) for the trip home and push the DSC button (to disengage it) and see if that works.

That's not a solution, but maybe it'll give me either more data and some days of driving WITH power steering.

Stay tuned........weigh in if you have any info !

 

I should mention again, that everything in the car seems to work and there are no errors or warning with the exception of no power steering and the "steering wheel with exclamation mark" popup on the tach, when the steering goes out.
ABS, DSC, hill assist, windshield wipers, etc. etc.....ALL 100% normal and functioning.

If I unhook the battery, I wager if it was summer and I was driving on pavement, I could probably go days without any issues, but where it's winter, there is a little slip and slide here and there.

I am leaning towards a wheel speed sensor....my manual arrives Feb 5th or 6th.....I'll be doing some reading (lol)

 

Hmmm, well....I just drove like a mini maniac on the way home with DSC disengaged...(on purpose--pressed the button by the stick shift)
.I am lucky I never got pulled over by the cops. Sliding around turns, jamming on the brakes, squealing tires around corners. Even did a huge 360* reverse donut in my large icy driveway.

I still have electronic power steering assist.

I bet anyone 3 rusty lugnuts, if I ENGAGED DSC (ie: don't do anything when I first fire the car up...DSC is engaged as a default) that I wouldn't make it 2 miles down the road if I had any kind of wheel slip, and EPS would go out.

My $$ is on a sensor and not the $2000-$3000 electronic power steering module/rack whatever itself. Somewhere a connector for a sensor is full of water, or unhooked, or flaky. The steering (when its told to work) is working fine.

SOMETHING is freaking out and telling the EPS to disengage.

Too bad its freaking cold here. (and no garage) I'd have the wheels off checking wiring, sensors and whatnot, but right now, I'd rather drive with "standard steering" than freezing my own lugnuts off in subzero weather working on a car outside for hours....when is spring again?

 

No advice to offer, but I've been enjoying your updates. Hope you get it sorted out.

 

For the moment....until the weather gets a little better, I get in the car, start it up, and immediately hit the DSC button. This prevents me from losing power steering somewhere along the way.
Course, it does make me drive a little more carefully, as I have no traction control, nor will cruise kick off if I hit snow or ice (tested that theory this morning)

I'm baffled by all this.

Looks like I might be buying some kind of scanner to see if I can detect certain faults in certain sensors or modules. Still makes no sense to disable steering if there's wheelspin. ;-)