Hi guys,

I am writing from Portugal. Nice to meet you all.

My MINI is a Cooper SD 2.0 143hp R56 LCI from 2011 that I bought brand new. The car has 200k miles and a carefull and expensive maintenance.

On the 3rd of July I bumped into a sidewalk in a curve at 30mph with my left wheel. The car climbed the sidewalk and bumped into the road again. The tyre dindnt burst but took a severe damage and got deformed. Mytyres are Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric 205/45/17.

But the next day when I took the MINI for a spin I began noticing output shaft noises, clutch noises, gearbox noises, clinging noises lots and lots of noises. But the worst part was the steering. Day after day the noises got worse and the steering developed this imprecision, delay when moving the wheel at low speed. As if the pavement had butter on it...Sport button stoped doing anything at all.

So...I talked to my mechanic (a mechanic from the official MINI dealer and who is responsible for my cars maintenance for the last 9 years).

He took the car for a spin and said that left and righ output were damaged, wishbone, wishbone bracket, ball joint, stabilizer link and tie rod from the left side were damaged as well, and that most likely the steering rack was damaged too. Also, when looking more carefully into the engine block he noticed an injector was stuck and leaking (causing engine noises due to the lack of pressure in the cylinder) and that the top chain was getting loose (normal for those who have an N47 engine from BMW).

So...repair it was...all new.

New transmission, new suspension, brand new left and right output shafts, brand new steering rack and tie rods, brand new wishbones and wishbone rackets, brand new stabilizers and mounts, brand new complet distribution kit (upper and lower), brand new set of 2 goodyear tyres. New injector, new spark plugs. Only the cluth, flywheel and gearbox were spared for they presented no problems after a careful mechanic review.

After all of this was done and the new parts coded into the car in the INSTA-P i took the car for a spin.

The noises are all gone (hard to be with so many new parts Lol).

Got this new error from the battery IBS sensor though that stated that an almost brand new and perfectly funtional and charged battery was failing. So the car got no EPS electric power steering. We unplugged and plugged it back again And got back to normal. EPS back again.

Its been 2 days since I picked up the car. No new trouble code errors. No noises. Non at all. Feels like driving a brand new car. Except...

The steering is still lagging...has a delay, feels like driving in a pavement covered with butter. Gets worse when driving at 60mph without sport mode on.

The mechanic and electrician believe that the steering comumn is ok and that the steering wheel sensor is also ok for no errors are present from the DSC and Dynamic Traction Control and both are working fine.

I have switched the steering rack once again with another rack brand new bought from BMW once again.

Keeps having the same problem.

Sometimes is better, other times feels dangerous to drive from all the imprecision it has.

Lets exclude steering rack, tie rods, transmission, suspension, wishbones for now.

They mentioned that brand new tyres maybe causing the issue. But the car behaves all the same on dirt roads and all sort of different pavements.

The electrician mentioned that a faulty ibs sensor or alternator may cause the steering rack not to receive the correct amount of voltage thus the lag. But the alternator was tested and its fine, the battery is charging with 14.06 volts and has 716 from the original 760 agm amps.

I have hear that a faulty steering optical sensor may cause this steering problem but both mechanical electrician and the mechanic believe that the sensor is not the problem and that the steering column is merely a mechanical part.

But the thing is, this lagging in the steering began after the accident so it has to be relate.

So, where is the problem? Could it be the bump on the left side damaged the steering column?? Or the sensor?

Has you might wonder I have spent a lot of money trying to fix the problem in order to have my MINI driving back again. This model (all diesel models) are no longer manufactured by MINI so I would like to keep mine for more years to come. Its s a fun car to drive.

I appreciate all comments and experiences on this issue.

Kind regards,



Nuno


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