My power steering has been going out and coming back on for a while now. What would cause it to go out? I dont auto cross or road race. It really sux not having power steering when you need it. can someone help me?? thanx



kalvin

 

Is your car out of warranty yet? If not I would say take it by the dealer. That is if the drive isn't to far.

 

Check your hydraulic fluid. That exact problem happened to me once. I had to buy hydraulic fluid from a porsche dealer because bmw uses a special type of hydraulic fluid called CHF 11S, used by only a few car manufacturers. If your hydraulic fluid tank is empty, fill it up and then take it to the dealer. In my case there was an internal leak so I coudn't see any leak on the ground but the fluid was definately going somewhere. In the end, my dealer switched the entire steering mechanism (or whatever you call it) under warranty.

 

If my information is correct the Mini uses an electric motor for the power steering instead of the belt driven pump on many other vehicles. If this is incorrect someone please set the record straight. If it is an electric motor that drives the unit you may have a problem in the electrical rather than a fluid problem.


Good luck!

 

Yup it's an electric pump. Thats the whirring noise you hear while sitting still and turning the wheel:smile:

 

yeah it's out of warranty. however i took it to the dealer when i had 49,500 miles. i told them that the power steering would go out on me. so i went with the tech and drove around, but nothing happened. they told me that i couldn't prove to them that it was working. so he told to just drive around and see if it does it again. It just happened to be the weekend bfore AMVIV. after AMVIV i was out of warranty. just my luck.

thanks everyone for replying

 

If you have a record of seeing the dealer for this problem before the warranty expired, then they should honor it. You were correct and just because they could not reproduce the problem, doesn't mean it didn't exist when it was under warranty...
It's worth a try...
mike