Just pulling my steering/sub-frame out to replace a defective clutch and now I also have an apparent leak through the steering rack into the passenger side boot.

Can the seals on these racks be replaced or is it necessary to replace the entire rack? I just ran a quick price check over at RealOEM.com and got quite the shock at $714.00

There must be a straightforward way to replace these seals, surely!!

Anyone experienced with this type of repair other than the warranty replacement of the entire rack? My 2002 Mini is at 58k and out of warranty. Needless to say I do NOT want to spend 700 plus on a new rack.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,
Lloyd

 

I had mine replaced at 45,000 miles or so on my 03 Cooper. Drove to the dealer as pump was grinding, and fluid was low. My advisor crawled under car and said "your rack is leaking into the boots, thats where the fluid is going", we went back into the office and she said yep the whole rack has to be replaced. They topped me off with fluid and gave me a bottle, and said I'll call whe the part is in and we'll put it on. I had a loaner for 3 days, not sure how long the job actually took.


A buddy of mine's mom has an Envoy and here fluid was vanishing, took to the dealer and they told her thank goodness it was the ______ (blank side seal), dont remember what side it was, apparently if it were the other side the whole rack would be replaced. I am not sure why on 1 side the seal can be fixed and not the other. Do our MINI's have this too? She was out of warranty, the seal for 1 side installed was like $200 or something.

 

My 03 MCS did the same thing. Replaced the entire rack under warranty. Good luck!

 

Note to self: Remember to sell Mini prior to end of warranty period.

 

Anyone at all? Can the seal in the passenger end of the steering rack be replaced?

I have the Bentley manual, but it doesn't cover working on the rack itself, only replacement of the entire assembly. (that's not a good sign is it?)

 

At this point, you do not have a lot to lose by removing the rack from the vehicle and taking it apart to see if you can identify the seal manufacturer by looking for the name (and part number) on the defective seal. Once you know this, chance are good that you can find a new one by going to the source. It will probably be a foreign company which complicates things. If you are lucky, Mini will have spec'd a standard part that has an interchange with a variety of sources.

There are several steering rack remanufacturers in the US who take old ones and rebuild them. They may be another source and infact, may sell a rebuilt rack for the Mini.

Does anyone know if the Mini and a 3 series BMW share the rack?
Hope some of this is useful.

 

Good idea... I've been looking at published parts lists however and none break this down beyond the rack itself, i.e. from the point of a "Mini Part No." the rack is a part number and there is no more granularity tracked.

I'm not sure, but I think I may have found a good used rack I can install to hold the Duck together while I look into repairing the original rack. From what I've found online, this problem is not altogether uncommon and there must be a better way than replacing the rack every time for a simple seal leak.

Cheers,
Lloyd

 

Or get an extended warranty. I would imagine that an extended warranty would cost less than the difference between the new car (include registration and taxes into the calculation) and your current ride. Unless there is a compelling technical reason to sell the present ride (like maybe an AWD MINI), it generally is better financially to keep the car.

 

You hearing rumors of an AWD? I was just telling my son the other day that I'd bet there is one in the works, it just seems the logical thing to do. But I have not seen or heard any talk of this being in the works.

 

Not at the present time. I think it was Getrag that put together a one-off AWD MCS as a technical study for MINI/BMW; other than that, I tend to doubt that you will see AWD as an option on a MINI anytime soon.

 

NO. I could think of eleventy billion better things to attempt than rebuilding your steering rack.

Nyet, Nein.

No!!!!!!!!!! You can quite easily ruin what is a perfectly reuseable core, which might be required to be intact if you were to buy a rack...

 

I had the same thing happen with my car at about 25k miles. Steering fluid kept running low but no trace on the garage floor. Got under the car and say that the boots were bulging with fluid. Another source might be a wrecking yard. Minis are unfortunatly starting to end up there.

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Jake at Kaufman Products / Precision Machining in Chicago has provided a bit of additional detail via email that makes sense (and which makes me sorry I purchased a used rack from a 2004 on ebay). Info quoted below:
So this explains why we typically replace the entire rack rather than just installing seals. It also sounds like something BMW should fix, i.e. the rack bars should be chromed or made of a material less susceptible to rusting.

At any rate, I already bought a used rack on ebay and will install that next week. We'll see how long that lasts and I'll be calling Jake when this one leaks.

Cheers,
Lloyd

 

Ha! BMW/MINI are not in the business of building the penultimate product. Their primary mission is to build something that gets them past the warranty period with minimal failures.


If you really want to fix the problem once and forget about it, you might contact Jake about re-building and chroming the rack now.

 

Note to self: Seriously, dump this thing before the warranty period is up and run away fast .

 

This is becoming all the more apparent as I continue fixing things which shouldn't be broken at 58,000 miles.... but I can't help it, I like the car and now that I've had parts of it opened up, may as well fix things and keep driving it for a shile.

I would think however, that Mini/BMW might have at least some concern for building a car that last long enough to convince people to buy another....

As much as that makes sense, I already paid for the 2004 rack and as JLM once told me in another post "The sub-frame removal is pretty cool" It's really not that bad and if I have to go into it again, I'll just do that.

 

Well the used replacement rack is in and the alignment adjusted. So far so good... no leaks and it's driving fine.

Thanks all for the advice. NAM forums and they users here are always a tremendous source of information and help.

Cheers,
Lloyd

 

Since my rack started leaking 300 miles after the warranty period I've decided to go the modified/rebuilt route via Kaufman Products as described in a previous post.

It will wind up costing about $120 more than putting in a new stock unit, but I hope this will be a more permanent solution. Most of the exta cost is due to shipping the rack both ways.

I will post my thoughts after I get the car back. I won't really know if it is an improvement til I add another 50-75K miles.

I did go thru some deep standing water about 3 weeks before the problem appeared.... I wonder how snow and salt might affect the rack?

Still love my MINI!

Ann

LOL....
Seems like some of the best relationships are expensive to maintain....

 

Before spending money, why not appeal to your dealer for a warranty repair. Failure only 300 miles past warranty is in warranty in my mind.

If dealer says no, try going direct to Mini. The power of a well written, polite request.

Nothing to lose.

Luck

 

Another factor to consider is the inconvenience of attempting to get the dealer/MINI to eat the cost of a repair that is outside of warranty as a customer relations response. You are not going to get a rapid response unless it is a flat turndown. Even then, if the repair is made, you will get a stock rack, not an improved re-built rack. I don't know; if it were me and I needed the car to be operational as soon as possible, I would probably eat the cost of the repair and put in the improved re-built rack.

 

The email address I have for Jake is: KaufmanPro@aol.com
Another that I noticed he copied on his email was: ChicagoRP@aol.com

The price he gave me was $340 + core deposit till he receives your old rack.

Good luck... I'm likely to be replacing this used rack I just installed sometime and will need to know how it went with Kaufman.

Cheers,
Lloyd

 

Just to bring closure to this thread, the 2004 steering rack I bought used is in and works just fine. No leaks and the steering feels as natural as a red head..... (or something like that!)

Changing the rack is a piece of cake with the subframe out (I was changing the clutch at the same time) but the toe in definitely had to be realigned.

Thanks again for the advice and support these forums and the people on them provide. It's a great network and I'd not be willing to attempt some of these repairs myself without the advice.

Cheers,
Lloyd

 

I have had an independent tech install the rebuilt rack from Kaufman as described above.
He said their service was fast and the unit looked great. Of course driving the car, I can tell no difference.....

I guess time will tell if the fix is permanent.

Ann Jones

 

HI Ann, thanks for the follow up. and I assume the pricing of the rack was in the ball park quoted, around $340 plus the core deposit?

This is really not a bad price and I plan to use them when/if this used rack ever springs a leak.

Just finished an oil change, replaced a brake light bulb and front door speaker.

Happy motoring

 

My rack was just replace on my 04 for the leaking into the boots last week. the boots swelled up like a tick....car has 17k on it.