I’ve been waiting for this

The one thing that I have heard about problems with, from many MINI owners, is power steering. Going out altogether, over heating and all that. For about the last 6 months I’ve been waiting until I could also be one of the few, the proud, the select with failed power steering.

I no longer have to wait.

Driving home tonight it just stopped working. No warning, no funny noises, nothing. I was stopped a signal and when I went to go the familiar squeal was gone and my steering was extremely hard.

I’ve owned cars without power steering before. Granted, they had steering wheels that were about 24" diameter, which made them very easy to steer. The MINI without power steering is not very easy to steer, in case you wondered.

I have an appointment first thing tomorrow morning to have it looked at and to have the belt tensioner replaced (which was left from my last service visit). I’ll have more updates after I talk to my SA.

Mileage tonight as Roxy sits in the garage is 178,950. So, I guess I was due.

Updates in the comments

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10 Comments

  1. Pah! I have a blown supercharger on my GP at 42000km, so nyah!

    Seriously, dude, I am impressed your car made it this far. She is a gem. Please don’t ever sell her if you can help it.

    Respect to Roxy!

  2. I do get a little bit of a discount on parts (at least). But I’m not sure if the $1350 they just quoted me includes the discount.

  3. Just found out…power steering failed because the fan gave out. Both are getting replaced but not the belt tensioner (they don’t have any in stock). Fingers crossed for less than 1k in cost.

  4. Cost came in just at $1k. Also, this is the quietest power steering I have (not) heard. There is almost no noise at all. Maybe it’s a pump from an R56?

  5. I can hardly believe that the power steering pump actually *NEEDS* that little fan to keep it cool; I suppose your ambient is a bit higher than mine ;) but even so, it’s not like the PS pump is in a sealed container!

  6. I think it was the fan anyway. At least that’s what my SA said. But my paper work says the pump had a short. Maybe the fan not working caused the pump to get to hot and cause a short? Hell, I don’t know.

    I’ll chalk it up to the 12 years worth of miles ;)

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