My husband and I both have MCS's. Mine is an '05 and his is an '06. His car makes this groaning, scraping noise everytime he makes a sharp right or left turn. It comes from the front of the car. My Mini does not make this noise. Anybody have any ideas what it could be?

 

Is it when the steering wheel is turned all the way to the stop, or just any fairly sharp manuver? At any rate, here are some things to check:

Check the CV joint boots to see if they are compromised, if this car has CV joints. Most front wheel drive cars do. (you gotta bear with me, my MINI is new enough I don't know much about its inner workings) Ususally though, dying CV joints say, "Pop, pop, pop, pop" as you turn. Yours might not be dead enough for that though.

Check power steering fluid. It could be low...

It could be losing the Power Steering pump, and the noise you hear is the pump groaning in the agony of a slow death...

Post a thread under "issues" and see if anyone has had a similar problem.

That way you will know what to expect. Like, if this has happened to several people and they suddenly lost power steering (very bad if this happens at speed into a sharp corner on a spirited drive...) or if it is probably just a quirk of some of these cars.

Good luck- let us know how it goes. I hope it is something simple like needing fluid and not needing major work. CV joints are expensive. My hubby and I had the fun of having to replace them on our Mazda back in the "broke college student" years. Actually, we got to replace a lot of things on that Mazda, and we will never own another Mazda so long as we live, but that is another story!

 

my 04 MCS makes this noise as well..im going to replace the brakes and see if it stops..the pads need changing anyways. i jacked up the drives side where noise is coming from and the CV's are fine but when i spin the wheel by hand i hear a slight scrape noise. the noise happens sometimes when going straight and turning and quiets somewhat when applying the brakes...

 

sorry to hear that aprilrain. I have an 05 mcs and mine is doing the same thing. It sounds like a groaning, rubbing noise that i thought was the tires rubbing at first but i dont know what it is now. I have had it into the dealer 3 times and every time they say they cant get it to make the nosie but when it does its pretty loud. Let me know if you ever figure it out becasue its driving me crazy recently.

 

Haven't found out what it is yet. Will take it to the dealer, eventually and see if they can figure it out. The power steering issue sounds plausible.