Curious about an update on this

 

Well. I've exhausted all of my options. It's been sitting in my garage pretty much since I posted this and I've been driving my F-150. Unfortunately I don't have time to mess with it and it came down to selling it or having someone else fix it. (Which is pretty much unheard of for me) I really want to drive it again soon, so I brought it to Hendrick Mini in Matthews, NC yesterday and I will be paying a $180 diagnostic fee and then repairing the car myself hopefully this weekend. I won't forget to update this, but not much has been done to the car since I had the battery replaced.

I think the alternator is bad, the torque sensor is bad, or something really stupid will need to be done like replacing a fuse.

 

Here's sort of a summary and update as of now:

So back when I started having this issue it was very minute and only occurred when backing out of my driveway on a cold start with faster than normal wheel turning.

I was told to test the battery here on NAM, which was a good recommendation, being that I had the original battery from 2007 in the car still. It put out around 170 CCAs. I immediately went to Advanced Auto in Fort Mill, SC and had them replace the battery.

The problem subsided for about a week and came back worse than before as shown in the video and would now happen any time the car was either under 2000 RPM or under 10 MPH.

This led me to believe it was the alternator that was bad. I had some ideas of what I wanted to try next, but never did anything to the car.

I dropped it off at the dealer and I got a call today asking when I bought the replacement battery. That question was followed up with "Did you know it was the wrong battery for this vehicle?"

After all this trouble, turns out the dying original battery was causing the issue with the steering and the new battery was causing low voltage in a ton of sensors all over the car. The alternator was making up for this when I got up to speed.

I told them to go ahead and replace the battery, might as well. ($300 battery plus $180 diagnostic fee and another $50-100 installation fee...)

Needless to say, Advanced Auto will be refunding me the diagnostic cost from MINI and the battery they sold me that was not for my car.

 

I'm glad your issues will be resolved soon, I also want to commend you for being so articulate and only 18yrs. old.

 

Thank you!

I just got back from the dealer. They were awesome, even washed and vacuumed my car for me. The diagnostic fee was waived and the total came to be $295.55 with tax, labor, supplies, etc. I took it for quite the test drive and I can now say it is problem free. If any issues come back I will keep this updated, but for now if there is no updates on here, then there are no updates on the car.

 

Fantastic news! I'm glad it ended up being a simple fix, although it's unfortunate that you were down for so long because some dolt at Advance Auto Parts sold you the wrong battery.

 

Another small update:

The car seems to be doing just fine.
Took it and the battery to Advanced and they refunded me $180 for the battery. Didn't have to argue too much.

 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the issue is back. Minor, but happened today again.

 

Sorry to hear that, are you getting a code thrown now? Without a code is hard to pinpoint, but I would go back and check the components from earlier in the thread.

Thanks

 

My ELV worked well (key in = hear unlock, key out = hear lock),
Dealer said the repair will take 1100€
I reset CAS with INPA to factory-settings and no Symbol since a week

 

I brought it back to the dealer. They're telling me the electric power steering unit has water damage and is bad. MINI quoted me $509 for the part and $900 for labor, coming out to be about $1,400. As an apology for making me waste my time to get a new battery when I didn't need it, they credited the battery on that bill, bringing it to $1,100. This sucks, but it isn't my main concern.


At first, I thought that maybe I should consider just taking the car and trading it in for either a first gen MINI (or a Honda S2000). Then I thought I would buy the part through my dealer and repair it myself on one of my lifts and not pay for labor. So, I went to the parts department and had them call MINI for a price quote. This time MINI quoted me $1,007 ($1,507 up front, $500 core return) just for the part with a technician discount.

So now I think "Why would MINI charge me half the price of a dealership employee price?" I looked on AllData at how much this job pays... 16 hours. I was quoted $900 for labor and that they would have the part on Friday and it would be done by Monday. The technician would have to work non-stop to finish by Monday. At the dealership I work at, we charge $101 per hour of labor. MINI is charging me $56 per hour... Almost half priced again. But why?

This doesn't add up and it makes me think somebody at MINI is not being honest and my problem won't end up being the EPS unit either. My price quote should have been around $2,400, not $1,100. I'm not complaining about half priced, but it seems like a bunch of smoke and mirrors to me.

 

I had the same Problem, dealer said 1100€ for repair.
I reset CAS with INPA to factory-settings, no Symbol since a week!

 

Im not sure where they are getting there labor quote from cause swapping out an EPS unit takes all off 2 hours tops. Then a complete car reprogram and an alignment. I know it probably books for a couple more hours but that's it. Its Honestly very easy. One bolt on the steering shaft. 3 electrical connectors, drop the exhaust and out with the k-frame. Heck you don't even have to take the front bumper off. Then 4 e-torx and the whole unit is in your hands. Sounds like alittle creative quoting to me.

 

That's what I was afraid of hearing... I checked MINI's website and the price for the part is $500. That was spot on, I assume I asked for the wrong part at my dealership. The labor quote of $900 is a bit much for what you describe. It's a bit cheap for what was described to me. I'll have to check to see exactly how much it pays tomorrow then times probably $105 per labor hour. I'm definitely going to look over the procedure because if it's as easy as you say - 2 hours and an alignment - I'll do it myself. The only thing I would need MINI for is the reprogramming.

 

When I say 2 hours, understand I do this every day. But while im at work tomarrow I'll look up the exact time based off warranty if ya like.

 

That'd be awesome. I'd like to compare what MINI says versus what Ford says anyways.

I think the parts rep got messed up and gave me a quote on the automatic transmission steering box possibly.

 

As far as the part goes. There is the complete rack with EPS and then there is just the EPS unit. Make sure your getting quoted the right part.

 

I mean to put it in perspective for you a warranty motor pays right at 9 hours. So a customer pay quote would be 13.5 -14 hours. And you say you got a quote for 16 hours for a steering box. Just seems way off to me.

 

I'm checking again tomorrow. I'll also have to call and ask what the labor rate is. I'm sure it's around $135-155 an hour because it's BMW.


Exactly why I posted on here. $900 to get that put it my car seems like a lot. Granted, they're giving me $300 of it, but that's still a lot of money that I don't think I need to pay.

 

I looked up the labor and it should be 5.5 hours plus programming.

 

That sounds about right. Figure 6.5 hours total at $135/h labor rate comes to $877 and some change. I'm not worried about it anymore. I had the wrong part appraised, the 16 hour thing was a very bad estimate. I really appreciate that you looked that up for me. At my dealer we charge 7 hours to do that job, but we wouldn't be able to program it.

 

Picked the car up today. I drove it probably 40 miles in total today. So far so good. The EPS unit was replaced, $1,200 after labor, tax, etc.

I was looking over the RO report and found out that I've had the water pump issue resolved and the tensioner done - I was worried about these. Also, they only charged $110 an hour!

 

It's not on top but underneath on the base model. I emailed the ebay seller prestigeminiparts and he answered all my questions. I had a high whine on startup and after a second it disappeared. Thought the fluid might be low in the PS BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY ON THE 2007 BASE. Haven't had IT checked yet but it sounds more like the starter.

 

No issue since the CAS reset

 

Hi JacobFatz--just wondering if there are updates on your car? My car's going through the exact same thing right now!