Please help!
My 04 S lost power steering at 29,000 miles last April after coming out of winter storage. The dealer blew me off and said they had never replaced one, and I was on my own. I got a reman. pump from SteeringPumps.com. My garage installed it. It was very noisy and it lasted about 3,000 miles and quit in November just before the car was going into winter storage. I got a new one under warranty. Talking to SteeringPumps they said they had sent it back to the remanuf. and they claimed it was not leaking. We took the car out of winter storage 29th of April, drove <1000 miles, and then power steering quit again. Not a drop in the reservoir. The garage says the pump is leaking. SteeringPumps refuse to replace it under warranty. Fan is working. Does anyone know why I have such bad luck. I am frustrated and angry. 3 pumps in 34,000 miles.

 

I would bet it's a bad remanufacturer. I would put up a fight with them for a refund or for a new rebuilt pump. Tell them your mechanic didn't find anything else wrong with the car and it's the pump. They need to own up to it and stick behind their products. If they don't believe you. Take it to a local mechanic that they choose, to have it inspected and have them foot the bill. Or bluff them by tellin them you are taking it up to small claims court and see if they would call your bluff.

 

So my 03 has steering has been goin on and off for about a year and a half. My son went to a mini mechanic in Dallas and he told him it was the Ignition Switch module and he had replaced a half dozen or so and this fixed the problem. It's funny if you turn the car on and off a few times it will start to work again and stay that way a day or two. Has anyone out there heard about this fix? I've changed both the Cooling and Power Steering fan so the next this will be either the power steering pump or ignition switch. Any thoughts?

 

Thank you for your suggestions.
No, SteeringPumps.com would not honour their warranty. They claim the first one never leaked, and that they were installed wrong. I find it hard to figure out how to install it wrong.
Hoping for some technical light on the problem I called MiniUSA. A Customer Service manager promised me that they would open a case for me without promising anything if I would take it to the Stealership and have it diagnosed. So I figure that I cannot loose anything by trying that, except the dealership is very expensive.
I will keep you posted.

 

My wife's car is a 2003 Cooper and experiencing a partial loss of power steering.

The steering has assist in some parts of the turn of the wheel and not others, but doesn't seem to be totally out.

Is this more indicative of a failing pump or rack or both?

Thanks for any help!

 

My 05 MCS has 128K miles on it, and the power steering went out big time. I thought I was safe from this infamous problem since I had soo many miles already, but I was not. The fan stopped working, causing the power steering pump to overheat & fail. It got so hot, that the it caused the two connectors connected to it to melt. So I had to replace the fan, power steering pump, two wire harnesses, and the 100 amp fuse. The final bill wasn't pretty, but at least I didn't get it done at the dealership. They charge twice the labor rates than the shop I go to.

The alternator was also affected, since it's on the same wire harness as the power steering pump. It no longer charges at max capacity, but it still charges enough to maintain the engine & battery. I'll probably have to replace it later on, but I'm hoping it'll last a couple more years.

 

mine went at about 140K or so. replaced with a salvage yard unit. Let's hope it lasts a little while before I need another.

 

Ok, I'm at my wits end on this ps pump. Last year it would run continuously, so I replaced the fan with the bad resistor. worked fine. Then the power steering pump failed, so I sent it to BBA reman, put it in, and it works, but now the pump won't shut off again, even with the engine off, just draining the battery. I pulled the fan out again, and the resistor seems fine when checked with an ohmmeter. I also can't find any blown fuses to replace. I don't know what else to check.

 

Sounds likethe electronics on the pump died....
when a unit is "rebuilt" these are not replaced.....
that is why new is the best choice for many folks.....
if the pump is physically leaking, a rebuild will fix the leak, and the new brushes in the motor and the cleaning will help it last much longer.....but the electronics are in a very hot enviorment.....their life is likely a limiting factor in many cases....lots of stop and go traffic, lots of idleing, and perhaps operation with a bad ps cooling fan all contributes to a shortened life......
One thing to bring up again...
in 2005 the ps pump was upgrated a bit....it bacame much more quiet....it was common to be quite noisy on the earlier cars......
also on the 05 cabrio (S model) a duct kit came out....retrofitable to r53's.....it ducts air to the ps fan/motor.......

 

Part Number? / Reference on RealOEM?

 

Moss mini was selling the oem kit....
there are several threads on it around....
about a 10 minute install....
mjust remove one molded plastic part, install a diierent one with the same mounting location....then install the new duct....easy....protects the fan from debris, crime, etc, and guarentees air to the ps fan.....older ps fan brackets may need 2 mounting holes drilled in them.
install can be done on a ramp....you just need about the same undercar clearance as when you change the oil......

 

Moss doesn't sell it anymore, just the shroud.

 

For some reason mini never sold it in the US....
you had to get it from MossMini....like many "gray market" oem parts, they imported them, then sold them.....they were/are the only way to get the part in the us.

 

Mossmini part ##101-592.......$79
still avalable....they list it as fitting the auto only....it was destined to go on the auto cabrio/auto r53, it fits on the stick r53 fine.
The kit has BOTH THE DUCT AND THE NEW PART THAT REPLACES THE ONE ON THE CAR.

 

Thanks!

For the first time this past weekend I had the power steering give out on me. It was at the end of the last session on Sunday. Wasn't sure what it was - steering just got real heavy - so I made the corner then slowed and pitted. By the time I entered the pits the power steering was back again. There was a lingering burnt rubber smell. Car drove fine on the way home. No lights or codes or loss of fluid. It was hot and humid and we get long sessions on Sunday.

I'll bounce this off my mechanic to see what he thinks. Also may be time to flush PS fluid?

 

Here is some additional information I posted some time ago on the bentley publishers website.

I am sorry to hear about your pump troubles....I have some more information on the operation of the pump.

On the 2 pin connector, pin 2 goes directly to battery + through a 100a fusible link located on the bottom of the fuse box under the hood (aka terminal 30). Pin 1 goes directly to battery - (aka terminal 31). These two wires provide the heavy current to run the pump.

On the three pin connector, pin 1 should have (battery +) when the key is on (aka terminal 15).

Pin 2 goes to the alternator and should reflect the output of the alternator when the engine is running (this signal is used to tell the pump electronics that the engine is running). The pump will not run if it thinks the engine is off unless its bad!).

Pin 3 is used to communicate pump errors on the diagnostic bus.

The pump operates in two modes: standby and full output.

When the car is idling and no steering demand is present the pump is in standby mode; it runs at 80% capacity and an rpm of 3500...the current draw is 7amps +/- 10%.

When the steering is turned, the pump senses a pressure change in the hydraulics..this change causes the pump to switch to full output and runs at 100% and at an rpm of 4500.

If the steering is turned to either end of its travel, or if the wheel hits a curb, the current to the pump is momentarily reduced to 30amps.

The battery voltage is monitored, it must be between 9 and 16vdc or the pump will not operate.

If the temperature gets to 230f (110c) the operating current of the pump will be reduced.

The small fan on the pump is not controlled by the pump! it's controlled by the ECU in parallel with the radiator fan (high speed)

The only time the small fan will run is when the high speed radiator fan is on, for this to happen the coolant temperature must be >112 degrees celsius or the pressure in the refrigerant lines must trip the pressure switch to make the fan run in high speed (A/C must be on and working)

As a side note the radiator fan runs in both low and high speed at the same time. This means that when the coolant temperature reaches 105C the radiator fan is powered through the high wattage resistor, if high speed is called for the the low speed circuit is maintained at the same time as high speed; this strategy provides more torque for the radiator fan.

The pump contains the controller and will produce the following errors if a problem is detected:

Power supply fault
Electric motor fault
Fault caused by excess temperature
Control module fault


Hope this helps.

 

Mine just died on me, the unit started to heat up.

I had the car towed home.

Is it possible to unpower the power sterring pump by a removing a fuse to drive it a shop without power steering?

 

sorry but I never say the fan was the failure.. i actually said the pump fails (supposedly) because the fan does not kick in time, that's why the pump fails over time.. that's why they (the shop) connected the PS fan to the lower and high speed radiator fan (instead of high only)

but a pump will fail as well if there's not a working fan

 

Felt I should share. Filed a complaint with the NHTSA in Sept of last year. Earlier this week I was called by an investigator to get my feedback on what had happened. (I lost p/s while on a highway offramp and almost ran off the road due to the increased pressure needed to turn the wheel.) The investigator told me I would be contacted by someone at BMW NA to schedule a time for them to inspect my car. Was called earlier today, and they said they would be replacing my pump free of charge next week. Let's see how it goes. I'll report back, but definitely suggest everyone who has this issue to file a complaint on safecar.gov and with BMW and MINI NA. Good luck to everyone!

 

...Thanks for the very interesting info. However - you have been driving the car without PS pump for almost a year? Or did you get it fixed and BMW NA is going to fix it again? I wonder if there is any remedy for the rest of us probably thousands of people who had a PS pump go out.

 

It's been going pretty much on and off since last year. I've kept adding CHF and added new clamps to the PS steering lines but I haven't had the money to have it replaced at the dealer ($2-3,000) or from a private mechanic ($1,000) so this is good news for me.

 

Drove for a month without power steering, no problem. Electric motor quit. Fuses are fine, fan is fine. I pulled the pump today and took the cover off the motor end. It was FULL of carbon dust. I blew out the dust, noticed the brushes still had life and sanded the commutator a bit. Put it all back in and I have power steering again, no charge.

 

Hello eveyone. I have a 02 mcs and my ps pump works fine but it is very very loud. Would taking it apart and cleaning it reduce the noise or are they always loud?

 

When they are loud, the hydraulic pump end of it could be going. There is a bearing in the electric motor end of the unit, up in the cover, that could be going bad that would also make noise. If you have the ability, I say pull it and clean it out, change the bearing and after it is back together, make sure you purge it by turning the wheel back and forth several times while up on stands. You've got nothing to lose and could save 5 to 800 bucks depending on where you find a replacement. This was an incredibly helpful page to explain the process http://www.billswebspace.com/MiniR53PSPFanDuctDIY.htm

 

I have an 04 standard Mini Cooper. 4 months ago, I experienced no power steering on startup. The next morning, on startup, all was fine until this weekend. I started up and had failure. I turned it off, started up, and it was fine. Today, I started up, after 4 hours of downtime....failure.

My understanding besides internals of electric in the pump are a relay, temperature cut out (sensors, etc). Other than dissemilar corrosion on the contacts, I suspect the internals issue with brush dust. I have 137K miles.