Hey everybody,
I work at a BMW shop and when a nice lady called and asked if we service mini's I said....sure why not. I wish I hadn't

Actually she 1st called about 6 months ago. Since then we've done a regular "major service", a couple of oil changes, and most recently a steering knuckle. That was about 2 months ago. This time when she came in there were DSC and a tire tread light on (not sure if the car has some kind of tire deflation sensing system or not). Anyhow....it seems the lights have been on since we did the knuckle but she didn't realize they were off before hand.

So we used our fancy bmw tool and there were 5 abs codes including can-bus errors and power supply interruptions and other junk. I cleared them and the only one to come back after maybe 15 mins of driving was steering angle implausible. So I mosey'ed over to the steering angle sensor area of the interface and the steering angle was reading about 362*. I assumed that maybe the angle sensor is in the steering wheel, and when we did the knuckle the wheel got spun once and that's whats causing the problems. I didn't turn the wheel then to see how much turning the wheel effected the angle.

I chose initialize steering angle, it said the wheels should be straight ahead but we don't have a rack so I did it by eye, figured that I could get it on a rack tomorrow if need be. Anyhow...so I press initialize, it goes to 0*, I go for a test drive and the 1st time I turn while on the brakes a little, creeping out to merge onto another road and the wheels lock up sort of violently like I went over some black ice. I look behind me as I'm merging onto the road and the pavement is dry.

So yea...now the steering angle is frozen around 0* and whenever you turn sorta hard traction control randomly engages, usually on the front outer wheel it feels like. When I monitor steering angle with my tool it seems to not be consistant and never goes up more than like 2* even when you go all the way lock to lock. I get the feeling I should be seeing big angles, maybe like uhhhhhh 360* every time I turn the wheel around

Anyhow, if any of you guys know anything about what I'm dealing with here I'd appreciate it. I don't want to send her to the dealer if I can help it but that might be my best bet. If I can test resistance through the steering angle sensor or something and someone knows what it should be at various angles I'd appreciate that hugely. Basically the only thing I can think to do now is replace the sensor and calibrate it properly on an alignment rack but I'm not sure if that's going to help.

If anybody has anything please let me know!
THanks a lot
-Sam

 

What year is your customer's car?
I know of some earlier MINIs (pre-'05) that had an issue with the steering angle sensor.
I think your only solution is to replace it. I had the same issue on a different '03 I used to own.

 

its an 02. What was your car doing when your sensor broke, just ABS/ASC lights on and systems not working?

 

The ABS, DSC, and tire lights were on, and the traction control would kick in because for some reason it thought the wheels were slipping. That is a nasty sound while you're driving.
Check this thread...
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=91027
or do a search for "steering angle sensor".

 

If you initalized it and it still does this you most likely need a new sensor.