I drive a 2002 mini cooper and at 9:50am this morning I drove my car about a mile to my optometrist appointment and all was well with my power steering. I was there for 45 minutes, left, and got in my car pulled out of my spot with no trouble at all, but about 20 feet away from my parking spot I went to turn onto a thoroughfare only to find that my power steering had failed. I had to wrench the steering wheel with much strength to avoid traffic and pulled over. I checked the steering fluid and there is plenty in there. I believe it is an electrical problem. The problem remains consistent after turning my car on and off. I've checked online to find that many others have had this same problem in their 2002 mini coopers and yet no recall has been made.
2002 MINI Cooper steering complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 61 of 61, newest first, as owners wrote them.
My 2002 mini cooper's power steering failed silently as I drove home from work a week ago, though was fine after restarting the car. Since then, it has started failing consistently. This leads to very dangerous driving conditions because I have no idea how hard I will have to turn on the wheel for any given turn and thus makes me highly susceptible for hitting a pedestrian or another car.. Investigations imply that I have to replace the power steering pump, which cost $1000+. My car has roughly 36,000 miles on it.
2002 mini cooper power steering failure after power steering pump replaced. The car had no power steering within 700 miles of having the power steering pump and pump fan replaced and now am told it is the power steering pump cable.
Power steering in my 2002 mini cooper failed. Steering vehicle became very difficult with little ability to turn vehicle. Repair required a new elec. Stg pump and cooling fan ($602) plus labor of $384 for a total of $986.
Recent news reports alerted me about the investigation into mini power steering failures in 2004-05 mini coopers. I am writing to report that a few years ago, I experienced intermittent power steering failure in my 2002 mini cooper (at about 70k) making steering very difficult. Because the problem would come and go, it was difficult for my repair shop to find the root cause. Eventually, the power steering pump was replaced.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 mini cooper. While the contact was driving approximately 2 MPH, there was a loss of power steering which caused difficulty in turning the steering wheel. The engine was turned off and restarted. The vehicle was able to continue in operation. The failure occurred four different times. The contact stated the power steering fluid reading was at the correct capacity level. Also, he mentioned that the power steering fan motor could have possibly overheated, causing the failure. The vehicle had not been diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 98,500.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 mini cooper s. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 10 MPH and the power steering failed. He stated that the power steering failure occurred no matter the speed and has occurred at other speed levels. He called the dealership and was told that they would not inspect the vehicle without him paying a diagnostic fee. The vehicle had not been inspected or repaired at the time of the complaint. The failure mileage was approximately 67,000. The current mileage was appproximately 67,500.
2002 mini cooper, power steering pump shorted out causing a small fire which destroyed the pump,fan,wiring harness,power steering line. Car had less than 50,000 miles on it. Cost of repair over 1200 dollars.
2002 mini cooper. Power steering quit (my wife driving and by herself) in a turn with oncoming traffic. No injuries but very close.
2002 mini cooper power steering hydraulic assist fails without warning making car difficult to steer. Failure is intermittent and may occur on the highway or on surface roads. In either case there is absolutely no warning.
My 2002 mini cooper electrohydraulic power steering (ehps) pump will not shut off causing associated wiring to become dangerously hot (smells like an electrical fire). This is a common problem with the mini cooper and there needs to be a recall. I am trying to figure out how to keep my mini from catching fire.
Abrupt failure of the power steering system in a 2002 mini cooper.
Back in feb 2008 the steering on my 2002 mini cooper just went out with no warning. I was left without power steering in the middle of the 101 freeway, which is very dangerous! I fixed the problem, which was very expensive as it was the entire steering system that failed and filed a complaint with mini, I never heard back but continued to drive the car. Recently, september 2008 the transmission in that same car needs to be replaced. I have had nothing but major problems with this car and feel it may be a lemon. Mini is unwilling to help me as my car is no longer under warranty. I feel as though these problems could result in serious injury as there is no prior warning and I am concerned for all present and future mini cooper drivers.
Clutch and cables fail at 100 000km. Rattling noise at start up. Very loud humming noise coming from the steering. Transmission gone at 103 000km.
I recently had a 60k service on my 2002 mini cooper. A couple days later I drove from monterey, ca to los angeles, ca and my car was running fine. All of a sudden out of the blue, my power steering went out. I was driving on the 101 freeway and could not turn my car. I was able to get it to a repair shop where they told me my power steering pump had broke. $1,000 later the part of replaced. Luckily I was safe, as was the passenger in my car. But what if I had been on a very cury, busy highway? I could have driven off a cliff! This is not a part that should simply wear out or break, we are talking people's lives! I love my mini and am a proud mini owner and driver but after this I don't think I will ever buy another mini or bmw.
Power steering pump is noisy all the time. I am afraid this may lead to failure of my ability to steer the vehicle . The car is a 2002 mini.
The power steering on my 2002 mini cooper s, 62,000 miles, fails intermittently and unexpectedly while driving, causing an instant and unexpected loss of power assisted steering. This is extremely dangerous and can cause injury or death should loss of power steering cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. Further research of online forums (mini2.com, northamericanmotoring.com, roadfly.com) indicates that this is a known problem affecting many mini owners, and power steering pump failure has also been known to cause engine bay fires.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 bmw mini cooper. While driving 35 MPH he noticed smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle, as well as pieces of burning plastic falling from the vehicle. He attempted to apply the brakes however, the vehicle would not stop. He then noticed flames coming from the engine. He was able to pull over and tried to contain the fire however, the fire continued to spread into the interior of the vehicle. The fire department extinguished the fire. The fire destroyed the vehicle. The current and failure mileages were 86,000.
Power steering motor failure on mini cooper. 1 - while driving, the steering became very difficult, at times almost impossible. 2 - once home while parking the car, smoke started to billow our from under the hood. Turned off the ignition, smoke continued to billow and get thicker, opened the hood, heard a sizzling sound and noticed that some of the wires were melting. Immediately disconnected the battery, the smoke started to dissapate, the noise stopped etc. 3 - the car had to be towed to the dealer for repair. According to the tow operator, based upon the condidtion of the wiring harness, if the battery had not be disconnected quickly, the car would have caught on fire. The dealer informed us that the power steering pump motor had failed and that mini would replace the parts at no charge, but labor would be at our cost. Total parts were approximatley $1,000.00 with labor totaling about $400.00. The car is now fixed and operating properly.
(1) events leading up to failure - normal wear and tear, car driven 40k+ miles (2) failure & consequence - both bearings in the steering column began to fail. Details not exactly available since I didn't have the opportunity to inspect them, but bearings would grind when turning the steering wheel. Dealer told me that these would not impact driving safety, if not, what is their purpose? (3) corrective action - dealer replaced both bearings since car is still under warranty (50k miles). I inquired with dealer if mini has either improved the design of the replacement bearings or if the original bearings had been improperly installed. Dealer stated that neither was the case and that it isn't/wouldn't be unusual for steering bearings to fail after 40k miles, which by today's standards is completely false!.
Dt: the contact owned a 2002 bmw mini cooper s. The contact complained steering failure. The steering was not operating. . Could drive but could not steer because there was no power steering. The steering system was broke a couple of months ago , and they repaired it. Currently, the dealership will not repair car anymore even though it was under warranty. The steering became very heavy, had to muscle the steering in order to turn the car. While driving on the highway all of a sudden could not steer the car, and it was very dangerous. Did have one steering failure before, and had to replace the entire steering mechanism. Currently, he could not steer under normal road conditions.
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