Have been noticing my mini's fan has been sounding louder than normal thought maybe a cooling issue going on however last week the power steering randomly went out in the car while driving. I managed to pull the car over and tried turning car off and restarting it, power steering came back on. I thought it was a weird fluke and checked all my engine fluid levels when I got home. All fluids were at normal level and thought nothing of it. Today again power steering quit this time early in the morning as I was getting ready to leave for work (car had not been driven since previous night). I had to drive into work with no power steering as I could not call out and same thing driving home today power steering was still out. I started searching online and saw there had been supposedly a "safety recall" on 2005 mini cooper's for "campaign - power steering fan relay wiring modification -notes :si m32 03 04" stating: "service action: correct the wiring for the power steering fan relay". I just called my local mini dealership (boston) gave them the last 7 of my VIN for them to look up if there were any recalls on my car, they stated my car is not on the recall list despite this recall was supposedly on models r50 and r53 (my model is r50). I cannot drive this car now without performing this repair, my car has just turned 60,000 miles (still considerably low I think for something like this). In my searching I have found there are 14 other complaints literally just like mine since just january of this year!!! How is this not on a recall list ? I loved my car up until now, I feel like mini has a huge problem they already know about and are sticking their customers with paying a bill for something they publicly acknowledged as a safety issue in their cars.
2005 MINI Cooper steering complaints
Page 6 of 10: complaints 131 to 160 of 276, newest first, as owners wrote them.
While driving approximately 45 MPH, the power steering on my 2005 mini cooper failed and I had trouble turning the car. The power steering failure continued until I was able to pull into a parking lot and turned the car off. I let the car to cool down for approximately one hour before restarting it and the power steering worked fine the rest of the trip home. This was the second time I experienced this failure, but did not record the date, etc. Of the first incident so am unable to accurately report that. Both times that the power steering failed, it was only due to my driving vigilance and arm strength that I was able to successfully avoid an accident. The local mini dealer cannot look at my car for almost two weeks to identify the problem and I am afraid to drive my car fearing another failure of the power steering.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact stated that the steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn while driving 35 MPH. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer nor repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure and the current mileage was 53,000. Updated 03/15/12
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact stated that while driving approximately 30 MPH, the steering wheel seized. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where they advised her that the power steering pump failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contact and they offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 82,000. The VIN was unavailable.
Power steering failure. Very difficult to steer to back up or drive. After shutting off and restarting car twice the power steering is working again. Car is unsafe if power steering fails at any speed. Could cause loss of control resulting in injury or death.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact stated that while parking, the power steering system malfunctioned and the vehicle became difficult to steer. The contact restarted the vehicle and the power steering system began operating normally. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 35,192.
I was on my way to work and as I made a right hand turn,I almost lost control of the vehicle. The power steering had failed and I had to find the strength to turn the steering wheel before I ran into the building on the navy base where I work. I had a power steering pump put on. It hasn't even been a year and already I am having the same problems with the power steering. I do not think I should have to buy a new power steering pump every year.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact stated that the power steering pump was emitting a noise. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer were notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 44,300 and the current mileage was 44,800. The VIN was unavailable.
On three occasions, my 2005 mini cooper has had power steering failure. Each time, I was driving at speeds between 35-45mph and has put me in dangerous positions where I was unable to steer myself out of major materials and onto a safer road. I am not strong enough to easily overpower my vehicle's steering. My first experience happened as I was driving 35mph on a busy road at peak hour. I was on a four lane road, two in each direction. I was in the left hand lane coming up to my apt when my steering went out. I was unable to maneuver to the right lane to pull over due to the sheer strength needed and high traffic volumes. I immediately put my hazards on to alert motorists and slowed down my speed. I was left stranded before a major curve in the road. I was unable to move my car in either direction. A second experience occurred prior to a curve as I was exiting an interstate highway. As I attempted to turn the wheel I noticed the wheel was stiff/rigid. I could not make the curved exit ramp and blocked tremendously high speeding exiting traffic behind me. I believe this is a significant danger to drivers. Prior to each incident, there were no warnings/lights indicating issues of any kind. I would suggest an investigation, as I was not able to find any recalls from miniusa. I have searched the internet and have found many forums (USA & uk) of mini owners discussing each of their incidents caused by power steering failures. I strongly believe this is not an isolated problem and could cause great harm to owners. It is common that once an accident/death has occurred due to faulty parts, a recall is made. An investigation should be made before this happens.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact stated that while driving 40 MPH, the power steering failed without warning. The contact mentioned that she was unable to maneuver the vehicle without applying an excessive amount of force to the steering wheel. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who was unable to duplicate the failure but replaced the power steering fan as a temporary remedy. The remedy failed to repair the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure and the vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 80,000 and the current mileage was 84,000.
After running errands in the morning I parked my car in my spot in front of my house. When I walked away the car was silent. Two hours later my neighbor knocked on my door to let me know that my car (which had been off and parked for two hours) was making a loud whining noise. I went outside to check it out, and determined that the noise was coming from my car while it was off. I immediately took the car, which was driving well at the time, to my local mechanic who could not determine the cause of the problem and recommend that I should take it immediately to the mini dealership. When I arrived at the mini dealership they immediately took my car back. I was told that my power steering pump was failing and overheating, which caused the power steering fan to keep running while the car was off. The service representative said that this happens time to time, and if I had continued driving the car it may of caught on fire. The technical words on the work order from the mini mechanic were, "scanned car for faults, after checking cars fault memory it was found that there was a current fault for an open circuit on the electric power steering pump." both the power steering pump and fan had to be replaced.
While I was driving the power steering all of a sudden went out thus making the steering extremely heavy. It caught me by surprise. Could be dangerous to drivers if failure occurs on a turn. Power steering should not fail.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. While driving approximately 15 MPH, the steering became difficult to maneuver. The contact stated that the failure occurred intermittently. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. The contact believed that the power steering motor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact referenced a concurrent investigation under the federal safety agency action number: ea11005 (steering steering:hydraulic power assist:pump steering:electric power assist system steering:hydraulic power assist system) that could possibly have been related to the failure. The VIN was not available. The approximate failure mileage was 80,000.
While driving 2005 mini cooper, I went around a corner at about 30 MPH and when I tried to straighten out the power steering had quit working. It almost put me in the ditch on the wrong side of the road. Just thankful of no oncoming traffic.
My wife was backing out of a parking spot and the power steering assist appeared to have been turned off. She re-started the car and the power steering worked fine after that. It happened again when I was also backing out of a parking spot last night. I am afraid this could become a big issue if this happens in traffic thus the report. From an internet search, it seems that numerous other people have the same issue so there seems to be a problem which mini needs to fix before this ends tragically for someone.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact was driving 70 MPH when the power steering failed.the contact was able to safely merge to the shoulder where the vehicle was shut off. Once restarted, the steering resumed normal operation. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 79,000.
Intermittent failure of power steering beginning at approximately 48,000 miles, with increasing frequency and duration until complete failure of power steering at approximately 55,000 miles, despite full power steering fluid reservoir at all times. Mini dealer advises new power steering pump required.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact was driving 45 MPH when the power steering seized and became extremely difficult to maneuver. The dealer was contacted who advised that there were no recalls for the vehicle and that he should bring the vehicle in for repairs. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 80,781.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. Then contact stated that while driving 25 MPH, the steering wheel seized. The vehicle was stopped and shut off. The vehicle was then towed to an independent repair shop and the power steering pump was replaced. The failure recurred approximately one year later. The vehicle was taken back to an independent repair shop, but repairs were not performed. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 55,000.
I recently bought my 2005 mini cooper, after moving to tacoma, wa. Only after a week of driving I started having problems with the power steering. I have not even made a payment on the vehicle. I have contacted ukmini and my information was forward to bmw head office in germany. Miniusa contacted me to bring the vehicle into a local dealer to verify the fault. They didn't say they would cover the cost. But being in the military I will ensure that soldiers are aware of the problems they may face with this company.
Driving home from work at about 70 MPH, the power steering failed. I was going around a bend in the road when suddenly the power steering failed that almost caused an accident. Without notice the car reverted to "rack-and-pinion" mode. I was fortunate that time to gain control of the car and did not go over the side of the road or hit another car. I didn't drive the car for several months then took it to a few mechanics for an estimate. Dealer says replace the steering pump at $1200 but they will not honor any assistance due to the premature failure of the steering pump or the electrical connection to the cooling fan failure. The power steering fan quits then the pump gets hot and shuts off. I called mini USA today and they said they will not assist me in paying for the manufacturing defect. My pump failure is intermittent suggesting that the problem is electrical and on point for a recall on 2004 mini coopers. My car has the same problem and was manufactured in 2004, but is the 1707 car outside their "official" recall range. Mini/bmw sent a "mr. Driver" letter out on 12/2004 for this "recall." my car had not been purchased yet. The dealer says that replacing the steering pump will solve all the problems including the electrical issue. Apparently, the new steering pump has a design feature that eliminates the electrical failure problem (defect code: 0032630100 & labor code: 0055719). The more the pump overheats because of the fan non-operation problem, the pump will need to be replaced, it will be burnt out. One thing is sure, I have a premature failure of the steering pump making my car dangerous to drive. I can't afford to fix it. Nor do I believe, I should be responsible for the manufactures design failure. The car is not fit to drive as intended. Why is bmw getting away with this? Many thousands and thousands of drivers have this same problem.
Going into a turn on the northwest side of I-465 in indianapolis and the mini cooper's power steering went out. I braked hard and pulled off the side of the road. It came out of nowhere.
Steering wheel locks while driving. I have talked to the dealer and the dealer believes the problem is with the steering pump. I researched it on the net and found many people complaining about it.
While driving at normal speed and approaching a right hand turn the vehicle's steering stiffened. Thus, making it difficult to make the turn safely. Instead of completing a tight turn into the closes lane, I made a wide turn into lane 2. Once the car was turned off, parked and turned back one the problem did not persist.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. The contact stated that the steering wheel would seize while driving at various speeds. Whenever the failure occurred, the contact would restart the vehicle. Once restarted, the steering wheel would operate as normal. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer but they were unable to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 89,000.
Random loss of power to power steering system at varying speeds and conditions. Loss of power steering can vary in times from a few seconds to a several minutes. Steering vehicle becomes extremely difficult to turn and may result in an accident due to loss of power in steering pump/system. Condition seems to go away for a few hours to a few days.
The first incident happened as I was merging onto the interstate. I couldn't move the steering wheel and thought my car had died, but it hadn't and then all was fine so I thought maybe I imagined it. The second incident was on 11/11/11. I went to pick up my grand-daughter from school. I turned the car off and when I restarted it I could not pull out of the school lineup. I waited until all other cars left and drove forward using all my might to turn the steering wheel so that I could park the car while I tried to figure out what to do. I turned the car off and on a few times and then the steering worked. I drove my grand-daughter home, safely, thank god, returned home and parked the car in the garage. I'm now terrified to drive it and upon doing research online I realize that I am far from the only one with complaints. This is a very, very dangerous problem. Being unable to steer puts not only me and my passengers in danger but many others on the road as well..
Power assisted steering will cease working while driving, making the car very, very difficult to steer/control. This problem is currently intermittent, but when it does happen it is very scary.
Driving off a parking lot about to make a left onto traffic, car suddenly lost power steering, try to correct direction but weight tons to steer into right direction and runs straight into traffic.
Power steering pump failed without warning while I was in the middle of a left hand turn. The car's steering suddenly became so heavy that I almost drove into somebody's yard. Since the road was a 3 mile straight shot to my home, I drove it the rest of the way. The problem seemed to come and go to varying degrees over that distance. I will not be driving it again until repaired.
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