Problems with 2005 MINI Cooper S STEERING

After driving for approx 2 hours at highway speeds, power steering failed. noticed upon exiting highway - no accident, but steering required unexpectedly significant force. *tr

Upon starting the vehicle and sometimes while moving at low speeds the power steering would fail making the vehicle extremely difficult to steer. the dealer explained that the relay in the auxiliary engine fan had failed likely as a result of the power steering fan failing. both the auxiliary engine fan and the power steering fan had to be replaced. the cost of the repairs and labor was $1060.14.

Tl* the contact owns a 2005 mini cooper. the contact stated that shortly after powering off the ignition, he noticed smoke coming from the steering pump. the fire department arrived and cut the battery line. the dealer did not offer any assistance. the manufacturer was aware of the failure. the contact replaced the steering pump. the current mileage was 40,746 and the approximate failure mileage was 40,540. updated 9/13/11 *cn the consumer repalcd the pump, fluid and other small parts. updated 01/23/12

2005 mini cooper s power steering failed while turning off highway almost causing me to crash into an adjacent car because i had to muscle the car into a corner. this is a very serious problem which happened one more time later in the week while i was turning into my driveway. a woman might not be able to muscle the car correctly thus causing an accident. *tr

2005 mini cooper s. power steering failure: i was driving my car for about 10 minutes, when the power steering failed. i reached my destination (without power steering), the car sat for approx 3 hours, when i got back in the car, the power steering worked. the first occurrence was on tuesday, june 14, 2011. on wednesday, june 15, this occurred numerous times after driving the vehicle only for a few minutes. again, after the car sat for a few hours, the power steering resumed working. my car has approx 56k miles on it, and i am the original owner of the vehicle. updated 07/26/11 *bf *tr updated 3/16/12 *cn

While driving my 2005 mini cooper s through a crowded parking lot, my power steering just suddenly went out without warning. there was no indication of the sudden failure and i was barely able to get my mini into a parking spot away from pedestrians. *tr

Power steering intermittently goes out while driving and continues to run while the car has turned off. has almost caused me to crash several times when it has gone out on the express way. *tr

I have a 2005 mini cooper s. the power steering went out on me as i was driving on the bay bridge. almost killed me and god only knows who else was on the bridge! how can the people at bmw sleep at night knowing there are minis out there with this problem! do the research and you will see how many terrified mini owners are out there! thank god i was in the far right lane so i could pull the car over and coast the rest of the way. the car was towed to minisf, who told me the power steering pump failed. i replaced the pump, but for some reason the problem continues intermittently. the fan runs all the time, even when driven for a short time. the entire system needs to be replaced. and, what's worse is the thought of selling this car to someone who might experience the same terror i did. there were no injuries or crashes. thank god for that. *tr

Power steering intermittently goes out while driving and does not return until car is cycled off and back on again. *tr

2005 mini cooper power steering failure. *tr

Power steering has been failing to work intermittently over the last couple of years. it occurs mainly after starting the car and driving away from a stop. stopping and restarting clears the problem. it did happen once at freeway speed on a left hand off ramp. it made the steering very heavy and hard to turn and could have lead to loss of control had the pavement been slippery. the power steering did return after slowing and completing the turn. *tr

Experienced abrupt and complete loss of the power steering system simultaneous with an immediate and sharp decrease in power. this incident occurred at 75 mph on an interstate highway, car in middle lane. very narrowly avoided collision with a truck when moving vehicle to full stop in emergency lane. vehicle currently not in use as we feel it is a road hazard and unsafe to operate in current condition. also awaiting for response from mini dealer.

My 2005 mini cooper s has power steering wheel failure. it started happening after the car hit 50,000 miles which i think it's still too low for any cars. i first encountered the problem a couple weeks ago when i was trying to make a left turn on a main rd. the steering was so difficult to turn even with both hands that i had to come to halt in the middle of the road. the car would have hit the building if i kept on going at full speed which is 30 miles. so glad there was no car behind me. encountered a few more times after this. my car is now parked at my condo lot as it cost over $1300 to get it fixed. it will be very dangerous is this happens on the freeway. a few of my friends have the same problem. something needs to be done or life will be lost. bmw/mini needs to do something about this. *tr

The power steering has been failing on and off for the past 2 years. i first noticed it when i was trying to get out of a parallel parking spot. upon turning off the car and restarting it, the power steering was restored. it most often happened when maneuvering out of parallel parked spots. sometimes it would happen several times in one day and then not again for a few months. several times when i was driving i felt the power steering lock up and have had to drive the car to safely and restart the steering. i took it in to the mini dealership and described the problem. i was told it sounded like the power steering pump and given a quote of $895 to get it replaced. *tr

While driving, the power steering stops working. this problem is intermittent and happens every few days. simply cycling the ignition gets it working again but is a big safety concern in my book. *tr

On tuesday, 5 april 2011, i drove my 2005 mini cooper s about 20 - 25 miles heading for work - i made a brief stop for coffee. the car operated properly during this drive, however, when i left the coffee shop i notice a very acrid smell in the area. when i got in my car and started it the "battery" indicator light was on. i check the owner's manual and it said this indicated the battery was not being charged. as the car was running i decided i could drive it to work and then address the charging issue. when i back out of the parking spot i realized i had also lost my power steering. i was concerned that my car might not be cooling as well, so moved the car to a spot further out in the parking lot to allow for a tow truck to pick it up. i realized the acrid smoke smell was still with me and decided to check under the hood. when i lifted the hood i found there was a fire in the engine compartment. fortunately i carried a fire extinguisher and was able to put the fire out - the fire department also responded. the car was towed to sandia mini cooper in albuquerque nm and i have since been informed that the power steering pump malfunctioned and caused the fire. from some research i have done on line it appears this is not an issue isolated to my vehicle, but that it was occurred in a number of cases. *tr

We purchased our 2005 mini cooper less than a week ago. it has 51,000 miles on it. i was traveling on the interstate for about an hour. i tried to take an off ramp to the right traveling about 60 mph and realized the power steering had failed. i applied the brake and brought the car to a stop. i slowly drove the car to a gas station where i turned the car off. the fan continued to run. i waited for about 10 minutes and restarted the car. the power steering was working again. 2 days later i was driving in town only 10 minutes and the power steering failed again. i was driving in freezing rain...thank goodness i was in town. if the steering had failed on the interstate with these weather conditions there could have been a serious problem. i am taking my mini into the dealership tomorrow. when we bought the mini cooper we thought we were buying a safe and dependable car..now it looks like an unsafe money pit. *tr

Over heating constantly no technical person knows of a remedy. overflow tank blows out when car overheats constantly .this seems to be a problem since the beginning no matter what year the car was built and never remedied. why not a recall? not knowing what other damage this causes to the engine. this has to be a recall for the company to fix it is a hit and miss fix??? this is a costly process and even in the forums on mini it has been an ongoing issue. front end fails all at the same time. (control arms, cv joints) steering becomes hard to control. mini help *tr

Power steering has failed twice. once was in rush hour traffic and the other was in mid-day traffic. the vehicle became extremely hard to handle. the first time, i almost caused an accident. my car only has 53,000 miles and this should not be happening. *tr

My 2005 mini cooper s had a sudden power steering failure while approaching a highway off ramp. i went to turn into it and the car had become a tank. after some panic braking and all the upper body strength i could muster on the steering wheel... i did not fly into the ditch, but had the road been wet or icy i have no doubt the results would have been different. contacted the local dealership and was estimated $1200 for the repair of a known factory defect. *tr

Power steering failure on my 05 mini cooper-s. power steering just stopped working while driving the car on the road in regular traffic, was turning left into a parking lot from a 5 lane road when it quit working, was barely able to turn the wheel enough to safely make it into the parking lot and avoid a crash. apparently as of now if i turn the car off and then back on the power steering might come back on; terribly dangerous problem to have on a part on a car that should last the life of the car. repair estimates are around $800-1300, and is apparently a common problem w/ these cars. *tr

Power steering fails intermittently. failure has occurred numerous times while parking and twice unexpectedly while driving and making a right turn. makes car hard to maneuver and unsafe because of the unpredictable nature of the failure. *tr

My power steering began to stop working as i rode. i would park the car, switch the engine off and restart and the power steering would come back. this happened several times both in back roads and highways. finally last month it stopped working completely and now it is very difficult to drive and really a danger to be on the road with. *tr

My 2005 mini cooper s had the power steering fail while i was driving. this car only has 56,000 miles. i took the car into the dealer to have maintenance done on it last week and was told the power steering pump was "seeping" but was not of immediate concern and i could wait on fixing/replacing it. today there is almost no fluid in the reservoir and i am unable to purchase at any local auto part store as no one carries (chs 11s) apparently a type of mineral spirit. in researching the issue, i found this to be a very common complaint and discovered that the national highway safety administration is investigating the issue so i wanted to add my voice. i was traveling at a low rate of speed in a slight corner at the time and yet still had a very hard time maintaining control of the car. please look into this issue, this could really lead to a tragedy. *tr

I have a 2005 mini cooper s with mileage of about 72k. the power steering failed on and off for a week and was completely gone on mar 5. updated 07/26/11 *bf the dealer replaced the power steering pump. updated 08/19/11

Our 2005 mini cooper s has intermittent steering issues. the power steering comes and goes. when researching the fix, i found that a lot of people are having the same issue. there is even a guy on ebay selling remanufactured power steering pumps at an average of one every three days. (based on ebay feed back). *tr

Power steering assist failed to operate without warning while i was parking the car, mini cooper s 2005 model year. there was no service light or any other warning before the failure occurred.

Noticed a whirring noise from the engine compartment. then suddenly the steering became difficult likely due to power steering pump failure. looked up possible issues on line and noticed that other folks had very similar experiences.

I have a january 2005 built mini cooper s (r53) with approximately 21,000 miles on it. on february 12, 2011 i was driving the car on a winding road in southern california when the power steering pump catastrophically failed without any warning in the middle of a high speed turn. the unexpected power steering pump failure made the steering completely unresponsive causing the car to spin out of control and nearly hit a tree (i was very lucky that i wasn't killed!). after doing some research, it appears that unwarranted power steering pump failures are quite common with the earlier mini cooper models. i feel that this is a huge safety concern that should be addressed by the manufacture via a mandatory safety recall. after the initial catastrophic failure of the power steering pump, the pump would work intermittently in that it would run fine for a while and then fail again without warning a short time later making the car extremely dangerous to drive. at times, the electric power steering pump would not switch off after turning off the car's ignition and the car's battery would ultimately go flat leaving us stranded. we took the car into the mini dealership on 2/17//2011 and they diagnosed the car as having a bad battery (claiming that the battery was so low that the car was actually shutting down the power steering in order to stay running). they charged us $160 for the diagnostics. we then replaced the battery with an oem batter from the dealership ($130) and it didn't make any difference. we also contacted the manufacturer (mini usa) directly and they were unwilling to help claiming that the car was no longer under the manufacturer's warranty. ultimately, on july 26, 2011 (at 21,385 miles) we replaced the failed power steering pump (part # 32-41-6-778-425) at a cost of $735.29 (plus labor). the mini dealership wanted well over $1,000 to perform the work and so we purchase a remplacement pump from the mini dealership and had it installed ourselves. *tr

I have a 2005 mini cooper s with 51,000 miles on it. i recently had to replace the lower control arm bushings and have had a creak in my steering column that is getting worse. last month, i first experienced complete lack of power steering. the car corrected itself and worked properly until a few intermittent occasions this week. turning off the car and turning it back on seem to temporarily correct the lack of power steering. however, it is very temporary. while driving, i can feel the steering response change on/off due to lack of power steering control. when the power steering fails, the wheel is very difficult to turn. it feels like a 1961 chevy truck with a 350 v8. it is nearly impossible to steer the car from a dead stop making parking extremely difficult. i am being forced to drive below the speed limit to limit my liability in corners and turns, especially on the interstate. i am setting up an appointment with my local mini dealer to address and correct the failure. i understand this is under investigation by nhtsa, but i cannot wait to have the repair. i am bewildered as to why there hasn't been a recall yet. it is unacceptable that a vehicle's steering system can fail after very little miles. mini needs to be held accountable for this problem. *tr

Power steering appears to not be working. power in the vehicle is interrupted at low speeds after driving the vehicle for a brief period of time. symptoms of this began occurring over three months ago with the battery of the car being drained after sitting for a period of 4 days or more. all relays and fuses have been checked. the power steering pump cooling fan was found to have been inoperative and was removed, cleaned and reinstalled approximately 2 weeks ago.

My 2005 mini cooper s suddenly lost power steering as i was driving almost causing an accident. i've not had it in for repairs yet, but researching on the internet it seems many consumers have had the same problem. i have even read of those whose car caught on fire and am fearful of the same happening to me not to mention the extremely high cost of repair. mini should recall the 2005 and fix this issue. *tr

I have an 05 mini cooper s and the power steering pump is defective along with 80,000+ others. i am roughly around 90,000 miles and the pump has just recently stared going out due to what the dealership called a "defective leak on the actually body of the pump". i asked them what i should do and they wanted to charge me $1100 to "fix it" but said that it could go out and fail at anytime while i am driving. this is a serious issue because my wife would not be able to control the car if it could go out at anytime? they also said that this was a very common problem in 04/05 mini coopers. i really wish somebody would make them recall this potential life threatening problem without charging us $1100 for their mistake in designing/installing the power steering pumps??? *tr

Power steering pump was making a loud whining noise as soon as the car was started, and would "wind down" a few seconds after the car was turned off. the pump and fan were both replaced thankfully before the system failed. *tr

On 1/14/11 while driving my car on a highway my steering wheel tightened up and made steering impossible. i was able to get back to my driveway. it didn't happen again until 1/16/11 and then 1/20/11, all while driving my car at different speeds, also while trying to back into my driveway. it happens with absolutely no warning. no warning lights or notification from the mini computer system has alerted me. *tr

Power steering suddenly failed while driving and the vehicle became very difficult to steer at all speeds. updated vin. 02/22/11. *tr

Lost power steering and ability to make turn easily

Intermittent power steering loss resulting in several complaints to dealer. dealer provided no working resolution. power steering loss in this vehicle made steering very difficult and resulted in excessively dangerous driving conditions. power pump finally failed and needed to be replaced. *tr

The power steering suddenly went out on my 2005 mini cooper s as i was about to turn right onto a highway on ramp. i felt the lack of power and continued straight so i could pull into a service station up ahead. the power steering was intermittent for a bit then totally out, leaving me with a 45 minute drive down the mountains to home without power steering. i have had multiple incidents of the power steering fan running after the car was off. now it looks as if the fan is no longer cooling the pump causing it to overheat which could start a fire. i am planning to try to replace the fan soon but i am just a broke college student so i really hope this recall goes through. *tr

Drove car to work - someone came in a few minutes after i arrived at work and told me my car was smoking. went out and looked but smoke had stopped by time got bonnet open. came from front passenger side. when started car to leave work - had warning light and power steering would not work. mini manual said to stop immediately. had car towed to local german repair shop and the said power steering motor had burned up and melted all the adjacent wiring. had to replace motor and wiring. *ln

2005 mini cooper s intermittently loses power steering, this happens without warning and renders the vehicle nearly impossible to steer. the first time it happened was on an elevated exit ramp and almost caused me to strike the safety wall. after a drastic slow down i was able to strong arm the vehicle back on course. this has happened several times since - most dangerous when it cuts out and the randomly comes back on causing severe over-steering. *ln

I was driving my 2005 mini cooper and took a sweeping right turn onto a freeway on ramp. during the turn the power steering stopped working and it took an extreme amount of force on the wheel for me to avoid hitting the side of the overpass as the car wanted to continue going straight.. it proceeded to cut out again as i tried to get it home. luckily i was able to control it and park it. when i turned the car off the pump continued to run and drained the battery overnight. the car would not start in the morning. *tr

The vehicle has loss the power steering assist due to power steering pump failure. thus requiring increased force to steer and control the vehicle. steering has becomes extremely difficult and has made manoeuvring this car far harder and dangerous. the car has spotty electrical failures; example the window just doesn't want to roll up; no, wait, it does. no, wait, it doesn't. the stereo just gives up; no sound anymore,then it plays again. the same with the drivers side door you could here it unlock and re-lock, but the door would not open and then it would. also both of my keys to open the door both turned off at the same time and i had to have the keys re-calibrated at a mini dealership to reopen the vehicle.

2005 mini cooper s. intermittent failure of power steering under varied driving conditions. although nhtsa has opened investigation, bmw has not issued a recall yet. local mini service department will change the electric steering motor at about $1000, but is unaware of the reason for the failures. *tr

2005 mini cooper s power steering failure, while turning power steering failed, no leaks, and fluid reservoir full. researched possible problems and found an article on http://new mini.word press.com report published on http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog talks about this same problem effected 175,000 mini's between 2001-2007. this seems pretty serious and with that many vehicles i shouldn't incur any costs for repair. *tr

Found need more turning of steering wheel at traffic light into the cross street, then parked the car, turned off engine but still found something running in engine bay. thought it was the fan to cool the engine off, so didn't pay attention. at lunch, come back to pick up the car, and found its battery was drained almost totally. jumped the car without issue and drove back home without issue. turned off engine and still hear the noise of something running in the engine bay. pulled all fuses to see if can identify the problem, doesn't help, something still run with load noise. searched internet, found other owners also experienced the same and is the power steering pump failure, some even found failure while driving.

My 2005 mini cooper s appears to have lost its power steering. just happened today (11/22/10) as i was driving on the interstate. i did not lose control or anything like that. it just became exceedingly difficult to steer the car. *tr

2005 mini cooper s power steering pump failure. this is the second time within a two year period that i had to replace the pump. the result is a sudden loss of steering control and degradation of the battery. *tr

Power steering pump and cooling fan failure. unsafe to drive and safety hazard. poor engineering design with regards to placement of pump / fan and electrical load. defective (rebuilt and not new) parts from mini dealership repaired under warranty one time. mini does not stand by its products or engineering. replacement and repairs occurred 3 times in less than 5 years and less than 65,000. *tr updated 07/26/11 *bf updated 2/29/12 *cn

My power steering in my 2005 mini cooper failed while driving. this is a common issue for all 01-07 mini coopers and before someone dies or is seriously injured bmw mini needs to issue a recall and replace this faulty part. i was driving home from work and the steering started to lockup on the highway, i then pulled over and turned off the car then restarted and the steering worked just fine. two days later i was pulling off of the highway again and the steering started to lock up once more. i barely made it to a nearby parking lot strong-arming the car with each turn. i pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car once again. after restarting the car the steering still would not work, i even let it cool down for a few minutes to try once more. still unable to steer. had to get my car towed and had to replace power steering pump and fan on car. this car is less than 5 years old and the power steering should last the life of the car.