We have classified the 134 complaints from 2003 MINI Cooper about STEERING into the following categories.
Owner noticed change in steering resulting in hard turning and no return of steering wheel without assistance after turning vehicle. dealer found failure of lower steering shaft universal joint and replaced lower steering shaft assembly and retained old part. vehicle was manf. 2/2003 and has 64482 miles on it to date.
Failure of steering gear assembly resulting in replacement of assembly 3x. failure resulted in more difficulty turning steering wheel and creaking noise emitting from underside of car. dealer stated there was a tsb on this issue. 1st instance 7/8/04 @32,297 miles, 2nd instance 3/2/05 @48,551 miles, 3rd instance 7/25/05 @59,112 miles. all failures occurred between july 2004 and july 2005. old part kept by dealership.*jb