Today the power steering went out when I was about a mile from work. Drove to work and parked it - let it sit for 5 minutes, started it up and the power steering was still failing. Thinking it was some sort of vapor lock, I let it sit for 1/2 hour. Power steering started to work again.
I called the dealer and was told "Don't drive it. Have it towed in immediately because it could fail completely."
Evidently this is not an altogether uncommon problem.
Mine did that as well. When it "came back" it only worked for about a day. I had to replace the power steering pump, which is an electric pump, complete with control module. Expensive little devil, too, and generally only available as a re-manufactured unit for about $350.00. It's a nasty install, too - wedged in between the engine and the firewall. Currently, MINI is on Rev C or D of this pump, but they obviously have not been able to find a cure. When mine failed, it failed "on" - the only way to get the pump to stop was to pull the positive cable off the battery. I opted to just unplug the main feed wire going to the pump, and drove it with no power steering until my new pump arrived.
I can probably give you a Root Cause Analysis too: There is a small "muffin" fan mounted right behind the engine which blows air on the power steering pump to keep it cool (honest!) This fan is right out in the open, and subject to sucking in road debris, pebbles, plastic bags, cigarette butts, etc, etc. If the fan gets jammed, it stops, the power steering pump overheats, and the control module fries. The pump itself is generally fine - about five bucks worth of electronic components get fried, and of course they're sealed inside the pump, and can't be repaired, so you have to pony up over three hundred just for parts to fix it. Labour extra, if you don't swing your own wrenches.
But wait, there's more! If your car was built before (roughly) December,
2002, the pump cooling fan shares a fuse with the engine cooling fan! That could possibly be the single most bone-headed move I've ever seen from BMW Engineering (and I've seen quite a few...) So now when you're driving down the road on a hot day with the A/C on and a stone gets stuck in the muffin fan, you also lose the engine cooling fan! Fortunately, they fixed this problem on all 2003's built after December, 2002, so your car would not have this "feature."
I am actually rather surprised that an '05 would have this problem - MINI has had several years to correct the design flaw, but then, German engineers are loathe to admit they didn't design it -perfectly- the first time, and changes come very slowly.
That's my guess, anyway - report back on what your dealer tells you.
Tim/
2003 MCS
1999 BMW 540i
2005 Ford Excursion Turbodiesel (the MINI fits in the back!)
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