PLEASE HELP! This is a life or death matter!

[jvlin]

A few days ago, my boyfriend was driving his mini cooper, and his steering wheel locked up. He almost had a car accident. He brought it to the dealer, and they said nothing was wrong! It's definitely not safe enough to be driven.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong that the dealer could have missed? My friend told me there should be an error log, since there was one on his BMW, but I'm not sure if his mini has one. Please help!

[curtis73]

As an auto repair shop manager, this is a frustrating thing. I wish I had a nickel for every time someone brought something in with an intermittent problem that we can't duplicate.

It sounds to me like one of two things happened; either the steering wheel actually locked, which would be a malfunction in the steering wheel/key interlock, or that something happened to temporarily disable the power steering pump which would give the impression that the steering locked. A water puddle, a small oil leak, a coolant leak, power steering fluid leak could all cause temporary disabling of the power assist. I had a leaking water pump that would drip on the belt, and after every drop I lost power steering for a second or two.

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by curtis73

or that something happened to temporarily disable the power steering pump which would give the impression that the steering locked. .

If you look at some car review sites, such as www.carsurvey.org (the Mini is in the BMW section) you will see that steering rack problems and power steering failures are a fairly frequently reported problem area on these cars.

[534BC]

A third possibility is that there is nothing wrong with at all. Before driving, a good visual check should be done because there's many things that can potentially get in the way. A second step should be a nice slow speed manuverabiblity test attempting to duplicate the conditions.

[serge_saati]

I don't think that it's a power steering issue. I already drive a car with the power steering disabled (broken belt) and it was easy to drive at 5 mph and more. The power steering is usefull at very low speed, because of the inertia. At highway, it's useless, and doesn't lock the wheel if inactive.

I think it's more a key interlock problem. This part must be inspected.

These things don't give error logs.

[shorod]

I would imagine that the Mini has electric power assist, possibly solo, or more likely in addition to the hydraulic power assist. If the electric assist goes out or shorts (possibly causing electric motor braking) you might get the sensation of locked steering, even once the car is moving.

The electric power assist connector was left disconnected by the dealer when one of my former cars was in for warranty service. Before getting out of the parking lot it was obvious the car was not going to be safe to drive.

-Rod

[curtis73]

Originally Posted by serge_saati

I don't think that it's a power steering issue. I already drive a car with the power steering disabled (broken belt) and it was easy to drive at 5 mph and more.

This is highly dependent on the vehicle in question. On my 66 Bonneville I lost the power steering belt and I couldn't tell unless I was below about 15 mph, but in my 96 Impala SS with 12.7:1 steering, 5 degrees of caster, and 275mm rubber, I could tell the difference at 70 mph when I merely changed lanes on the freeway where I actually fought the steering to get it to switch.... and it literally took all of my strength (and I'm a big strong guy) to even budge the wheel to make the turn into my driveway. Put it this way... I bent my steering wheel trying to overcome the resistance.

These things don't give error logs.

Agreed. Minis don't give errors for steering.

[UncleBob]

mini's use an electric motor powered, hydraulic power steering system...there is no belt driven pump. A very odd set up that I've never seen anywhere else

could be the electric motor is failing....I have no idea what failures are common on them

[Moppie]

Originally Posted by UncleBob

mini's use an electric motor powered, hydraulic power steering system...there is no belt driven pump. A very odd set up that I've never seen anywhere else

could be the electric motor is failing....I have no idea what failures are common on them

They got it from the MGF, which suffers similar problems if the motor, or electronics behind it fail.

[serge_saati]

So yeah, it could be a hydraulic power steering problem. If it fails, the electric motor doesn't have enough power to turn the wheel w/o the hydraulic assistance.

This dealer is not good at all. It must perform another full inspection, and test. It could take many hours to find the problem. Intermittent problems are very hard to find.