CarComplaints.com Notes: Power steering problems are a major issue with the 2004 Mini Cooper, with hundreds of owners reporting complaints to the NHTSA about their power steering suddenly failing while driving.
Some power steering failures have caused crashes & injuries. Average mileage at failure is well under 100,000 miles & the repair cost is over $1,000. Not good.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
10 / 7
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
75,582 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
04 MINICooper S with under 40,000 miles. Intermittent power steering pump failure. Car is extremely hard to turn when the power steering is not working. Restarting the car sometimes causes the power steering to start working but it went out while driving at 25 miles per hour on Jan 02, 2011. This is an indication of a power steering pump failure.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. while driving approximately 35 mph the power steering failed. The contact was not driving so he did not know the full details of the failure. The person driving was able to drive the vehicle to their residence. The failure was not diagnosed by a dealer. The failure and current mileages were 60,000.
The contact owns a 2004 BMW MINICooper S. the contact stated that while starting the vehicle the steering wheel jammed and she was unable to turn it or control the vehicle. She turned the vehicle off and back on, she was able to turn the wheel after it reset but it was very hard to turn the steering wheel. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 35,000 and the current mileage was 39,000.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. the contact stated that when pulling out of his driveway and attempting to make a turn, the vehicle was difficult to steer. The vehicle was inspected by a dealer who informed him that he needed to replace the steering pump. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 72,400. Updated 09/07/11
2004 MINICooper S - power steering fan/pump failure VIN# [xxx] my power steering stop working completely. This power steering would go "on" and "off: Intermittently over the past year a half (4-7 times a week over the last 8-10months). I'd park the car when I went to leave, no power steering. This has gotten progressively worse and now the power steering has stopped working while driving on the road!!I have only has the car for 2 years and it has 70K miles. I brought the intermittent failures to the dealerships attention numerous times but they need to "see it happening" to fix it. Now that my power steering has completely failed, they now told me to its the power steering fan/pump that has failed. I can not afford the repairs and have been driving with no power steering for over 3 months. I see this issue has been discussed everywhere online & that this is a dangerously huge and common issue for my model & year MINIcooper. I don't know if this process of filing a complaint will even do anything to make a difference, but if someone is reading this complaint, please help us. Thank you ** the website would not accept my VIN # as valid so I was unable to add it to the appropriate place during this complaint filing.
- Greenwich, CT, USA
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The power steering on my 2004 MINICooper intermittently fails. To date, 5 failures have happened lasting from 10 to 30 minutes in duration. Last failure was December 3, 2010.
The contact owns a 2004 BMW MINICooper. The contact was driving approximately 35 mph when the power steering pump failed, making it extremely difficult to maneuver the steering wheel. The dealer was contacted who was unaware of the problem. The contact did not inform the manufacture nor was the vehicle repaired. The current and failure mileages was approximately 58,900. The VIN was unavailable.
The contact owns a 2004 MINIcopper. While traveling 25 mph the power steering failed which made the steering wheel difficult to turn. The failure only lasted for a short time and began to function normally. The failure and current mileages were 44600.
My 2004 MINICooper S suddenly and without warning lost its power steering. I had to have it towed to the mechanic who said the whole steering was shot. That is when I found out that MINIhas had a lot of these failures. If I had been on a curve and at any faster speed I may have been seriously hurt, and now BMW won't even fix the car! this is not right especially when they have known there is problem, what is it going to take a few people getting killed like with the Toyota brake problem? make them do something to fix this problem.
The steering is so hard and it is difficult to move while driving, I had this problem for last few month but every time when I turn off/on, the problem goes away for a day or two. Since last week, it become permanent. I surf on internet and call MINIcustomer services, they told me that this issue is under investigation and if I fixed the problem and if there will be a recall, they will cover only parts not labor. This is very serious and unsafe while driving.
My car has had intermittent power failure since 2008, usually lasting a few days. More recently my power steering has been out for the past 2 months. Today it started working on my way home from work but the power steering fan remains on after I turn the car off. I had to disconnect the battery in order to keep the fan off. Consequences have resulted in near accidents on the highway and road when failure occurs (failures happened when I have gone into turns). Power steering pump and fan will need to be replaced.
The power steering assist failed during cornering. Required me to apply extra force to the steering wheel at which point the power steering assist re-engaged causing the car to over steer. I needed to make a quick correction in order to avoid crossing over the centerline and hitting an on coming vehicle. The power steering assist has been on and off for the first couple of months since that time and has been completely non functional for the last month or so.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. the contact was traveling 35 mph when the steering became extremely tight. There was no warning prior to the failure. The contact stated that the failure had occurred before but not as extreme as the most current failure. The contact could barely maneuver the steering wheel. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where the power steering cooling fan and electronic power steering pump were replaced. The dealer advised that the power steering failure was a known problem. The failure mileage was 4,053 and the current mileage is 4,509 updated 02/03/11 also, the driver side seat heater grid burned through the cover and the drivers jacket. The second seat cover burned through also and made a hole in the passengers coat. Updated 03/18/11
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. while the contact was driving approximately 50 mph, the power steering stopped functioning and it was difficult to turn the steering wheel. The vehicle had not been inspected or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. the contact stated that when driving at low speeds, the steering shaft started to make odd noises. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer who stated that the steering column and pum were defective. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 90,000. Updated 4/11/2011 updated 07/11/11
While parking and while driving, steering function has been lost. The steering wheel gets heavy, seeming to be stuck and unable to turn. This happened twice, and I was able to stop the car or pull off to the side and stop without injury. The steering fluid was fine, an although the steering pump doesn't make noise or continue to run after the car is shut off, it is assumed the steering pump needs to be replaced (a common faulty part in MINICoopers). There is concern for safety over when and where I might lose steering again and whether this will cause an incident alone or with another car. I have read that my car might start on fire in connection with the steering pump, even with a replacement of the pump.
I own a 2004 MINIcooper hard top and I was on my way home from state college when the power steering went out. This made the car extremely difficult to drive. Since this happened, I am all but terrified to drive the vehicle. I have done some investigation into this, and I see I am not the only MINIowner with this problem. I hope something will be done about this.
The power steering assist on my 2004 MINICooper started failing very sporadically over one year ago becoming more and more frequent until finally I experienced complete failure of the power assist. Sometimes this would occur when I was first starting the car but then as the frequency increase, it would also just stop working while I was driving, sometimes going as fast as 50-60 miles per hour, making the vehicle very difficult to steer. I had the power steering pump replaced with a brand new one, which seems to have corrected the problem. The car only had 83,000 miles on it at the time the power steering pump had to be replaced, which, I believe, is unacceptable.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Baltimore, MD, USA