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.
Power steering dropped out unexpectedly while I was making a left hand turn, traveling approximately 10-15 mph. I was able to regain steering control before a collision, but power steering never came back on. I found out the power steering pump had failed, perhaps brought on by a power steering fan failure. Both the fan and pump were replaced.
Driving at approximately 45mph, when power steering failed. Power steering failure accompanied by other electrical issues. Gauge cluster reset, all failure lights went on. Power steering restored shortly after failure. Occurred approximately two more times after first incident. After power steering failure noticed, issue with charging system also. Charging system voltage consistently low, sometimes even going down to 10V accompanied by loss of power and other malfunction lights.
The power steering on my 2004 MINICooper S has failed several times without warning. The car is very difficult to steer when the pump strops working without warning and my wife nearly had an accident because of this intermittent failure. I checked online and there are many complaints about the very same problem.. stopping the car and shutting the engine off and then restarting it, clears the problem.
Lost power steering on freeway at 70 mile an hour. Next day it work for 40 miles then failed again on freeway at 70 miles an hour, there is no warning or fluid loss, just complete steering loss. Then it is very hard to control.
The steering wheel went almost completely rigid and the wheel required a great deal of effort to turn. Turning the wheel was far more difficult than in any vehicle I have driven without power steering, and there was a pulse of differing pressure against the turns at times. After shutting off the car and starting again, the steering was back to normal.
- Portland, OR, USA
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After stopping at a red light, when I accelerated to make a left turn, lost power steering. Drove to work next day with no power steering, but on the way home, it came back on. However, when I turn off the engine, the electric motor kept on running. Had to disconnect battery to keep it from draining and/or cause a fire.
The electric power steering pump failed... saw smoke coming from engine area, even when power to engine was shut off and key removed. After several attempts to restart vehicle after talking with service mechanic, he advised to "restart" car until the power steering unit possibly turned back on. After 6 attempts (appox 3 mins apart), the system started to work again, but with a "stiff & grinding" noise coming from the pump being transmitted thru the steering wheel. Cause of failure is "power steering pump/fan unit". very dangerous, as this happened at speed on freeway, and lost almost all control of steering.
Pulled into a parking lot. Was making a right turn into a spot and lost all steering. I turned off the car and restarted and it worked again, but it was impossible to steer without the power assist. I see this morning that this problem is now common and I hesitate to go into MINIto have it fixed right away since it will cost more than $1000 to fix! why isn't this a recall?
Power steering failure while driving; had new steering rack/pump installed at 90,000, worked fine for a year and now the power steering has failed for the second time; a new steering pump/rack needs to be installed...
The vehicle's power steering failed without warning while driving down the road. This caused the vehicle to be very difficult to steer. The car is almost impossible to drive.
Driving to work and tried to make a right hand turn. The power steering failed making the wheel very hard to turn. I pulled over to the side and shut the car off, and when I restarted it, the power steering worked again. It does this intermediately a few times a week since then... MINIsays its an internal fault in the power steering pump.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. the contact was driving 45 mph when the steering wheel became hard to maneuver. The vehicle was merged onto the shoulder and then towed to a local mechanic who inspected the failure and informed the contact that the power steering pump needed to be replaced. The power steering pump was replaced. The manufacturer was notified who offered no assistance. The failure mileage was 140,000.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper. The contact stated while driving 10 mph the power of steering would stop working intermittently. The vehicle was towed to a local mechanic who was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 50,000 and the current mileage was 51,377.
The first time the power steering failed was when I was exiting off a highway rest stop. When leaving the stop, the power steering worked again. For a couple of months, incidents of stiffness became more frequent especially at the end of my commute home from work. Three months later it lacks power steering full time. After all I've read about this online, my concern is that the cost of the repair may be around $1300.
Driving on highway entering turn, and car was hard to steer, had to jerk wheel to avoid hitting another car. When will something be done with mine and others who have this issue. Does it take a death for car dealers to be held accountable.
Power steering just cuts off while driving for no reason. You have to stop the vehicle and turn off engine and then turn it back on to (I guess) reset the power steering. This is impossible if you are driving on a road that you cannot pull over and especially on a curvy road.
I was just driving home from work and the power steering just went out, I did safely make it home and got the car in the garage. It has been parked since it seems the power steering comes and goes. I don't know what the problem may be for sure, but I have already had the fan assembly replaced due to it would not cut off, and killed my battery, so of course I had to replace the battery. I am taking the car in for a estimate for the steering, but it seems this is a common problem and it needs to be recalled. It cause someone to get hurt or even killed.
The contact owns a 2004 MINICooper S. the contact stated that while driving approximately 40 mph, the power steering would seize. This failure recurred on an intermittent basis. The vehicle was not inspected nor repaired for the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 104,000. The VIN was unavailable.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Kansas City, MO, USA