The power steering on my 2005 MINICooper convertible suddenly failed on a turn, nearly causing me to go into a ditch. My MINIdealer told me it was probably the power steering pump & would cost $1400 to replace. I researched the problem on the internet & found this was a common issue with the MINIcooper & that an investigation was taking place into the defective pump & that a recall might be forthcoming. I called MINIusa's customer service dept. Their rep told me that they were aware of the issue & that they might be able to offer "goodwill" assistance in getting it replaced if I took it to my dealer for verification that it was a pump failure. I took it to the dealer who verified that the pump needed replaced. Their service department said this had been a common problem & that they were aware of the complaints made about the pump going bad. I called MINIusa's customer service, spoke to a supervisor who told me she'd get back to me. A week later, she called & told me that my request for assistance has been denied & that I would be responsible for the replacement. I strongly feel that, in light of the numerous complaints about the power steering pump, BMW/MINIshould be held accountable for its replacement. $1400 is an incredible amount of money to replace something that shouldn't have gone bad in the first place. There are no local mechanics who can take repair this so MINIusa/BMW has us right where they want us - powerless to fight a big company & helpless because we need our vehicles. I would have never expected this to happen on a car with less than 45,000 miles on it. Suddenly losing one's power steering can be extremely dangerous. I encourage NHTSA to further investigate this vehicle's power steering pump defect & issue a recall to ensure the safety of the vehicle's drivers, passengers & anyone who could be injured due to sudden loss of its power steering.

- Twinsburg, OH, USA

The contact owns a 2005 MINICooper convertible. The contact stated that while driving 45 mph the power steering became unresponsive. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who diagnosed that the power steering pump was defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure who did not offer any assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and the current mileage was 44,776. Updated 01/18/12 the stated she experienced a total failure of the power steering as she rounded a curve. The sudden loss of power steering forced her off the road and nearly into a ditch. The consumer was informed it would cost $1400 to replace the steering pump. Updated 02/28/12

- Twinsburg, OH, USA

Driving home from work at about 70 mph, the power steering failed. I was going around a bend in the road when suddenly the power steering failed that almost caused an accident. Without notice the car reverted to "rack-and-pinion" mode. I was fortunate that time to gain control of the car and did not go over the side of the road or hit another car. I didn't drive the car for several months then took it to a few mechanics for an estimate. Dealer says replace the steering pump at $1200 but they will not honor any assistance due to the premature failure of the steering pump or the electrical connection to the cooling fan failure. The power steering fan quits then the pump gets hot and shuts off. I called MINIusa today and they said they will not assist me in paying for the manufacturing defect. My pump failure is intermittent suggesting that the problem is electrical and on point for a recall on 2004 MINICoopers. My car has the same problem and was manufactured in 2004, but is the 1707 car outside their "official" recall range. MINIBMW sent a "Mr. Driver" letter out on 12/2004 for this "recall." My car had not been purchased yet. The dealer says that replacing the steering pump will solve all the problems including the electrical issue. Apparently, the new steering pump has a design feature that eliminates the electrical failure problem (defect code: 0032630100 & labor code: 0055719). The more the pump overheats because of the fan non-operation problem, the pump will need to be replaced, it will be burnt out. One thing is sure, I have a premature failure of the steering pump making my car dangerous to drive. I can't afford to fix it. Nor do I believe, I should be responsible for the manufactures design failure. The car is not fit to drive as intended. Why is BMW getting away with this? many thousands and thousands of drivers have this same problem.

- San Rafael, CA, USA

Power steering for the last year or so only works a fraction of the time. The first time it went out was while driving on the freeway. Last weekend it stopped working and didn't work again for a full week. Very hard to drive this vehicle when it goes out unexpectedly.

- Virginia Beach, VA, USA

Going into a turn on the northwest side of I-465 in indianapolis and the MINICooper's power steering went out. I braked hard and pulled off the side of the road. It came out of nowhere.

- Indianapolis, IN, USA

In the early fall, September 2011, I encountered issues with my car not shifting properly. It's an automatic transmission so I know there was nothing I could be doing to cause this problem. The car has been serviced regularly and driven with care while in my possession(I'm the second owner. No similar issues on carfax report). While the engine is cool and not yet at its optimal temperature the drive is fine and you may not even notice a problem; however, every ride, once warmed up the car begins to shift incredibly violently as it is obviously struggling to switch gears. This occurs also while slowing down and the car is downshifting creating an opportunity to be "slung" into a car from behind(this happened in the mid summer of 2011). After dropping this car off September 15th to the local MINIdealership, I did not hear from them for almost three weeks. In the first week of October I was contacted and told it looks like my car is very easily fixable and should be ready shortly. It was explained to me that a seal had broken on the transmission leaking fluid onto it causing this shifting malfunction. When they finally told me I can pick up my car(approximately October 18th) they regretted to inform me the problem was not able to be fixed and I would have to bring it elsewhere as they do not rebuild transmissions. Now it is back in my possession where I am forced to commute in it daily, driving worse than it was before I dropped it off. It now displays "PE" for its current gear from time to time. This is not the only complaint I have filed for this car matching other consumer complaints. I am a victim of their failed power steering as well.

- East Brunswick, NJ, USA

Steering wheel locks while driving. I have talked to the dealer and the dealer believes the problem is with the steering pump. I researched it on the net and found many people complaining about it.

- Enfield, CT, USA

While driving at normal speed and approaching a right hand turn the vehicle's steering stiffened. Thus, making it difficult to make the turn safely. Instead of completing a tight turn into the closes lane, I made a wide turn into lane 2. once the car was turned off, parked and turned back one the problem did not persist.

- Oxnard, CA, USA

The contact owns a 2005 MINICooper. The contact stated that the steering wheel would seize while driving at various speeds. Whenever the failure occurred, the contact would restart the vehicle. Once restarted, the steering wheel would operate as normal. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer but they were unable to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 89,000.

- Crestwood, KY, USA

The first incident happened as I was merging onto the interstate. I couldn't move the steering wheel and thought my car had died, but it hadn't and then all was fine so I thought maybe I imagined it. The second incident was on 11/11/11. I went to pick up my grand-daughter from school. I turned the car off and when I restarted it I could not pull out of the school lineup. I waited until all other cars left and drove forward using all my might to turn the steering wheel so that I could park the car while I tried to figure out what to do. I turned the car off and on a few times and then the steering worked. I drove my grand-daughter home, safely, thank god, returned home and parked the car in the garage. I'm now terrified to drive it and upon doing research online I realize that I am far from the only one with complaints. This is a very, very dangerous problem. Being unable to steer puts not only me and my passengers in danger but many others on the road as well..

- Crestwood, KY, USA

Random loss of power to power steering system at varying speeds and conditions. Loss of power steering can vary in times from a few seconds to a several minutes. Steering vehicle becomes extremely difficult to turn and may result in an accident due to loss of power in steering pump/system. Condition seems to go away for a few hours to a few days.

- San Jose, CA, USA

I was driving down brookwood street and went to make a curve when I realized that I couldn't turn the car. I was able to pull harder on the wheel and make the curve. I pulled over and turned the car off to look things over, checked the power steering fluid which was full. I restarted the car and the steering worked again.I finished driving to work with no problems. When I came out of work I again had no power steering and had the car towed into a shop where they told me the power steering pump had failed and it was going to cost over $1300 to fix. I had the repair done but am afraid to drive the car as they told me it could happen again even with the new part.

- Beaverton, OR, USA

Power assisted steering will cease working while driving, making the car very, very difficult to steer/control. This problem is currently intermittent, but when it does happen it is very scary.

- Fort Washington, MD, USA

Driving off a parking lot about to make a left onto traffic, car suddenly lost power steering, try to correct direction but weight tons to steer into right direction and runs straight into traffic.

- San Francisco, CA, USA

Power steering pump failed without warning while I was in the middle of a left hand turn. The car's steering suddenly became so heavy that I almost drove into somebody's yard. Since the road was a 3 mile straight shot to my home, I drove it the rest of the way. The problem seemed to come and go to varying degrees over that distance. I will not be driving it again until repaired.

- Richmond, VA, USA

Temporary loss of power steering. After driving for about 2 hours, I stopped to fill up at a gas station. I then started the car and began to drive out of the gas station. I soon noticed the power steering was not working. I pulled into a parking space, opened the hood, and proceeded to check the power steering fluid. The power steering fluid reservoir was full. I restarted the car after about 5 minutes and the power steering was working again. This temporary power steering loss has occurred 3 more times over the last month since the initial incident described above. During the last occurrence, I drove a short distance back to my home with no power steering. I'd like to point out steering was very difficult, nearly undriveable around slow speed turns. The steering effort was much more than manual steering cars I've owned in the past.

- Sunnyvale, CA, USA

Power steering completely fails.

- Bowie, MD, USA

On multiple occasions at various speeds and at random times, the power steering on my 2005 MINICooper S will stop working. After researching the issue, this appears to be a very common problem that plagues almost every MINIsold since 2002. I would also like to reference NHTSA action number :EA11005, as it applies to my particular issue.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

About 2 months ago the steering started getting hard to steer as if the power steering was broken. Took it to the mechanic and he could not find anything wrong. It was an intermittent problem. On 9/26/11 the steering became hard to steer all of the time and my wife almost got into a collision when she found it very hard to steer. Took it to my mechanic and he discovered that the power steering pump had failed. In addition, he told me that there has been numerous reports of power steering unit failure with my 2005 MINICooper. I called my local MINICooper dealer and was told there was no recall at all in regards to the power steering unit. Since my wife and I have to drive the car, I had the power steering pump repaired at a cost of $1055.

- San Ramon, CA, USA

As reported by hundreds of others to NHTSA and by thousands on the internet, the power steering pump in our 2005 MINICooper will simply stop working intermittently and unexpectedly. This is very dangerous as it becomes almost impossible to control the vehicle. There are thousands of other complaints about this on-line and will eventually lead to a death. It is my opinion that NHTSA must immediately move to escalate this from engineering analysis to require BMW of North America, llc issue a recall on all 2005 & 2006 model MINICoopers, if not earlier models as there are complaints on-line going back to 2002 when the model was first introduced to the us market. The cost to replace this unit is the better part of $900, but what''s the cost of a life? MINIshould have long since recalled this unit and they have known about this issue since 2002 but they have clearly ignored complaint after complaint instead claiming they ''work closely with NHTSA on all complaints'' (they''re required to do so by law so their statement doesn''t hold much weight). As the failure is intermittent an unpredictable how can I allow my wife or daughter who is preparing to learn to drive to drive either of our MINICoopers until it''s replaced? MINIshould be forced to do it. Information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

- Boone, NC, USA