Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

My MINI finally had its first real mechanical issue. For the last month or so, I’ve noticed the power steering fan more and more; it has been slightly louder than I remember but otherwise functioning fine. I assumed it may have had some dirt in it. Then in the past week or so, when first starting the car I could hear what sounded like water flowing behind the steering wheel area. Like the fluid sound you hear a refrigerator or air conditioner make when they turn off. I then realized it made these sounds all the time, but road noise or the radio easily drowned it out.

On Wednesday I was stuck in traffic on the way to work and decided to experiment. I turned off the radio and turned off the vent fan so I could hear the water sound. Then I tried listening to see what actions affected it. I then noticed that turning the steering wheel even slightly made it stop for a second.

When I got home from work I popped the hood and had a look. I opened the power steering fluid reservoir and to my horror it was completely dry!!

I would have driven to autozone to fill it back up but the MINI takes a special CHF 11S fluid, not typical power steering fluid, because of its electrical steering system. So Thursday morning I drove up to MINI of Peabody. They quickly determined that seals in the steering rack had leaked, however the fluid stays in the rubber boots so that you don’t see it on the ground. As is typical with MOP, instead of just patching the problem, they prefer to replace the offending system, so they took the car for a day to give it a whole new steering rack. Under warranty, of course.

In the meantime they gave me a rental from Enterprise, and thankfully not the Neon or Cavalier that I have rented before, but a new Chevy Aveo. Which actually impressed me, aside from the two pedals on the floor that apparently had no function whatsoever, and the steering wheel that needs a knob you have to turn it so much; it was built much safer and smarter than the Neon or Cavalier. Despite its size (and I’m sure you all know this argument) it was better engineered and you actually had more space inside and better protection in an impact. The other two cars were scary to say the least. It is nice to get a rental once in a while to appreciate all the qualities of your MINI, sometimes we need a good reminder of why the MINI is one of the greatest cars. 🙂

Anyway my MINI is back and good as new. I was lucky to catch that issue before I was caught somewhere with no power steering or the power steering pump burned out. A search on NAM turned up several others with the same symptoms and cause (one in my same May 04 build month), so it is an issue. So take an extra minute and check your power steering fluid every once in a while, so you catch a problem well before you drain the whole system. The fluid level should be within the plastic dipstick on the cap. The level should not normally drop. And remember you cannot replace it with regular power steering fluid, it uses CHF 11S.