10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 12 / 17
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 2 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 73,908 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
« Read the previous 20 complaints
The contact owns a 2005 MINICooper S. the contact stated that the power steering pump would continue to run even when the vehicle was turned off, causing the vehicle to loose power steering while driving. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer were notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 73,000 and the current mileage was 74,000.
- Garden City, MI, USA
Power steering pump failure. It began to run all the time even with the key off. Please note less than 2 months ago I filed claim # 10411560 predicting that after the fan had failed the pump would fail in a short time. It did.
- Sugar Land, TX, USA
2005 MINICooper has power steering problems on several occasions in the last few weeks. Seemingly resolves spontaneously.
- Apo, AE, USA
I was leaving my house for work in the morning. As I was backing out of the driveway onto the street, I discovered that the steering wheel was really hard to turn. Consequently I ended up all the way on the other side of the street, and it took great effort to get the car into the direction I intended. Fortunately there wasn't oncoming traffic when I was on the wrong side of the street, otherwise it could be dangerous... I stopped on the side of the street, checked that everything else was ok except power steering. Since I only needed to take local streets, I was able to drive to work - it just felt like my very first car that was manual and without power steering!
- Sunnyvale, CA, USA
2005 MINIcooper power steering abruptly failed while driving at 55 mph on a winding 2 lane rural road. I was able to keep the car on the road and was able to drive the car home with great difficulty. Had this been a heavily traveled highway, the results could have been much different. When it happened, it took a little time to figure out what was going on and I found myself in the oncoming lane before I was able to recover.
- Downsville, LA, USA
2005 MINICooper S - engine fire a few days ago (7/27/2011) my 2005 MINICooper S caught fire in the lower rear engine compartment while parked in a business parking lot. It had been driven a short distance (about 6 miles) three hours prior with no indication of a problem. The car ignition was off and there was no key present in or near the vehicle. Fortunately, a co-worker spotted the car billowing smoke from beneath the hood and we were able to quickly extinguish the fire before any significant damage was done to the vehicle or surrounding property. According to the mechanic who diagnosed the car and subsequent electrical fire - the incident was caused by an overheating and eventual ignition of an electrical harness caused by a sudden failure of the power steering pump. I must emphasize that prior to the fire, there was no indication in the vehicle (warning system) or by the vehicles performance that there was any problem with the pump or handling. It failed completely without warning! while parked and unattended! thankfully, the car was not parked in my garage at night where the fire would have certainly gotten a lot worse before being discovered and could have potentially been devastating to my property and family. As it stands the car is scheduled to be repaired at a cost of nearly $1000, possibly more as we do not yet know if there was any damage caused to additional components within the vehicle by the pumps failure. I am the original owner and only driver of this vehicle. This car has been regularly maintained and was recently mechanically inspected last March. No issues were found with the vehicle at the time of it's last maintenance and inspection.
- Gainesville, FL, USA
Without warning, in March 2011, my power steering failed. Service determined the cooling fan for the electrohydraulic steering pump motor in my 2005 MINICooper needed to be replaced--intake manifold and fan with protecting grille. No mention was made that a further failure, of the pump itself, could occur. In June 2011, the electrohydraulic steering pump motor failed whilst I was driving on the highway. Service revealed the failure was due to an internal short circuit and said pump was replaced.
- New Market, MD, USA
The power steering just stopped working and became nearly impossible to steer. The lack of control nearly caused an accident. I pulled over and turned the car off. I restarted the car and it seems the power steering was okay. It keeps cutting out and I have to shut down the car and restart it in order to get it to work again. I have been told that eventually it will stop working completely. I took it to a local mechanic however they were unable to determine the problem. They recommended having the dealer run diagnostics. Diagnostic at the dealer is expensive and is not credited towards the repairs so I have been unable to get the issue addressed by the MINIdealer.
- Spring Hill , TN, USA
Power steering has been going out intermittently while the car is being driven - usually after going over a pothole or bump in the road.
- Antioch, CA, USA
Power steering failure while driving 2005 MINICooper. Requires stopping vehicle and restarting engine. The frequency of failure or power assist increasing.
- Saint Michael, PA, USA
I have a January 2005 built MINICooper S (R53) with approximately 21,000 miles on it. On February 12, 2011 I was driving the car on a winding road in southern California when the power steering pump catastrophically failed without any warning in the middle of a high speed turn. The unexpected power steering pump failure made the steering completely unresponsive causing the car to spin out of control and nearly hit a tree (I was very lucky that I wasn't killed!). after doing some research, it appears that unwarranted power steering pump failures are quite common with the earlier MINIcooper models. I feel that this is a huge safety concern that should be addressed by the manufacture via a mandatory safety recall. After the initial catastrophic failure of the power steering pump, the pump would work intermittently in that it would run fine for a while and then fail again without warning a short time later making the car extremely dangerous to drive. At times, the electric power steering pump would not switch off after turning off the car's ignition and the car's battery would ultimately go flat leaving us stranded. We took the car into the MINIdealership on 2/17//2011 and they diagnosed the car as having a bad battery (claiming that the battery was so low that the car was actually shutting down the power steering in order to stay running). They charged us $160 for the diagnostics. We then replaced the battery with an oem batter from the dealership ($130) and it didn't make any difference. We also contacted the manufacturer (MINIusa) directly and they were unwilling to help claiming that the car was no longer under the manufacturer's warranty. Ultimately, on July 26, 2011 (at 21,385 miles) we replaced the failed power steering pump (part # 32-41-6-778-425) at a cost of $735.29 (plus labor). The MINIdealership wanted well over $1,000 to perform the work and so we purchase a remplacement pump from the MINIdealership and had it installed ourselves.
- Foothill Ranch, CA, USA
Power steering pump failure on 2005 MINIcooper leads to dangerous driving
- Nevada City, CA, USA
Upon starting the vehicle and sometimes while moving at low speeds the power steering would fail making the vehicle extremely difficult to steer. The dealer explained that the relay in the auxiliary engine fan had failed likely as a result of the power steering fan failing. Both the auxiliary engine fan and the power steering fan had to be replaced. The cost of the repairs and labor was $1060.14.
- Columbus, OH, USA
Power steering is intermittent making car difficult to control. I'm the second owner of car. First failure occurred at approximately 85,000 miles.
- Lees Summit, MO, USA
Power steering cooling fan failed. Power steering pump got very hot and all the fluid boiled away. Pump did not fail but is probably damaged and failure can be expected.
- Sugar Land, TX, USA
Power steering pump failed while driving on the freeway, resulting in loss of steering control.
- Pleasant Hill, CA, USA
Power steering pump on 2005 MINIfailed.
- Santa Rosa, CA, USA
2005 MINIcooper power steering failure.
- Ber, CO, USA
After driving for approx 2 hours at highway speeds, power steering failed. Noticed upon exiting highway - no accident, but steering required unexpectedly significant force.
- Newton, MA, USA
- Grays River, WA, USA