I was driving down the street at about 40 mph and my steering became extremely hard and almost refused to completely work as I was rounding a bend! I had to slam on my brakes to avoid an accident and slowly inch to a safe parking spot. After being scared out of my wits, I calmed down and parked my car. I let the car sit overnight and checked power steering fluid and it was full. I then looked online and found many MINIowners with the same problem. MINIsays they will not fix it.

- Huntington Beach, CA, USA

Power steering unit stopped working driving normal highway conditions resulting in very difficult driving/handling. Car has 48,000 miles and has been serviced on schedule. Unit's fluids were normal and driving conditions were a normal commute. Potentially a very dangerous condition.

- Black Diamond, WA, USA

Car power steering went out while exiting a freeway. Problem is intermittent and very scary.

- Porterville, CA, USA

Power steering went completely out on my wife's 2005 MINICooper. No warning, indications, or events led up to failure.

- Chicago, IL, USA

Auto was parked in driveway after a 30 mile drive, turned off and keys removed. After some time being parked, car started billowing smoke from under the hood. Dash lights came on, parking lights came on spontaneously. No keys present in the vehicle. Before I was able to disconnect the battery the apparent short circuit had drained the battery. Vehicle was towed to MINIof peabody MA where it was determined the electro-hydraulic power steering pump had shorted out causing the wiring harness to be destroyed and also destroying the battery.

- Hollis, NH, USA

Power steering pump on 2005 MINICooper convertible started making noise (even with engine turned off, draining the battery), then ultimately failed. An internet search indicates that this repair costs approx $2000 to fix, and that replacement power steering pumps fail regularly, so we've been driving without power steering in the vehicle.

- Bartlett, TN, USA