ok, so i drove my friend's 04 mini cooper and i think i broke her power steering or something.

so i was driving and showing her how to downshift and revmatch. then i decided to take the car out to see what it could do. i was gonna try and hairpin rally stylee w/ the handbrake and all of a sudden, the power steering goes dead. we make it back to my house and pop the hood. i look for blown fuses and stuff (why do they have to friggin use ONLY pictures??) and nothing. so i put em back and start the car...that's when it starts making this wierd sort-of, whining/hissing sound. NO LEAKS. what's wierd is that the power steering actually worked a little better that time around. it just kept making that wierd sound even while driving around.

so i park the car and turn it off. still, no leaks, but the car's still making the whining sound. what could it be? i pop the power steering resovoir and it looks like the liquid is circulating...even while the car's off! i try to see if it's a fan or something but the engine bay's so damn cramped it's not even funny...

ok, i think her car has an electric power steering...i also think that the newer civics have it too...so what could it be?!?!?!? HELP PLEASE, because we're goin to the dealership tomorrow and i have a feeling that i'ma be bent over backwards over gettin this fixed...

 

There is no traditional power steering, it's an electronic assist system. The whining noise is normal.

A common problem with the system is getting things sucked up into the motor cooling fan. The fan is right in the middle of the front under the engine, you can see it if you look up under the front. Make sure that the fan isn't jammed or anything before you go to the dealer.

 

The mini does have a n electric powered steering pump whic is supposed to turn off when the key is turned off. There is a control module which sounds like the component which should take care of this, but I don't have a wiring diagram so This is just a guess. New pumps from the dealer are 1600$ so you might look around for OEM pumps or used ones which go for $300. I'm trying to find more info on the logic. It seems that arelay powered by the swiched power from the ignition swich and possibly active only when tyhe engine is running would do the job. Any Real info out there??
Chuck

 

I have a like problem on my 02 Cooper. For some time now when the car is driven in high ambient temps the steering pump would quit. This was intermittant. Stoping and restarting would make things right again like nothing had happened. Today was different. When the car was shut off the steering pump continued to run. I figured a relay had stuck closed, (shorted). I pulled every relay in the engine bay and interior fuse panelsfrom it's socket inturn and the pump still kept running. I don't own a shop or wire print manual for the car so I'm running blind. The local dealer tech could not tell me where the/a relay would be. The service manager said it would be days before he could get to the car if I brought it in. This is the wifes daily driver, 103000 miles!Help![&o]

 

Yeah my buddy's cooper has this problem too.