Other steering problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper
3 fires 3 of the 59 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 MINI Cooper report other steering problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles, from 53 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 45,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,680 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
2% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44,280 miles | 55,000 miles | 79,600 miles | 112,134 miles | 129,960 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 3 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $350–$2,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 38 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 128; the 2003 has 59. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I had ~40,000 miles on my mini cooper last summer. The power steering just stopped working while I was motoring. I went to turn and whoa, no power assist. I'm estimating the date the problem occurred. I can look up the repair order if the correct date is important. I think that because of the many problems some of us have had, there is a reason why I have read that the 2007 mini is going to have a different steering system from the electrical-hydraulic ones we now have. I guess I was lucky because when it failed on my 2003 mc, there was no problem other than the loss of power assist. And it was repaired while still under the 50,000 mile warranty. In this day and age when it seems most cars last 150,000+ miles with no work beyond routine maintenance, it makes me wonder why bmw/mini can??t seem to get it right. There have been many p/s problems with minis. Here is a thread and voting poll on the problem... Http://www.mini2.com/forum/faults-fixes/49527-important-have-you-had-power-steering-pump-failure-please-vote-yes-no.html here are some real horror stories involving fires. Some from other things, but many from the p/s pump…
My car was brought into the dealership for an oil change and rear brake repair on tuesday (june 26, 2007). Wednesday evening (june 27, 2007) the car was driven 15 minutes, parked for almost an hour, then driven a mere 30 seconds to change to a different parking spot. Walked away for a minute and noticed smoke coming from the front of the car. Upon opening the bonnet, there was flames coming from the underside of the engine. The first attempt at using a fire extinguisher temporarily put out the fire, then it re-ignited which the fire department was then called to put it out safely. The car was brought the next morning (june 28, 2007) to the dealership and was not looked at until the next day (june 29, 2009). The diagnosis was the steering pump failed, upon which it overheats causing the fire. The fire then damaged the loom (harness, or main wiring for the vehicle), which also ruined the battery. Prior to the fire, there were no signs that the steering was failing, nor any indication that there was any other possible electrical problems. Car mileage was at 65,500 at the time it was brought to the dealer, and about 65,525 miles at…
Without notice, the battery died. Upon install of a new battery, a fan started running before the vehicle was turned on. An independent mechanic and the dealer confirmed that the electrical steering pump and steering pump fan had failed and needed replacing. The dealer where I purchased it said I needed to take the vehicle to the dealer where I last had it serviced. I contacted corporate services who informed me that I was eligible for a goodwill warranty extension provided I took to the vehicle for inspection at the dealer where I last had it serviced. The service dealer, and corporate relations, would not provide a goodwill extension because they maintained that my mechanic caused the steering pump to fail. The dealer offered to repair the parts for about $1900 for a new pump and $140 for a new fan. After some research, including information the dealer told my mechanic, this failure is a regular problem with the earlier mini models and the dealers keep additional parts in stock to repair vehicles as they come in. Additionally, I read that mini subsequently changed the design of this component to rectify the problem but never…
Also reported on the 2003 MINI Cooper
Power steering pump or fluid leak
CVT failure
Other powertrain problem
Loss of power steering
Complete transmission failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 59 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other steering problem happen on the 2003 MINI Cooper?
Across 53 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2003 MINI Cooper?
59 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 5.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed