Four problems related to steering failed have been reported for the 2003 Mini Cooper. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Mini Cooper based on all problems reported for the 2003 Cooper.
While traveling north on us 221 from bent mountain, va to roanoke va my hydralic steering totally failed. As I travelled a short distance my brake light warning lights, abs light, other brake system light, battery light and air bag warning light came on. I looked at the engine temperature guage and the temp was normal. I pulled into a parking lot, raised the hood, checked the fluids in the engine compartment and reentered the car. While sitting in the drivers seat I heard a loud explosion, looked forward and noted thick steam coming from the engine compartment. I turned the engine off, exited the car and when the steam dissipated I noted that the cooling system filling/overflow tank was split in half damaging a protecting cover on the firewall and sprayed a building wall and window with engine coolant 10 feet away in front of the vehicle. I had the car towed to martin's german service in cave spring, va. Because the closest dealership in located in north carolina 150 miles away. Due to service volume they will not be able to evaluate the problem until 24 may 2016.
Power assist for steering failed completely while driving normally. Subsequent brief (< 1 minute) function after restarting engine also ends up in failure. Behavior is consistent with failure that caused canada to issue recall for same model vehicle for same issue (transport canada recall # 2003055).
The steering pump failed on the freeway.
The incident occurred back in June 27, 2007. I parked my car and then noticed there was smoke coming from the front of the car. Opened the bonnet and there were flames coming from the underside of the engine. The first attempt at using a fire extinguisher temporarily put out the fire, but it re-ignited and at this point called the fire department to put it out safely. The BMW dealer kept saying there was never a fire, just smoldering. The "smoldering" was the cause of a steering pump failure which overheats, which in turn damaged the loom (harness, or main wiring for the vehicle), which also ruined the battery. The cost was over $1000 to repair the "smoldering" damages. Prior to the steering pump failure, there was no indication that there were steering problems, nor any possible electrical problems. Car mileage was at 65,525 at the time of the incident.