general problems of the 2005 Mini Cooper

The contact owns a 2005 Mini Cooper. The contact stated that there was water accumulated on the passenger's side front floorboard. The contact stated that the heater was causing some undisclosed issues. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was related to NHTSA campaign number: 23v337000 (electrical system). The contact called the local dealer and was informed that the VIN was not included in the recall. The vehicle was diagnosed, and it was determined that the sunroof drain tubes were clogged, the drain tubes were cleared, and an undisclosed reprogramming was completed. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 172,843.

Driving at approximately 10-15 miles an hour entering a parking lot when I noticed flames coming out of the hood scoop of my 2005 Mini Cooper s. After brief inspection from my mechanic, it is believed to have been caused by the wiring harness for abs or possibly the power steering unit since the fire originated from the rear/right hand side of the engine and those two components. I have a claim opened with usaa but during simple research, I have found tens, if not close to a hundred issues with similar characteristics. I know I am not the first r53 Mini Cooper (2002-2006 run) with this problem and this should be considered a hazard and public safety issue. I have included the link to many of the cases captured by the north american motoring association (a primarily north american Mini car association) which details 24 pages of these issues. . Read more...

Lost power stearing, heat and air all at the same time.

After an hours drive, I was standing outside of the vehicle talking w/ the car off. All of sudden smoke starts pouring out from under the hood. I quickly opened the hood to hear some type of electrical fan/pump sound & smoke coming from the bottom/rear side of the motor. I was able to pull the battery terminal & the noise/smoke stopped. I then searched online & found the known issues of the electrical assisted power steering. I found the fuse for the circuit, a 100 amp fuse hidden on the bottom side of the fuse box that had not popped even though the pump was burning itself up. I had enough tools w/ me to pull the fuse, get the car started & make my way home w/o the power steering assist.

2005 Mini Cooper. Consumer writes in regards to engine electronic failure. Consumer has another vehicle complaint listed in artemis. The consumer stated the problem he experienced with his vehicle was a computer test called comprehensive component kept reading incomplete. The dealer found an internal short inside the engine basic control computer. The consumer stated the cost to replace the electronic hardware was $1968 which was excessive.

Power steering problems, air bag off and on, clutch went out near accident, electrical issues(many) windows up and down on their own, ever brake not working properly numerous items I have them detailed on paper.

I got in my vehicle and shut the door. I turn the key to on, the locks went down (locks usually go down when car is in gear and moving) I turned the key further to start the engine and nothing happened. The door would not open, the windows would not go down, the sun roof would not open, the fob would not work, at that point I was locked in my car. I had to kick out the window to get out of my car. When I did get out, I re entered the car and opened the hood and jiggled the battery connection. I shut the hood and tried to start the car again and it started. I noticed as I was driving it home that the lights on the steering collum were not working and that when I parked it at home the break lights stayed on.

2005 Mini Cooper. While driving approximately 45 mph, the front passenger air bag off indicator illuminated with an occupant positioned in the seat. In addition, the failure would occur even when an occupant was not present in the front seat. The illumination no longer continued when the engine was turned off. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer, who stated the passenger seat mat sensor would need to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 35,000.

Occupant seat sensor failure in passenger seat, airbag light comes on and stops airbag operation. I see that NHTSA has contacted BMW for this problem and for this model year; however, BMW/Mini won't take blame for airbag failure. BMW takes irresponsible attitude that even though car has only 36,000 miles, safety is my problem, not thiers. As a side note, dealer says part is $1200 plus installation and reprogramming. BMW, the ultimate driving (and killing) machine.

Power steering pump failure. ## VIN failed ##.

Son returned from town, a 10 minute drive, parked car in garage. Next morning there was a strong smell of an electrical fire coming from the car. Opened the hood and the smell of fire was overwhelming. Top of steering fluid pump appeared to be charred. Family afraid to drive car to dealer, some 35 miles away. After starting car, electrical fire smell returns.

While I was driving on the highway approximately 65 mph my steering gave out and locked up, almost slamming me into the gaurd rail. I was fortunate enough to stop before tragedy. Unfortunately I was blocking a lane of traffic until I could force my way of the roadway. The second incedent happened as I was turning into my own driveway. The steering locked up again causing me to miss my driveway and crash into the ditch. The other safety issues with my car is the windshield wipers will stop working at random and the reverse and tail lights will fail at random. The engine light stays on and the codes read emissions failure. When I talk to Mini Cooper customer relations they gave me an extended 100,000 mile warranty on the power steering and emissions. Mini Cooper claims they can't do the safety repairs due to a part shortage. They extended my already extended warranty to 150,000 miles and are wanting to charge me for diagnostics on these extended warrany issues. They will not offer any resolution and claim it is my problem as a consumer and claim the power steering issues are not safety related. When I asked about the electrical lighting issues they replied with thats not Mini Coopers problem.

All bulbs are good but yet I have no brake lights are turning signals top brake light is all I have when I turn on signals windows go down sunroof opens.

The steering wheel on my Mini Cooper has become hard to steer on and off for the last couple of days. At the onset, I was going at about 15 to 20mph and turning right. The steering got hard to turn and I was having difficulty staying out of on coming traffic. I pulled off to the side of the road, turned off the car and hood under the hood to see if there was anything to explain what was going on. I was not able to identify anything to explain this occurrence, so I restarted the car and it was back to normal. Since then it has done this on and off several other times. I call the mechanic and was told these vehicles have lots of problems with the steering pump, cooling fan and rely switch.

On three occassions, my 2005 Mini Cooper has had power steering failure. Each time, I was driving at speeds between 35-45mph and has put me in dangerous positions where I was unable to steer myself out of major arterials and onto a safer road. I am not strong enough to easily overpower my vehicle's steering. My first experience happened as I was driving 35mph on a busy road at peak hour. I was on a four lane road, two in each direction. I was in the left hand lane coming up to my apt when my steering went out. I was unable to manuever to the right lane to pull over due to the sheer strength needed and high traffic volumes. I immediately put my hazards on to alert motorists and slowed down my speed. I was left stranded before a major curve in the road. I was unable to move my car in either direction. A second experience occurred prior to a curve as I was exiting an interstate highway. As I attempted to turn the wheel I noticed the wheel was stiff/rigid. I could not make the curved exit ramp and blocked tremendously high speeding exiting traffic behind me. I believe this is a significant danger to drivers. Prior to each incident, there were no warnings/lights indicating issues of any kind. I would suggest an investigation, as I was not able to find any recalls from Miniusa. I have searched the internet and have found many forums (USA & uk) of Mini owners discussing each of their incidents caused by power steering failures. I strongly believe this is not an isolated problem and could cause great harm to owners. It is common that once an accident/death has occurred due to faulty parts, a recall is made. An investigation should be made before this happens.

2005 Mini Cooper passenger light comes on with or without any passenger sitting. However, after driving for a while goes away. When the car is turned off and started again, the passenger light stays on again. This is not normal. I have seen other recalls for different years, why 2005 is not a recall?.

4/10/2008 airbag light on dash came on intermittently - Mini dealer could not duplicate problem 9/23/2008 airbag light on dash came on and stayed lit - Mini dealer found micro-cracks in oc3 seat mat fault code fc71 stored in mr55k checked faults replaced oc3 seat mat installed seat and enable seat mat with gt1 cleared faults summer 2011 - airbag light on dash came on intermittently October 2011 - airbag light on dash came on and stayed lit 11/15/2011 - Mini dealer refuses to cover under warranty, despite known issues with this component having a history of being defective.

My 2005 Mini Cooper s automatic suddenly stopped twice for no apparent reason while driving. Car was only 4 months old, about 4000 miles on car. I was actually in motion, and the car just stopped moving! I had to turn off the car and restart it. Eml and check engine lights came on once the car stopped. The check engine light stayed on for a few days, then went off, so I assumed it was a fluke and nothing to worry about (otherwise I assume the light would stay on). The second time it happened was exactly the same scenario as the first. I have since learned that Mini is calling this "limp mode", but I had never received any recall notification from Mini, or anything indicating that they knew about this problem. However, the did know, based on what I have read of others who complained to them about the exact same problems!! yet Mini apparently did not notify dealerships, because the first one I called had no idea what the problem was which I described, and wasn't going to take me for service until 2 weeks later. I called a second dealer who immediately knew the problem, and said it was a voluntary recall. Still I had not heard anything from Mini USA. I took my car in and it was fixed in an hour--they reprogrammed the dme. This is a safety issue! I still haven't heard anything from Mini about a safety recall for this problem! maybe they didn't notify me because I had it taken care of already, but had this happened on the freeway, rather than in my neighborhood, I could be dead now! why isn't Mini notifying owners who purchased the 2005 automatics!! why aren't they issuing a recall? are they waiting for someone to be killed?.

Consumer was driving home when people starting honking and waving at consumer. Brake lights were not working. Consumer had dealer come and get vehicle, dealer told consumer that it was an electrical problem. Consumer said that vehicle was in her possession for 24 hours when brake lights failed. Consumer bought vehicle new from dealer , who supposedly fixed it. But consumer had not been able to check to see if brake lights actually worked. Consumer stated that it was significant that this happened after dealer had done the safety preparations for delivering the car. Dealer said that the preparations were done, and they checked the lights and all the fluid levels.

While accelerating onto the highway, the car lost power to the wheels and did not operate properly until I turned the car off and back on. The car was brought to the dealership and the problem was not found or corrected. A second incident occurred a few weeks later, again as the car was accelerating from a stop. This time, the power returned without having to shut the car off.