Five problems related to steering have been reported for the 2006 Mini Cooper Convertible. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2006 Mini Cooper Convertible based on all problems reported for the 2006 Cooper Convertible.
Power steering pump grinding. This was a recall on the 2002-2005 model but not the 2006. The same issue is happening with this car that happened with the recall vehicles and I would expect BMW to fix this problem. Thanks.
Power steering pump went out while driving the car. Car was extremely hard to steer. Almost hit a guard rail. Had the car towed home and then to a garage. This is a known problem with Mini coopers from year 2002 to 2006. Websites and Mini cooper forums are loaded with power steering pumps failing. No warning. Pump was confirmed to be the problem by an independent garage that only services high end german cars. Power steering pump was diagnosed to be bad on 8/04/2022. Car has a little over 60,000 miles on it.
I drove the car earlier and it was fine. I returned home and then hours later tried to pull out of my driveway to find I couldn't turn the steering wheel. Thank goodness I wasn't driving when it went or I wouldn't have been able to turn the wheel. Apparently after reading online quite a bit this is a problem and there is no recall or even a campaign or bulletin. This is going to be a very expensive repair. Due to the safety issue alone I'm frankly shocked. Apparently BMW dealers are cleaning up due to the expense of the repair. I'm looking at a Minimum of $1500. Apporx 60% of vehicles have had this issue.
Power steering goes out while driving down the road, without any warning. Very stiff. Hard to control. Can't turn. Scary!!!.
Power steering randomly when out while in motion. Thankfully, I was on a local road going slowly when it happened. Pulled over to the side, turned off the car and turned it back on. Power steering came back.