The Mini One of Woe - what do I do?

C1aire

Another call from the garage, the steering is still behaving perfectly for them :mad:

For them to buy the part, it would cost c. £500 + VAT. They have said that if I buy the part, they'll fit it, they just won't guarantee the part. Fair enough.

I guess I just have to take the gamble that like hundreds of other Minis, this is a problem with the pump and not the rack (though I'm sure I was once told that a faulty rack would make the steering loose rather than tight - am I right?)

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

Have a good think. Was there something different that happened when the steering went, e.g. driving at low speed, braking, accelerating, just pulled away?

It might help the garage if you can identify the sort of driving you were doing. They might have some youngster thrashing around in it, and the higher revs might be keeping things going while you might be driving like the proverbial granny, especially worrying about the steering and that might encourage the fault.

Of you know it will fail within a certain time on a journey, offer to take an engineer on a ride.

C1aire

It's gone while I've been pulling out of a tricky parking space on full lock (recommended garage try this: no joy). It's happened in slow-moving traffic and also at higher speed. It did it once as soon as I started it on the driveway. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it

bigjl

Brand new ZF Pump is £330 (inc VAT) at EuroCarParts.

Then find a decent independant Garage or relative to fit it.

Doesn't need coding or anything according EuroCarParts.

You have to pay a surcharge of just over £200 which you will get back after you return the old pump.

AdrianC

bigjl wrote: »

Brand new ZF Pump is £330 (inc VAT)...
You have to pay a surcharge of just over £200 which you will get back after you return the old pump.

Which suggests it's not a brand new pump, but a reconditioned one.

C1aire

Good news! It finally started squealing for the mechanic when he tried turning it on full lock so now they're happy that there's something wrong. They're going to contact Warrantywise tomorrow.

Phew.

Never been so bloody pleased to have my car declared 'officially' broken :rotfl:

enfield_freddy

stage one over , however getting it pasted the warranty people will be a trial . there will be a max charge per unit , and a skimpy hourly rate for the fitting ,




best of luck tho ,

atrixblue.-MFR-.

bigjl wrote: »

Brand new ZF Pump is £330 (inc VAT) at EuroCarParts.

Then find a decent independant Garage or relative to fit it.

Doesn't need coding or anything according EuroCarParts.

You have to pay a surcharge of just over £200 which you will get back after you return the old pump.

That's a old core surcharge for a reconditioned pump.


Youll be hard pressed to find a brand new pump even from a main dealers these days for cars 3 yrs old or more.

bigjl

AdrianC wrote: »

Which suggests it's not a brand new pump, but a reconditioned one.

Or it is indeed a new pump.

But to increase profitability they want the old pump so they can factory recondition it and then sell them as reconditioned at small motor factors.

Never thought of that did you.

bigjl

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

That's a old core surcharge for a reconditioned pump.


Youll be hard pressed to find a brand new pump even from a main dealers these days for cars 3 yrs old or more.

Manufacturers have to stock parts for longer than 3yrs.

You "know" it is reconditioned?

Or "think" it is reconditioned?

You can buy reconditioned, remanufactured or new pumps.

When selling a new pump it seems reasonable to encourage the return of old pumps for reconditioning or remanufacturing if not for any other reason than to reduce waste and pollution.

In my experience Euro usually state if the part is reconditioned.

I suspect they would legally have to.