2011 MINI Cooper Countryman Steering Problems

“Bought 2011 Mini countryman s in 6-2011. I turned vehicle on in the morning (11-5-2011 at 730am) to drive to work. Vehicle had been parked outside on my driveway. No issues driving the vehicle on the previous day. No vehicle warning lights or alarms came on. After putting car in reverse attempted to back out of driveway onto the street and noticed that I was unable to turn the steering wheel to back out. Required extreme amount of force to turn the steering wheel in any direction. I was able to drive to work (approximately 6 miles) on surface streets but had very limited steering ability. …”

“The contact owns a 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman. While driving at approximately 35 MPH, the contact felt the vehicle downshift. In addition, the windshield wipers functioned independently and different warning lights illuminated continuously. When the contact depressed the accelerator pedal, the vehicle did not respond and the steering wheel lost power. The vehicle was towed to a dealer where the cause of the failure was undetermined. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 30,000. The VIN was not provided.”

“The contact owns a 2011 Mini Cooper Countryman. The contact stated that while parking, the steering wheel seized and became difficult to move. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where the main computer was reprogrammed to remedy the steering system failure. Months later, the steering system failure recurred accompanied by a burning odor. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer, who reprogrammed the system but was not able to remedy the issue. The dealer also installed an eps computer patch. The failure mileage was 15,800. . …”