Failed Power Steering Pump on 2002 Cooper S

[Fatboy]

Hi Everyone,

I've been away for a while - work getting in the way of PHing, but just had to pop back to ask about the power steering pump on my Mum's 52 plate Cooper S - it's been noisy since she got it a few months ago, but we just thought they were all like that, and then yesterday she came out from work and the alarm went off when she tried to get in.

After much arsing about today, I've got it restarted, and found the problem was due to a flat battery. I then found out, after taking the car for a run to charge the battery that the battery was flattened by the power steering pump staying on after the engine was switch off. The pump stays on until the battery is totally flat and the alarm goes off!

Does anyone know of a quick, cheap fix for this, or am I looking at the £400 odd quid a guy on MINI2.com paid???

Cheers,

Fatboy

[Fatboy]

Thanks very much for your replies guys, I'll give that a bash before shelling out for a main dealer!

Finger crossed it'll just be a salvageable connector, but the car's been through a lot of floods (roads round my Mum flood a lot) so it'll probably be knackered...

No lights on the dash remain on when the pump is running and the engine switched off - everything is off but the pump, and the red led on the right hand side stalk flashes a lot - but I assumed that was just the low battery alarm warning...