Mini steering - heavy default?

[Osinjak]

I'm looking at getting a Mini convertible as a runaround for the Frau and went and had a look at a 54 plate with 65k on it. First thing I noticed was the steering, it felt quite heavy, not impossible but still surprisingly heavy (bearing in mind I'd just got out of my heavily assisted 3 Series Touring). The other thing I noticed was a whine on turning the steering wheel. First thing I said to the bloke was that it sounded low on power steering fluid, we both checked, it didn't seem that low but topped it up a little anyway. Took out for a drive, window was down and as I turned right into a road at about 10mph I could still hear the whine from the front as I turned the wheels. Head says walk away which is fine but is Mini steering generally fairly heavy when compared to other cars? Anyone else have a whine on turning the wheel?

[helix402]

All R50/52/53 MINIs have noisy pas due to the electric motors. Some are noiser than others, may mean imminent pump death, may not. Try another one and see what you think.

[Osinjak]

Noisy to the point that you can hear it with the window down? What do you think about the heaviness?

[Defcon5]

Yes they are very noisy, easily audible with the window down.

It's a while since I had one,but I seem to recall the steering was heavier than the other cars I had at the time.

The pas pump will break btw, if it hasn't already, will be about £200 to fix

[Osinjak]

Defcon5 said:

Yes they are very noisy, easily audible with the window down.

It's a while since I had one,but I seem to recall the steering was heavier than the other cars I had at the time.

The pas pump will break btw, if it hasn't already, will be about £200 to fix

Really helpful, thanks. I was quite surprised at how noisy it was though.