A couple of noob questions

[NeutralFanboy]

Hi there. I've had my Cooper S for a couple of days now and i'm loving it.(apart from the puncture I picked up yesterday)

First of all, which Mini forum would be the best to sign up to in terms of web traffic and community? I saw a post somewhere on here that a lot of people had left the Mini2 forum for another one?

Is it normal for the power steering to whine so much? I only notice it while parking not while driving. I went from a Ford Puma to the Mini and its power steering made a noticable noise at parking speed too so i'm wondering if this is just a characteristic of the Mini.

What does the DSG switch do exactly? Does it tighten up steering?

Thanks in advance.

[specvision]

Most of the earlier BMW mini's i heard have a whine from the powersteering pump - however i aint no specialist on them nor have i worked on one.

As for DSG switch - is that not the traction control button??

[Alex_MCS]

Yeah the power steering does whine quite a lot when parking, it's normal. The DSC button is stability control, probably best left switched on As for forums, Mini2 has a large knowledge base as its been around so long, totalmini.com is pretty popular and minitorque is good for performance orientated stuff.

[Wilburo]

Yeah, the power steering pump makes a loud whining noise, which you can hear at slow speeds.

[NeutralFanboy]

Cheers for the info. No wonder I couldn't find out any information when I typed Mini cooper s dsg into google and several forums.

I picked up a lovely puncture at the weekend. The new tyre's on order. I haven't had a journey where I could 'enjoy' the car yet. 1 day I took the long way to town and back. Both times I was held up by something. Another day I was held up by something into town and then had to drive back home slowly with a repaired tyre. bah