Stumbling engine and coolant. (With Photos)

So, yesterday I was merging traffic on an inclined ramp. Pressed down about half way, suddenly the engine started to stumble, kind of like hiccups and suffocated. The engine didn't rev up, no power and feels like it's going to stall. (Similar issue to the one in the engine stumbling thread.)

Got home, opened up the bonnet, saw the level of coolant lower than the min mark. Almost empty actually. Saw traces of the coolant all over the engine bay. Residues and water marks can be seen.(Photo) There's even coolant inside the pocket beside the coolant's reservoir. (Red Arrow in photo)

So, I topped it off, went to work the next morning and.... it happened again, came home, opened up the bonnet and the coolant level was empty...again.

Should I be worried? Since it's my only car and it will be pretty busy this week. Wouldn't be able to bring it in till next week. Where do you think the leak is? Did the coolant leak caused the stumbling and hiccups?! It's dangerous, especially accelerating on an incline!!

By the way it's a Feb 2011 Built Countryman S All4 with around 33,000 miles on it.

Thanks.

 

I could be wrong, but it's likely that the stumbling is unrelated to the low coolant.

 

You have an issue here. Coolant should not spit out all over the engine. maybe the coolant cap was loose and it spit it out was it reached a certain temp. But as you stated you filled again and it was gone again. Maybe you have a bad cap on the expansion tank. Check your oil for coolant to make sure you did not blow a head gasket. Hopefully your stumbling was not do to overheating. Take it to the dealer for a pressure check on the system. Are you in warranty still?

 

I thought the stumble was related to the coolant temp sensor recall - but I could be wrong. Have you had that done?

The temp sensor is in the back of the engine I believe so the coolant near the expansion tank would not be related. This is where a temp gauge would be nice to have...

I know you said you have a busy week, but I would make time to take it in.

 

Updates : Third day, no more stumbling, came home popped up the hood, coolant level way way below the min mark again... I topped it off in the morning and made sure i closed the cap tightly.

Oh, I monitor the Temp via mini connected? Shows around 185-195F +- the whole time... is this normal? 195F in traffic, 185 when driving.

How low does the coolant needs to be before it triggers an alarm in the car? The coolant warning never gone off... even when the coolant was actually empty the first time... (Expansion tank that we can see)

Will be taking it in tomorrow hopefully...

 

This is normal, but you need to find out where the coolant is going to. Did you check your oil?

 

What did you top it off with? The BMW / MINI coolant is not the off the shelf stuff. I think the only compatible auto part store coolant is Zerex G-05.

 

Yup, checked my oil, no water/coolant mixed. Normal Brownish-gold color.

Hopefully It's just a defective cap? Is that possible anyhow?

 

Yes. You need to have it check out. Since your MINI is still under warranty have it checked out. It is not normal to lose coolant.

 

Updates for today

Yesterday the car wouldn't start in the cold morning, done over five trials, and managed to get it started on the fifth trial. The car cranked but wouldn't start. I was pushing the gas pedal to feed more gas within all the trials after the second trial. Managed to get it to start with tons of white and black smokes from the exhausts pipe.

The engine sounded normal, just like diesels on cold start-ups. So I did my routine drive to work, everything went fine. But after the engine warmed up the ticking noise, (Similar to diesel cars) wouldn't go away like it usually does.

Also, the idle was high at around 1500rpm. kinda unstable, when moving gears from P to D

But what's surprising is that when I accelerated slowly, usually on an incline the engine noise goes wild, kind of "Claaaakkkk , Claaarkkkk, Klaaak" Thats the closest that i can replicate through text hahaha. But the car didn't stumble or lost revs and power like it did before, just it sounds real bad.

Got to work, coming back home, it wouldn't start again, took several tries before getting it to run again.

So today, after a long and busy week, I finally am free and dropped it off to the MINI techs. They found that the coolant water pump died, they will be done replacing it tomorrow. It should do the trick, if not, they will pursuit the other factors regarding noises and rough/high idle afterwards.


What can this noise be? What about the hard startup or non-starting? But I have no problems with the temperature since i monitored it with the connected app.


Thanks! I'm a bit worried, can it be the crankshafts, Cams, Valvetronics? As I searched through the forum can it be the Tension Belt? or Timing belt? Or the 2012 one has revised belts already?

So the Mini guys told me the reason that it wouldn't start up is because of the faulty coolant water pump. Is this really the case? If it fails why didn't the car overheat in the first place?

Thanks again!

 

These issues are all the way upto 2012. While it is at the dealer, I am sure they will hear it. But you can always ask them about it since it is there. MINI did a recall on it.