I haven't had my new JCW up on the lift yet, but has there ever been a determination of what the (oil?) cooler radiator in the left fog light location is actually feeding? Is it a general engine oil cooler or does it possibly feed just the turbo? Inquiring minds want to know?

 

I'm still not convinced it's an oil cooler. Its construction more resembles a coolant radiator, and it has plastic end-tanks like a coolant radiator. Also FWIW, other BMW models use an "AMOeK" that is a 2nd coolant radiator, so it seems plausible that philosophy carries over to this new-gen MINI.

It doesn't help that the ETK/RealOEM sites conveniently don't have any info for the AMOeK on the MINI other than the aero duct for the front bumper. :(

 

Thanks for the input. I'm hoping to get the car up on the lift this weekend and pull off the belly pan. Hopefully I'll be able to see if/what lines run in and out of this puppy and thus figure out what they're trying to cool. Frankly I'd love it if it were for water, as I've been working to augment my F56 spin on oil filter adapter with a full fledged oil cooler kit and hoped I would be able to offer it for JCW as well as the Justa & Cooper S!

 

Excellent, please take pictures! of the extra cooler

 

OK, I got Ms. Agatha up on the lift Sunday and the pictures are included here. There isn't a lot to see under there but this puppy is most certainly a water core. What the pictures do show is the two hoses coming out of this heat exchanger and turning to the front of the car. What you can't see is that they then turn to center and enter/exit the left side of the radiator. I thought this item might have been dedicated to a particular function but it just seems Mini needed some extra water cooling capacity and a larger main radiator was not the path taken to solve the issue.

 

Thank you for posting your findings! Supplemental coolant radiator just like BMW's appears to be correct.