I've had my Mini just over two months

03 R53, 107,000 miles, when I got it everything was great!

In the last month I can't figure out what's wrong with it. It started with the heat turning cold while idling. I noticed the fan running but the radiator was cool, I assumed that warm fluid wasn't making it to the radiator, so my brother and I bled the system. There was a ton of air bubbles. That seemed to work for two weeks and yesterday I was sitting in Chicago traffic when I noticed the car overheating again. I can see that the expansion tank has a leak, I'm stopping on the way home to get another one, but some how I don't think this is going to resolve the issue...anyone have any suggestions?

 

If bleeding it worked the 1st time....you are on to something...
the tank is preasurrized...and they leak along the seam...common...
And when the level gets low...air gets in the system...and the car overheats....
other common leak is the thermostat gasket...
With a 10 year old car....could be any hose, or even a weap on the waterpump...they have a weap hole that shows a leak when the seal starts to fail..

Car needs to be looked over....we can only give suggestions on where too look.

 

Please do not drive your car if it's over heating. You risk the possibility of really destroying your engine. Get it sorted out.

 

When I blew up my SC the shop had trouble getting water to flow again... first thing they tried was lifting the car to sharp a sharp angle. First the front end then the rear (using a lift). This was a MINI Shop, but they really thought there was air deep in the system.

After that they pulled the heater core and flushed it. I can't recall if they found debris in it, but it was a combination of the two processes that solved my overheating.

I agree with Evasive though... don't drive it till you figure out the problem. Only took about a minute with no water flow to do serious damage to my R53!

 

This is one of those times a coolant temp gauge would really help you out. I many times when we have odd cooling problems hook up a scangauge and watch the coolant temp, you will see it go up and see the thermostat open, and eventually see the temp rise till the fan comes on then it falls back till the fan shuts off. It it doesn't do that you then know where to start thermostat, air bubble, water pump, fan, etc. The gauge in the car is an idiot gauge and will NOT move above half until the temp is 240 deg, which is too late.

 

Thanks, Zippy!

I think you're right about the air getting sucked back into the system. It started overheating again on the way home last night, so I had to stop let it cool down and limp it home. This morning I was at the Mini Dealer 1st thing. My brother and I took the old expansion tank off and it was covered in coolant! I had a large leak in the bottom and was almost totally dry, even with me adding coolant yesterday. We replaced the tank, bled the system again and now the heat is working again and it's maintaining the temp.

That expansion tank needs a redesign, we will see how long this one last.

I'm going to drive it locally this weekend and see what happens.

 

I just got word today the head is cracked....new parts are on order, and the rebuild begins. SMH