Hi all,

I've developed a coolant leak. I've attached a pic hopefully for easier reference. After doing some searching it looks like I need a new elbow at the bottom of the coolant tank?

R55 10 fjcw

Thanks for the help!

 

It's kind of hard to see but it looks like it's the thermostat. It happens somewhat frequently. There is a backorder situation on that part number with MINI right now, but you can find one online.

 

I can't really tell from your image. Are you seeing coolant on the ground? For the thermostat, it typically starts as a hairline crack and can pool on top of the transmission. I'd get under the vehicle and inspect closer.

Thermostat (in stock) http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/..._pg1.htm#item4

 

That's how my thermostat started leaking. My coolant temp started to get variable when it was pretty steady at about 218 degrees before. It didn't take very long to go....drove the 37 miles to work watching it go up and down. Came out to the car after work and found some coolant under the car. I took the risk and drove it home watching the coolant temp go up and down. Made it home and didn't drive it again until I changed the thermostat.

 

My thermostat was definitely leaking. I also needed a new AC condenser, and I bought the bilstein eibach pro kit combo. Car is like brand new again!

 

when i replaced my thermostat housing it actually was the water tube that was leaking. might want to change both if youre going to do it. good luck!

 

Thermostat housing crack is common. I had to replace mine at 70k miles.

 

How did you monitor this? Do you have a ScanGuage? My JCW R55 doesn't show me temp (which really annoys me).

 

It looks like I will need to do the thermostat housing in my 2013 R56. I plan to do the water pipe as well. I'm wondering I should go with the Rein brand pipe? Has anyone used it?

 

I did this recently and decided to go with the stock pipe. I did not want to deal with any issues what so ever, I know some others have had issues. When I did mine I started with two O-rings, somehow +1. Well so glad it went that way as I did rip the first one.

I am not saying Rein is not a good brand / good product as I do not know anything about it specifically.
I am not opposed to aftermarket / non oem parts on my car but I did not want to end up reinstalling the pope a second time. Never mind I did the thermostat 3 times but that is another story.

Regards,
Troy

 

I did mine about 8 months ago. I didn't change the coolant pipe.

I did it without taking off the intake manifold, it was a royal pain to get the clip back on that holds the housing to the coolant pipe. I tied a thin piece of picture hanging wire to it so that if I dropped it I would be able to find it again. then undid the wire and pulled it out once it was secure.

I didn't buy a "OEM" pipe and had no issues. On the 2011 N18 I did have to buy an extra wiring harness adapter since the newer versions fo the thermostat have different connectors. Be careful when you order up your stuff to make sure you don't need that silly wire that will take a couple of extra days to arrive when you figure out you need it.

 

When I replaced the water pump a week ago I found this thin, worn, black plastic ring in there. I thought it was part of the impeller of the old pump and ignored it. Turns out it was the edge of the water pipe that holds the oring. One week later the back of the water pump flange is leaking. A royal pain to see where it is leaking from, had to remove the intake manifold (easy), stick a mirror to a wire to be able to look under the water pipe and have somebody blow hard into the coolant reservoir!

Here is the question: the water pipe has three mounting holes. Does it get screwed to the engine block? Mine did not have any screws. The clip was missing too...

 

Hello,

Here is some more info.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...8-no-heat.html

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...p-mystery.html

So those components are shared with PSA (Peugeot/Citroën) engines and have extra stuff that's is not used.

 

Thank you ECS for the links! Yes, the water pipe broke in the same way in my case and the ring spent a long time spinning around and was much thinner. I didn't know what that ring was when I changed the water pump. I found out a week later when the water pipe started to leak.
The mounting ears on the water pipe: I found one wire with a clip that I fixed to one of the ears on the water pipe. The other two are not meant to be screwed to anything.
There are two connectors that are very similar and can be confused: the temperature sensor connector on top of the thermostat and the crankcase breather heating element connector. The temperature sensor is green and brown inside. The heater is brown and black. They come from the same place in the wire harness and are easy to mix up, you may think that brown goes with brown but it doesn't.
Getting the thermostat and water pipe back in place was a royal pain, the screw holes don't align, the screws are hard to access, you can't attach the water pipe and then insert everything.
In the end what I did was:
Apply a tiny amount of oil to the orings and tubes so that the orings will slide nicely. You can try it between the thermostat and water pipe. Without oil the oring may get pinched.
Check water pipe to thermostat orientation, they have a notch and a tab.
Insert water pipe and turn into the right orientation.
Push the clamp on the smaller, short, bottom front hose back all the way.
Insert the thermostat into that hose and put it in place.
Get a screw into the front bottom hole. Check thermostat to water pipe fit.
Try to get the other two screws in.
Tighten the screws a bit at a time and check the thermostat to water hose fit, they should slide into each other as you tighten the screws.
Insert the clip.
One thing I should have tried to make it easier to get the thermostat in place is to screw a set-screw into each of the three holes, letting it stick out 1/2", put the thermostat in place, aligned by the set screws. Then remove one set screw at a time and replace it with the bolt.
Cleaned the old crud from the thermostat flange with a Dremmel tool and a cup shaped steel brush.
I think the evap canister (?) is back there behind the engine. It has two plastic tubes covered in plastic mesh connected to it with a short piece of rubber tubing. There is a third line going to a solenoid valve that sits under the intake manifold. All three rubber tubes were vey soft and would come off all the time. I changed those.
Getting the bottom intake manifold screw in is difficult, you need thin arms to get there from below.
No leaks.