so i started my 2007 mini cooper s on a cold saturday morning (25'F) and the check engine light came on. i took it straight to the dealer where they just checked the oil level and coolant level and everything looked fine. they were charging $150 to do a full diagnostics of the issue! i told them to hold on and let me think about it and left. i stopped over to grab some chipotle (yumm) and started the car again... guess what, the check engine light was gone!

i was driving on the highway on saturday evening and noticed that the air conditioner started blowing cold air even tho the temp was set on high. after a few minutes the overheating symbol popped up on the dash. i turned the heater off and the symbol disappeared.

i took the car to my local mechanic and he checked it out... what happened was that the car was completely out of coolant! i filled it up and drove again and now the car is running fine with no overheating engine and the air conditioner is blowing great heat!

my theory is that the water pump could be dripping some coolant over night because of the cold weather. thank god i have the waterpump recall replacement coming up next week.... when my local mechanic did a pressure test on the coolant, there were no leaks from anywhere.

do you think i can report this issue to mini corporate or just go ahead and get the waterpump replaced and hope this doesn't happen again?

 

You say your theory is that it's leaking, is it? Is it leaving puddles of coolant under the car when you park?

If not, then you need to find out where the water is going, if I had to make a guess (purely a guess) you have a head gasket leaking internally, you don't see any water on the ground because it's being "burned" as you drive.

The water pump recall is for the auxillary pump that only runs after you shut the motor off, to cool the turbo housing and it's not being replaced because it leaks, but rather because it has a potentially faulty circuit board. They're not replacing the main water pump that cools the engine when you drive.

As to reporting this issue to MINI corporate, is your car under warranty? If so, the one you should be reporting it to is your dealer, that's who's going to fix it. If your car is out of warranty, report it to whomever you like, but the cost of repairs is going to be on you.

 

It is not your water pump or head gasket. It is your thermostat housing gasket. The housing is plastic and it warps over time (in my case 45k miles) causing coolant to leak out past the gasket. You can buy the part for around $115 and install it yourself in about 1.5-2 hrs, or pay the stealership $5-600 parts and labor. This is a very common issue with the 2007's, and every R56 for that matter. It is also not "S" specific. Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for the valuable info. the coolant is not leaking nor burning. i will have my local mechanic take a look at the thermostat housing gasket. hopefully this was a one time thing...

 

My 07 was losing coolant and I'd fill up the bottle and next day it'd be very low again. Ended up the thermostat/housing was leaking but wasn't leaving puddles, blowing off while driving.
Common on the R56.

 

this term 'common' issue scares me... are there other 'common' known issues on R56 that i should be aware of? i currently have 52k miles on oreo (thats what i call my mini)

 

It's the first I've heard of it on a 2007 and newer car.....the '06 R53 did this a lot, and they came out with a different gasket and housing for it that cured the problem, however the R56 is made completely differently than the R53.

this is the thermostat and housing on an R53, #4 and #5



And this is the R56, the setup is completely different, and I haven't heard of any leaking....

The thermostat is the big heart shaped thing (#11), and it's a 2 stage device....



No matter what, the water went somewhere, and you need to find out where and how it escaped and fix it.

You gotta watch these "common problem" comments, they may be common here on this forum, but it could only be a tiny, tiny percentage of MINIs made that actually have it. People like to use these terms when they're often not applicable....

I think the only real common issue on these cars is the timing chain tensioner and associated problems that come when someone has a bad one and doesn't realize it and drives the car till something expensive breaks.

 

looks like a PITA to replace!

 

the warranty just expired at 50k miles... i am currently on 52k.

 

oh but i do have the maintenance warranty till 100k miles... but i doubt that will cover a thermostat housing gasket replacement.

 

I stated a leaking thermostat is common, maybe better term is 'not unusual'. Mine had about 58K on it when I had the trouble. The SA and MA's are the ones that stated they'd changed quite a few on the 07 but I didn't mean to imply it's widespread.
Seems like that and the timing chain (death rattle) issue hit mine within 4,000 miles of one another.
Those are the only two issues I've had which to me, isn't all that bad.
I don't have any warranty on mine so I just keep my fingers crossed and check my oil, coolant on a regular basis (like once a week). Also, I change oil every 6-7K miles.

 

yeah i don't do oil changes too often since it burns out and i need to keep putting a quart in every other week

 

If you're having to put a quart in every other week, I'd suspect you have a leak somewhere. They say (whoever they are) it's normal for a turbo to eat a quart within 1000 miles but a qt. every other week, no. Mine doesn't use oil at all and right now I'm at 64.5K miles.
If you don't do any routine maintenance, it's not going to hold up. I think this is true to any newer cars anymore.

 

yeah i may be exaggerating when i say a quart every other week, but a quart every 1000 miles does seem more reasonable. i can smell it burn when i drive hard tho.

 

Well put it this way, I took my car in to have the leak checked out under warranty and the very next customer behind me had the same issue. She was in a 2009 Justa. I'd say that's common enough for me. Its a known issue for these thermostats to leak. Plastic mounted to metal, is usually going to be an issue when heat is involved. Its a beast to swap out, but it can be done. Im out of warranty, so I'll find out first hand next week when my new Thermostat housing arrives. BTW, it usually drips onto the transmission and burns the coolant before it hits the ground. You'll notice that coolant smell and steam coming out around the drivers side wiper area of the hood.

 

same thing happened to my 08 jac . thought it was a hose clamp or a hose,feeling around hose outlet squeezing it and a part of the housing broke off inside the housing. talking to mini rep said change it , took to a good shop and they said they just changed one the day before. it only had 20,000 mls on it. this plastic only has so many heat cycles. time for a recall!!!

 

Have you even looked under the hood? If you can smell the oil burning then you have a leak somewhere and if you're loosing coolant you probably need to get a pressure check done to see where the leak is too.

 

I also found out that alot of the oil loss is the original timing chain tensioner backing out. This is on the DL from a Mini mechanic.

 

OMG! I just drove the car 15 miles, stopped and saw smoke come out from drivers side wiper... Opened the noticed some coolant loss again. This is not good! Gotta get it that thermostat housing gasket checked. Thanks for the valuable info.

 

That would be the problem......Don't want to run that dry.

 

Get ready to shell out some cash if you get Mini to do it!

 

check this out...

so i went to the dealer and bought just the plastic piece and not the complete thermostat housing. look at the 2nd picture on post #7, the gasket circle piece in between 9 and 6 is what 'commonly' goes bad. that piece at the dealer cost me $5.00. the main gasket housing (heart shaped piece) is $150. labor is around $350 ($199/hour).

i'm going to attempt to fix just the gasket piece and hopefully this will resolve the issue... saving me $150. labor will probably cost me $100 at a local shop. :fingers crossed:

 

At least it'll be fixed ..
Good luck with it.

 

i had the guys at j&g auto (in san rafael ca.) replace mine for 422 dollars) needless to say i'm happy with the service i got!!!

 

I had my thermostat and housing replaced yesterday by the dealer and it cost $442 (out of warranty of course). Damn this car is only 3.5 years old, 61k miles and had a leaking thermostat housing. My heater wasn't working correctly and I certainly didn't want to overheat the engine so I shelled out the cash. Self-Replacement seemed like it would be a real PITA. I love my Mini but these type repairs tick me off.