So I had my '07 S apart for almost a year. Timing chain, water pump, alternator, Detroit Tuned kit for all the oil leaks in the filter housing, belt, tensioner, water pipe, thermostat housing, oil pan gasket, cam cover gasket, walnut shell blast intake valves, heck, I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other things. Had the whole front end off to do the work. Forgot how it went together of course. YouTube was a big help along with this place.
It started very hard after setting for so long, but did fire up and idle eventually.
I filled cooling system with just distilled water for the moment until I'm sure it's all working, then I'll drain and put the Mini specific coolant in. I just wanted to test drive it.
Did not have front bumper cover on the car, which means fog lights, side marker lights / blinkers, and possibly most importantly, the ambient air temp sensor were not attached for test drive.
Firstly I slowly filled coolant with bleeder screw open. Got as much as I could in, then got the car started and let it idle while I topped up coolant with bleeder opened and closed a few more times as I did it and car idled.
Heat was also on full hot in car, and did blow warm.
Took if for about a three mile test drive after thorough warm up. I ran it pretty hard to get some turbo boost in it. Seemed to run well, but felt like it was running pretty hot, and didn't smell too great either.
Lots of times after being apart and then getting heated up a car will smell a bit, burning off spilled fluids and greasy bits.
I backed off and putted home. No warning lights, other than a p0073 code, which was ambient temp sensor (of course because it wasn't even on the car). Dashboard just read -40 F as outside temp.
Does the ambient temp sensor actually control anything in the car other than just telling you what the outside temp is for your convenience and curiosity?
Reason I ask is that I'm pretty sure my radiator fan never came on. I'm also not sure if the thermostat ever even opened as the lower radiator hose was full of water as it should be, but it was not warm at all. Water pump is new, and I can see it turning when the car's running, so I didn't forget to engage the little drive wheel dealio when I reassembled.
I'll see if it draws in more coolant from the expansion tank tomorrow morning and bleed the system a bit more.
Would the lack of ambient air temp sensor shut down the radiator fan?
Maybe I'll just pull it off the bumper cover and plug it in tomorrow for another test drive.
I just want to make sure after all the work I've done that the car works well and isn't going to strand my bride as it's normally her daily driver.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Gar

 

I don't think the lack of the ambient air temp sensor would keep the cooling fan from running. Cooling fan worked fine on my wife's 2013 R57 N16 when rats/mice/whatever chewed through the wires to that sensor. It did set a code. Of course we are talking 07 turbo to 13 naturally aspirated. As far as I know, the ambient air temp has to do with fuel mixture etc. as well as the temp reading display in the cabin, not anything to do with the cooling fan.

 

After you did so much on the car, why not invest a few dollars on a OBD dongle and monitor engine temperature? Should open at somewhere >210f

 

I've got one and paired it up today. It's a bit concerning that the temperature goes to almost 108C before the thermostat appears to open, then sets at 102-106 after that. I'd prefer something under 100C, but I never knew what the temp got to before I took the car apart. In regards to the ambient air temp sensor, it does seem to be tied into the ECU in a few ways. I didn't have the dongle attached in the first test drives, but the car appeared to get pretty warm and no fan came on at all, even with A/C engaged. I connected the ambient air temp sensor and the fan seemed to work at both low and high speeds, A/C obviously worked as intended too. I guess when the car thinks it's -40 out it doesn't think it' needs a fan at all for any reason?
So today I took it for a little longer drive and got a transmission control module code pending, P0700 code pending, and another code indicating an intake air leak

 

Aaaaaaaaaand my new alternator has decided to fail. . . Worked for a few test drives but now I'm kicking along at 11 volts or so. Lovely.

 

Check that hose on the throttle body and make sure it's all the way on.

 

It seems the alternator is now working again. It's not really comforting but I'm going to roll with it for now and see how it goes. I spilled a little bit of oil filling the engine a few days ago and thought I'd cleaned it up well but still ended up with a few drips on my garage floor which led me to second guess my oil leak(s) repair work. I went ahead and sprayed some (horrifically smelly) Gunk engine degreaser on it and then gave it a good rinse with deionized water. I detail cars and have access to it right out of my hose bib. It was at that point that I saw the alternator lose output. Disgusted, I parked the car for a few hours and stewed about having to replace it, again! Upon restart, it seems to be right at 14 volts again. I really don't want to pull the front end apart a second time.

Not super happy with the temperature this car runs at, but to be honest, it's probably always run at that temp. I've secret-menu'd the temperature a few times, but having constant access via the bluetooth dongle is a far better way to get an idea of things. Sitting at idle in the driveway, climate control system completely off, it will get up to around 108-110 c and the fan will kick on and bring it back to 104-105 c. I'm also not keen on replacing the brand new thermostat housing again. It seems to be happy idling all day within those temperature parameters. With climate control on, it actually runs a tiny bit cooler as the fan is always running. I'd like to see more "even" heat through the radiator, but I'm thinking that's just another Mini quirk. The passenger side of the radiator is much cooler than the driver's side, and the lower hose takes forever to heat up, and never seems particularly hot. Cooling system is holding pressure though, and not leaking anywhere. Three or four bleeds seem to have it nice and proper full. I do wish I had a vacuum fill type setup, but I'm doing the best I can in my home garage.

No new codes. No pending codes. Idle is still not completely stable, but the car's also running on a quarter-tank of year-old fuel. I added a bit of injector cleaner to that fuel, and I'm hoping it smooths out once filled with fresh 91 octane. Waiting for all systems to come back fully registered so that I can hopefully get it smogged on Monday. Thanks again to everyone who's helped me out here.


Gar

 

N14 runs around 218-222 on water temps.

 

Thanks for the feedback Jason. I guess that's just the temperature these things like to run at. So long as they don't overheat, it's all good.

 

I guess what folks are trying to tell you: the temperature sounds normal. You seem to measure in Celsius, but 104c sounds spot on. On the other hand, changing thermostats is quite fun.

 

A few things you can check, ac on full blast full cold should turn your fan on. If the temp ever get to 230 ish it should turn this fan on as well. If you want to check the cooling system for leaks, you can use your brake bleeder, of course cleaned out very well, attach it to the coolant reservoir and put 15 lbs of pressure on the system. If it holds at 15 you are good, if not look for the leak. That’s how I found my bad water pipe.

 

A ~Stage 2 ECU tune can set temp to 88C as that's where you get the most power. Stock runs hot for emissions and probably bakes the plastic engine parts a little faster.
Blasting the AC full cold, highest fan will do the same thing and in certain years the sport button does too.

 

Well, alternator has proven defective, or I didn't plug it in tightly, but I'm pretty sure the alternator is just a defective unit. It stopped working a couple days ago, but then seemed fine for the next couple of days, giving me the confidence to get the car fully put back together and cleaned up nice. Running errands today and you guessed it . . . I had to stop by a buddy's shop to put it on a fast charger to get me enough battery to get home. You know when the clock stops working it's not looking good, and when the electric power steering starts protesting, you're not going much further. Fortunately one of my errands was next to his place so I rolled in and juiced up the battery for 15 minutes to get me the five miles home.
Either way, I get to at the very least get the front end in service mode (or completely off again) to get the dang alternator off. . .

Looks nice all cleaned up though!

 

I fixed all of the usual suspect oil leaks.

I've still got an oil leak!

Minor but driving me nuts.

Appears to be in the general vicinity of the oil cooler / oil filter housing.

Any ideas on what it could be if it's NOT any of the usual things?

I'm not excited about taking it apart again, but I'm not happy to have done so much work and it's running so good now and still have an oil leak!