Ok folks. As the title says, my 03 Mini Cooper S is overheating. Here are the symptoms:

Overheating
No cool A/C
Electric Radiator Fan not turning on (need to check P/S fan)

I took a leap of faith last night after searching on the forums and replaced the thermostat and temp sensor in the head. This did not solve the issue unfortunately. After some more reading on here I found other owners that had issues with a fuse under the hood that controls both the radiator fan and the power steering fan. I am going to check this out this morning, but I wanted to poll the forum to see if they could help my triangulate the problem. And believe me, I've searched.

What links the three things (overheating, no A/C, and radiator fan not turning on? Relay, Fuse, Wiring harness?

 

Since the fan does not turn on at all...no low+high speed, check the fuse...your car likely shares the same fuse for the ps fan and rad fan...
Check all the fuses....inside in the footwell, and under the hood....
A few other things could be going on, but the fuse is simple and common...and matches your symptoms!!

 

One thing...if it is the fuse...it will blow again unless you fix the ps fan...dealers can update the wiring harness, but for $80 you can install the fan duct kit from Moss/mini, an oem part on the final production gen1 cars...the duct keeps the roadgrit, sand, stones, and trash from the fan, keeping it in good shape...it does much more than the simple perforated shields that someplace sell.
One question...does the overheating only occur with the car stopped? With the car moving, if the fan is bad you should be fine, but just a couple minutes of idling, like a traffic light, etc, you would be in trouble.
If it is overheating while moving, you might have a couple of issues....safe to say the coolant level is fine right?

 

I forgot to mention that I've had a few things fixed in the past, this doesn't mean they are still working but they have been replaced (by BMW/Mini)

Power Steering pump and fan about 30k miles ago
Radiator Fan assembly about 35k miles ago

The PS fan has a grill on it now but I don't think that's what you are talking about. Do you have a picture of the duct?

I refilled the coolant after replacing the thermostat and temp sensor last night and bled the air out using the two bleeders. All should be well there.

The car only overheats when sitting in traffic.

 

The fans fail (ps) mostly from grit getting in the bearings....they corrode, and get sticky...I went through 2 in about 30,000 miles before I put the duct on and a new fan....
If you reach under the car, parked on a curb, or on jack stands, the fan for the ps, should spin smoothly, but not totaly free..it has magnets so it will have some resistance every turn, but will not feel gritty.
For pics, a search here on moss mini will get you thevduct...easy install...4 pop screw fastners on the bottom of the car....done. Was STD on the cabrio. On my last oil change, the ps fan was as good as new!! One negative is the duct must be bent/unclipped to change the oil...so an extra 2 minutes.

 

That, and you are sure that the thermostat is installed right? Just saying cause you just worked on it...
The sensor to turn on the fan is by the housing for the thermostat too....

 

Its possible its installed wrong. The longer part of the thermostat is inside the head leaving the needle side of the thermostat inside the thermostat housing.

 

Wow, do I feel dumb. I replaced the temp sensor and the thermostat for a blown F5 fuse. Fixed all three issues. Not really sure what this fuse has to do with A/C but it blow's nice and cold now.

 

Had this problem too.

I would put the AC on "LO" and then check under the car with a flashlight for the power steering fan to spin. Might be hard with the mesh, I don't have that and can see pretty well if the fan is working or not. Mine only comes on when the high speed fan turns on but I'm not sure of that's normal or not. If that fan is not spinning you will most likely blow the fuse again.

I fixed my seized fan by spinning it with my finger (WITH THE CAR OFF) and then when it spun a little more freely, I sprayed it with some WD-40, making sure to penetrate the little gap between the fan and what it's mounted on to have a better chance at loosening up whatever was in there. It worked and still does, 3,000 miles later.

 

just curious... are the power steering fan and low speed fan related to the air conditioner not working....
ok ill explain.. awhile back i started to have a slew of power problems.. the navigation disk reader would never power off, killing the battery over a 2 day period. about the same time the A/C stopped blowing cold air. the power steering fan was out (dont know for how long) which i believe to cause the dreaded power steering failure process... along with those issues the steering angle sensor is bad and needs replaced.

things that i have done...
i removed the navigation system fuse to keep it from killing the battery.
replaced the battery.
replaced the power steering pump and fan...(gotta look to see if its still working)

current problems.
the A/C blows warm air.. and heat still works.
steering angle sensor is still out...
fuse for navigation is still out.
low speed fan does not operate - only high speed runs when hot.

thats all i can think of right now.. but does anyone believe that they are related? i do not hear the compressor kick on but i am not sure if it would kick on if one of these problems caused it.