I was driving home from work yesterday when I smelled that nasty, burning wires smell. Being that I have a fairly large audio system in the car my first reaction was that my amps were on fire or something. I quickly pulled over and thankfully found that there was nothing afoul with my electronics. Strangely though, the smell continued. Started sniffing around the car and tracked it down to emitting from between the engine manifold and the intake. Terrified I called my local dealer and quickly found out that what I was smelling was coolant on my exhaust manifold!! My coolant overflow tank was leaking all over it. Guess I'm thankful it wasn't electronic, but dang all the same. Dropped Zeek off this morning and he's already done. They did say there was alot of coolant on the exhaust manifold and was clearly the cause of the smell.

Just thought I'd toss this info out for others as it gave me a serious heart attack!! Anyone who's smelled elecrical burning smell knows how scary a smell it is, as it's often VERY hard to track down (ie wires shorting out).

R

 

Yep, I get that, and it's quite scary. I'm on tank #2 right now and getting ready to ask for #3. Pretty annoying.

 

I keep checking mine every time I read about it on MCO, but so far, so good, no leaking. (knock on wood)!!

 

It seems like the 2003s leak less. But, MINI keeps saying that they have not re-designed the part between the 2002 and 2003 models. So I can't figure out why leaking seems common on 2002s...or why the replacement tanks (which presumably would be whatever new design exists) leak too. Very weird.

 

>>It seems like the 2003s leak less. But, MINI keeps saying that they have not re-designed the part between the 2002 and 2003 models. So I can't figure out why leaking seems common on 2002s...or why the replacement tanks (which presumably would be whatever new design exists) leak too. Very weird.

I 100%, totally agree.

R

 

I just smelled that weird smell today after having not driven R2 for about two weeks. I, too, tracked it down to the area in the back of the engine compartment near the coolant tank, but could see no visible sign of leak? Is their anything specific to look for? Or could it be something else?

 

Never Mind! I answered my own question by checking other posts on brownish-coolant, leaking water pumps, etc., and etc... more to check later... Thanks

02 MCS