JSCooper
Sep 27th, 2010, 08:10 PM
Hi all,
I went to see an 02 Cooper today - lovely little car, its needing a good bit of attention as far as interior trim goes though. It has some stones chips, parking scars and the plastic trim isn't flush in all places. The rear plastic trim has melted a bit round the exhaust too...
Anyway, all of that aside (because it'll be easy to put right) there were a few issues of a more mechanical nature lurking.
Firstly:
The Expansion tank, for the Radiator Coolant Fluid, is orange. Its stained with a rust colour and the underside of the cap has a residue. There is also signs of this colour having splashed onto the side of the Power Steering Fluid reservoir. What is the cause of this? There doesn't look like there is any oil, but definitely something up.
Secondly:
The PAS reservoir looks pretty grubby (covered in fluid that has dried and gone gungy perhaps) and there looks like some very light leakage coming out of the hose joins.
Thirdly:
The oil is pale brown and quite viscous. I think this is normal? It doesn't have any service history. Well, it was maintained as demonstrator car 'til 06. It was then sold to a woman and she just sold it last week.
Fourth-ly:
There is a yellow light illuminated, an exclamation mark and another symbol.
Fifth-ly:
Its on Cooper S alloys, all good tyres but it is sitting quite low. Not sure if it has been lowered? What should the ride height be normally? Oh, and the brake calipers are quite rusty, which was quite weird. It had been sitting, wait for it, on mismatched alloys; 15's on the front and 16's on the back! Would this have done any damage?
The engine sounds sweet, it accelerates well and no white smoke. No rattles, and the timing chain isn't noisy. The exhaust looks well
enough, some light exterior rust, nothing much, it looks like its been replaced.
Thank you for any info, would be greatly appreciated to have some guidance here :)
Cheers
Jamie
I went to see an 02 Cooper today - lovely little car, its needing a good bit of attention as far as interior trim goes though. It has some stones chips, parking scars and the plastic trim isn't flush in all places. The rear plastic trim has melted a bit round the exhaust too...
Anyway, all of that aside (because it'll be easy to put right) there were a few issues of a more mechanical nature lurking.
Firstly:
The Expansion tank, for the Radiator Coolant Fluid, is orange. Its stained with a rust colour and the underside of the cap has a residue. There is also signs of this colour having splashed onto the side of the Power Steering Fluid reservoir. What is the cause of this? There doesn't look like there is any oil, but definitely something up.
Secondly:
The PAS reservoir looks pretty grubby (covered in fluid that has dried and gone gungy perhaps) and there looks like some very light leakage coming out of the hose joins.
Thirdly:
The oil is pale brown and quite viscous. I think this is normal? It doesn't have any service history. Well, it was maintained as demonstrator car 'til 06. It was then sold to a woman and she just sold it last week.
Fourth-ly:
There is a yellow light illuminated, an exclamation mark and another symbol.
Fifth-ly:
Its on Cooper S alloys, all good tyres but it is sitting quite low. Not sure if it has been lowered? What should the ride height be normally? Oh, and the brake calipers are quite rusty, which was quite weird. It had been sitting, wait for it, on mismatched alloys; 15's on the front and 16's on the back! Would this have done any damage?
The engine sounds sweet, it accelerates well and no white smoke. No rattles, and the timing chain isn't noisy. The exhaust looks well
enough, some light exterior rust, nothing much, it looks like its been replaced.
Thank you for any info, would be greatly appreciated to have some guidance here :)
Cheers
Jamie