Hi - Just had my works mini go in for the recall of the water pumps (i thought i would beat the queues and rang yesterday to book it in).

Picked up car as it was 'ready' and drove home 10miles away. First found there was no cabin heating when driving after about 10mins even with temp on max so first thoughts were air lock in system and it needs bleeding. Then aux fan came on even in 4degrees outside air temp and I had not thrashed the car. Usually the aux fan only comes on after a very hot drive or a very sunny day.

Got home opened bonnet and to my surprise - coolant reservoir was completely empty! :mad: What kind of a mechanic does that?

Going to ring up tomorrow morning and complain and they can come pick it up too. Going to get them to inspect the engine for damage but i reckon they will just top it up with coolant. So if they do that i will get them to put in writing that it was their fault and if for example the head gasket goes in the next 5000 miles its because of their negligence.

Any other suggestions? Thanks

MINI JCW 09

Thats not a Mechanic....Thats a MUPPET!
make em rebuild the engine mate! no questions asked!

Take pictures, document everything. Tell them you have done this.

Next time BEFORE you leave the garage, inspect your car. I do this EVERY TIME. For major jobs, I ask to see the old parts. If you don't do this, it's like letting someone into your house unattended and not checking to see if they swiped anything.

For example, I have caught them:

1) Overfilling my oil
2) Charging me for a replaced air filter that they never replaced
3) Having broken all the mounting/attachment clips off of my air intake

I have since changed garages. Nevertheless, I still check the car before driving off.

My advice to you: NEVER, EVER, EVER simply get in that car and drive off after it's been serviced. It's a hell of a lot easier to get them to fix it on spot if you've not driven off.

Wow, speachless....

wow you guys are starting to scare me. After reading this board, this is making my BMW seem like a toyota in terms of reliability.

just an update - rang bmw up who appologised and said to just fill her up with water and no coolant. They said that they cannot do anything until a problem actually exists - so now i have to wait for my engine to loose its compression and increase its oil consumption.

anyway filled it up - it took 2litres of water (+ some coolant i added)! did the mechanic not see that this amount of water was lost?!! stupid i know - the dealer just said that there was a major airlock when i told them how much water i had to put in.
I wasnt happy and they said bring it in. They had it for a whole day - they turned around and said i had a faulty main water pump and hence the lack of water and that it was a coincidence that it happended at the same time. Coincidence my behind! They had forgot to add the coolant and cannot admit it - i even had a look underneth the bonnet and the car itself when the problem came light there was no leaks.

i've now lost alot of confidence in the engine - i was planning on keeping it but now that i now the reliability is cut short i am having second thoughts. crazy!

Hi

So sorry here that You are having problems,
I would document everything times dates copies of invoices email and name of people you talked to ect and contact mini uk and say that you are so un happy an you have lost faith in the product because of the garage doing such poor work on a recall. which could have or has caused the life of your engine to be possibly be shortened and make shore you tell why they said about bring it back when a problem exists.

absolutely shocking, and unfortunately this type of incompetance is becoming too common with main dealers.

the problem is that the overheating may have caused unseen damage to the engine and although not cause component failure, may show itself in reduced performance, increased fuel/oil consumption, etc

Iain

I picked up my mini yesterday from cardiff mini, 2 miles into the journey home the car was blowing cold air when it should have been warm. Having already read this thread i was ready to turn the car around at the next junction (i was on a link road to a motorway) and have a look at the reservoir. However, half a mile later it started to blow warm. I got home and left it overnight as I didn't want to open the reservoir bottle under pressure. This morning I had to fill the bottle up with about 800 mills of water.
I guess there was an air lock, so I phoned them up so they know to make sure they don't do it again.

All in all I suppose its a simple error,but we need to flag it up as much as possible so other don't get caught out.

I took my 2008 S with 43,000 miles in for a coolant leak. While it was at Momentum Mini in Houston, Texas they said they will check out the leak & replace the water pump for the turbo. Picked it up yesterday. Turns out the main water pump was leaking so both were replaced. I still turned on the heater, the a/c was on, which worked fine and popped the hood (bonnet) before leaving the service area.

I checked the coolant levels a day or so later and had to put in another half a liter. Since then I've done 300 miles with no more top ups so it must be fine.
Now I'm worried about the antifreeze to water ratio. I'll have to look it up. Many years ago I ruined a classic mini a series 1100 long stroke engine by not putting any antifreeze in at all (I was 19 and thought it was for wimps!) so nowadays I'm a lot more careful.

I checked the coolant levels a day or so later and had to put in another half a liter. Since then I've done 300 miles with no more top ups so it must be fine.
Now I'm worried about the antifreeze to water ratio. I'll have to look it up. Many years ago I ruined a classic mini a series 1100 long stroke engine by not putting any antifreeze in at all (I was 19 and thought it was for wimps!) so nowadays I'm a lot more careful.

Just buy an antifreeze tester for about £2 in Halfords. They check the specific gravity of the liquid and work out how much antifreeze is present.

very handy :)

Cheers mate, I didn't even know you could do that.

Got mine booked in for the 9th March now, I didn't get a letter, I e-mailed them to ask about it.. Hoping I don't get any issues :( Sounds like they're making them worse, not better!

hi just had auxillary water pump changed on my mini cooper s and few days later have had hose blow and major coolant leak, car has always been fine before with no leaks. Mini say this is a coincidence!! Is it or are they most likley linked? I have no idea what they had to do to replace the aux water pump.

hi - final update. I sent an email to MINI HQ UK and stressed that I was not happy etc and explained I wanted a compression test, leakdown test, emissions test and a dyno test.

Mini HQ got back to me after discussing with the dealer, and agreed on doing all tests apart from the dyno since they do not have the facility at the dealer. Fair enough.

So last month got all tests done, comp test is okay across the bores, leakdown less than 7% leak ihead (they say 20% is the limit before they change heads) and emissions at lamda 1. So all okay. They still blamed the no coolant on the main water pump - even though I had driven the car for a week after I had topped it up since the incident. They are just covering their behinds.

However, I did say that should the gasket head or lack of power (due to premature bore wear/distortion caused by the fact they was no coolant) become apparent in the near future, then they will have to deal with it - and so they have logged all complaints/dates regarding this matter.

I hope it doesn't happen to anyone else - I would say check your coolant levels (and I suppose all other fluid levels) before you leave the forecourt - you just can't trust them anymore. My car is all okay no - however I do feel that it lacks that same kick it used to have but that could be like a psychological. Will have to wait for a dyno I suppose.

All the best. :)

Totally incompetent:eek:

If that happened to me I would not be buying another Mini and/or using that dealer again:angry:

just had my recall done this morning, not overly impressed with the work done. They haven't topped the water up, although it wasn't below the low level.

I had my recall done a couple of weeks ago @ 35K miles.
The dealership called and said that when the aux water pump was pulled the tech noticed that the main water pump was leaking. I was surprised because my coolant level had always been fine. They replaced it under warranty, no hassles whatsoever. So now I have 2 new water pumps.
I have read on other forums of some experiencing coolant loss, leakage, etc., after the recall work.
Coincidence?
I'm sorry to hear that some dealerships are claiming that it is.
Those stories make me very appreciative of my dealership!