[analogbill]

I just took delivery of my beautiful British Racing Green MINI Cooper in Orlando Florida three days ago. I drove the car home to lakeland (about an hour away) and had no problems. Later that same evening My wife took it out for her first try at the wheel and after about five minutes on the road the automatic climate control(AC) stopped blowing cold. Not being familiar with Auto climate control, we at first thought that the air had reached it's target temperature and the fan would just blow until the temperature began to rise again. That did not happen! It soon began getting noticeably warm inside and we started seeing steam that seemed to be coming from the vacinity of the vent/signal on the left front fender. Well, needless to say, this was alarming and as we quickly headed the few blocks home, we saw that the temperature gauge had redlined!
We pulled into our driveway and immediately killed the engine. The fan ran for a few minutes after shutting off the engine but having driven the car only twice, I don't know whether this is normal.
I called the dealer and they promised to make everthing right but I worry about the damage that the engine may have suffered due to overheating. Are there any tests that the dealer could perform on my MINI to determine the extent of any engine damage? The service center was closed for the weekend when my car was towed in so tomorrow will be my first chance to talk to a mechanic. What if anything should I insist on them doing to my MINI that might help assure that I won't be driving off in a car that is going to have chronic engine problems?
Thank You all!
Bill Elliott
Lakeland, FL

[Sejanus]

From reading other threads here I know some people have problems caused by (if I remember correctly) air bubbles in the coolant system that make it seem that there is more coolant in the system than there is in reality. My guess that is the source of your problem.

[The Beastmaster]

There was one in Hawaii that overheated because the auxiliary fan didn't work. Don't know about damage to the engine.

[Apial]

This subject became a very long discussion some time ago. I would reject the car if you suspect engine damage, or alternatively get extra warranty so that if the troubles are delayed then at least you won't be penalised after the normal warranty period expires.Click here to be taken to "Lemon Adventure".

[Apial]

How did things go?

[NYCguy]

I had a similar experience with my Cooper S.

When I looked under the car, I found a plastic shopping bag stuck in the small auxiliary steering fluid cooling fan. This fan is located at the bottom of the car just behind the engine block at about a 45 degree angle to the ground facing forward. It's in a perfect position to suck up and get damaged by road debris since there is no mesh or any kind of deflector protection in front of it.

After my car was towed to the dealer the service manager told me that the bag stuck in the fan stopped it from spnning and the electrical system tried to force the fan to turn by increasing the amperage. The increased juice blew out the fuse which also handles the cooling system. Naturally, the cooling system shut down and the car overheated.

He said he'd seen this on other cars also and that BMW is aware of the problem but had not issued a recall or service bulletin. I was worried about the cylinder heads getting damaged from the temperature but it seems to be ok.

This is quite a design flaw! Now, I'm much more paranoid about anything I see on the road that could fly into the fan. The dealer's (Manhattan Mini) suggested fix was that I buy and carry spare fuses! It doesn't stop me from enjoying the car but makes me a bit twitchy while driving. I hope they come up with a fix for this.

One last note: The towing was through Mini Road Assistance and they outsource to AAA. The tow truck rammed the tow bar into my front bumber and it now has to be replaced. When I called Mini Road Assistance to arrange payment, they told me to work it out with AAA! Some service!

[Cinimod]

I got stuck in a car park once in a long queue going up those ramps...

It got to a point where there was lots of steam coming form under the bonnet and a HORRID smell...

I think what happened it the coolant came out of the resevoir and evaporated on the hot engine as the coolant level is now almost down to the minimum. I will get them to take a look when I take it in to get the linkage sorted on the 17th.

Anyone else have a similar issues?

[Apial]

Engine overheating can destroy your engine permanantly. At the very least a full overheat will warp your cylinder head, may cause scuffing of the cylinders by the pistons. The damage may not appear for months.

Keep a close eye on your temp gauge. Sort out the problem before it boils over. This is most important for the first few miles of your MINIs life as some cars have been sent out with airlocks in the system.

Also listen for the thermostatic rad fan running on after you have parked up. It should only run briefly, if at all. Long running, say 60 seconds or more will warrant investigation.

[Hankshanker]

Most of the discussion involving overheating seems to involve the power steering auxiliary fan, but when my '02 Cooper overheated recently, the symptoms were almost identical to analogbill's. First the AC intermittently died when idling, then the day of hell and blazes came when the engine temperature spiked, smoke gushed from under the bonnet, and the cabin filled with that wonderful aroma.

The MINI tech told me that all of the overheating he had seen happened for the same reason, only he called it the AC compressor auxiliary cooling fan. This made perfect sense at the time, because the problem was definitely affecting the AC, and the steering was just fine.

But after reading the other threads about this, I'm not sure exactly what that fan is for, or even if the AC really has an auxiliary fan.

The problem was solved by the typical fix noted on these threads, i.e., loosen the fan and change the fuse.

But I'm seeing talk of 15-amp fuses, while mine is 5-amp. And I haven't noticed anyone mention an actual power steering failure, which seems odd.

So I'm confused. Does that fan have a dual purpose? Are the fuses configured differently in earlier production Coopers? And how can I possibly go mud bogging when our MINIs can be disabled by an errant pebble?

[blake]

May not want to go mud-bogging, read in another thread about someone having an engine changed (not under warranty) for driving through a puddle (albeit a puddle more than 1-foot deep)!

[snoopy]

I think the 02 MINI power steering fan fuse is shared with the fuse for the main radiator fan. Thus when the power steering fan blows a fuse it shuts down the radiator fan as well. This can lead to the car overheating.

Now the power steering fan failing does not mean that the power steering will fail, just it might overheat. People have been worried that the power steering fan due to its location will blow its fuse more often.

MINI have changed this on 03 cars and now if the power steering fan has it own fuse so if the power steering fan fuse blows it does not stop the radiator fan from working.

[Hankshanker]

Hmmm... so what's the connection between the PS fan/fuse/overheating problem and the AC failure?

Is there no such thing as an auxiliary AC fan? Is it the radiator fan that cools the compressor? I knew I should have paid more attention in high school shop class!

(I do have an "older" MINI, by the way, if there is such a thing yet. A base Cooper with the standard AC, it was built June '02 or thereabouts, so it must have the old fuse configuration.)

[Hankshanker]

Quote:

Originally posted by blake
May not want to go mud-bogging, read in another thread about someone having an engine changed (not under warranty) for driving through a puddle (albeit a puddle more than 1-foot deep)!

I was only being facetious about the mud-bogging just to make a point, although my Cooper has hydroplaned quite a bit without ever missing a runway! (Expert piloting, perhaps.)

I searched for that thread, blake, and got to read geist's tale of needing an engine swap due to puddle damage, only to have his beloved MINI burn to a cinder within a few miles of picking her up. Holy smoke!

[elmadi]

May I know what your dealer found out about the overheating?

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally posted by analogbill
I just took delivery of my beautiful British Racing Green MINI Cooper in Orlando Florida three days ago. I drove the car home to lakeland (about an hour away) and had no problems. Later that same evening My wife took it out for her first try at the wheel and after about five minutes on the road the automatic climate control(AC) stopped blowing cold. Not being familiar with Auto climate control, we at first thought that the air had reached it's target temperature and the fan would just blow until the temperature began to rise again. That did not happen! It soon began getting noticeably warm inside and we started seeing steam that seemed to be coming from the vacinity of the vent/signal on the left front fender. Well, needless to say, this was alarming and as we quickly headed the few blocks home, we saw that the temperature gauge had redlined!
We pulled into our driveway and immediately killed the engine. The fan ran for a few minutes after shutting off the engine but having driven the car only twice, I don't know whether this is normal.
I called the dealer and they promised to make everthing right but I worry about the damage that the engine may have suffered due to overheating. Are there any tests that the dealer could perform on my MINI to determine the extent of any engine damage? The service center was closed for the weekend when my car was towed in so tomorrow will be my first chance to talk to a mechanic. What if anything should I insist on them doing to my MINI that might help assure that I won't be driving off in a car that is going to have chronic engine problems?
Thank You all!
Bill Elliott
Lakeland, FL

[Hankshanker]

Quote:

Originally posted by elmadi
May I know what your dealer found out about the overheating?

Thanks.

Analogbill posted his overheating problem last summer, and we haven't heard from him since (He sounded a bit disheartened. I hope he didn't overheat!). I resurrected his thread because it involved the AC failure, exactly what was happening with my Cooper.

I never took the car in for a look-see. By the time I spoke to my MINI tech, he had seen this problem enough times that he knew exactly what the fix would be. I just manually loosened the fan and changed the fuse. Everything under the bonnet looked OK -- no charred remains, just evidence of a little overspill. We have been symptom-free ever since.

I spoke with MINI about this just yesterday. Apparently, no recalls or service bulletins have been issued. Short of re-engineering that fan myself, I guess I should keep a close eye on my inventory of 5-amp fuses.

I am still wondering, though, about the reason behind the simultaneous AC failure when this PS fan problem occurs. Anybody ready to tackle that one yet?

[dinlo]

I'm sorry to hear your car was over heated, Hope everything is alright now. But my question is, I have a MCS with the navi. and I do not see any temperature gauge in my car?!?!??! where is it locate? can anyone post a picture with it, if you can. Thanks

[Hankshanker]

From what I've read, dinlo, you don't get a gauge, only the idiot light, but there's an aftermarket oil pressure and temp gauge that fits under the toggle panel.

[PigLick]

Hankshanker, I too would like to know the link between the AC and the PS fan. I have a couple of theories that might possibly explain the connection...

One, it could be that the fan is actually dual-purpose, serving as both PS fan and an "auxilliary AC fan," though I don't know anything about AC systems so i don't know how likely that would be. Never heard mention of it before, though, so it seems a bit strange.

My other theory is that the PS fan stopped up, blowing the fuse, which then shut down the cooling fan. The car sensed that it was getting too hot and therefore would not allow the AC to run, since that would only make the engine work harder and create more heat. The problem with that theory is that if it was warm enough that you needed your AC on and your radiator fan wasn't working, it seems like the car would have overheated pretty quickly, whereas didn't this problem last quite some time for you? Do you have a temp gauge, or do you have the nav? If you do have the gauge, did you notice excessive heat (i.e. more than halfway) buildup?

PigLick

[Hankshanker]

Quote:

Originally posted by PigLick


... The car sensed that it was getting too hot and therefore would not allow the AC to run, since that would only make the engine work harder and create more heat. The problem with that theory is that if it was warm enough that you needed your AC on and your radiator fan wasn't working, it seems like the car would have overheated pretty quickly, whereas didn't this problem last quite some time for you? Do you have a temp gauge, or do you have the nav? If you do have the gauge, did you notice excessive heat (i.e. more than halfway) buildup?

PigLick

Thanks for the reply, PigLick. This is a stumper for the common man, isn't it? There's a MINI tech out there somewhere who's thinking "Duh!"

For about three weeks leading up to Helen Blaze's Day, the AC would stop while the engine idled, but not consistently. Usually, I could short-term fix the problem by simply pressing the power button off then on again. I never suspected anything other than an AC problem. The temp gauge always read normal.

When the temp did eventually spike, it spiked quickly, within maybe one minute from normal to nuclear. It was that road trip on a warm day, followed by extended idling that got things nice and toasty under the bonnet.

Here's the monkey wrench: That blown fuse affected the AC and the engine temp, but not the power steering.

If the PS works just fine when it gets hot, then why does it need a fan? And if the PS does get hot with a disabled fan, then why does the AC fail? And should we be motoring knowing that the PS, AC and engine cooling systems could all be brought down by a stray sandwich bag?

To summarize: What's up with that?

[snoopy]

The fuse people are talking about if for the fan that cools the power steering pump. Not the power steering pump itself ie this fuse can blow and you will still have power steering BUT the pump may then overheat then you lose your power steering.