dry coolant tank advice?

[hmd84]

Hello all, I'll warn you now, I don't speak car! I'm at my wits end wth my Cooper S. I saved up and bought an 05 plate last summer- My main problem at the moment is the coolant tank, it ran completely dry about three weeks ago an the thing started to smoke up and I had to call the AA out, the guy took something off, I think called a 'T' and I need to replace it, my coolant tank hose now has to metal pull rings keeping it in, it worked just fine for a bit, but just yesterday and today I've had to re-fill the tank with water as it's just empty- I'll only have to drive a few minutes and the car starts making a very loud sound-like a hoover and then I hear a slapping sounds from by the passenger foot side-I don't know what the problem is and I've already been royally ripped off by the Cooper garage so thought 'd chance a post incase someone was kind enough to help me out-I just need to know what I need to replace. Any advice??

Thanks so much,
Holly

[MINIAC]

You need to find out why your MINI is losing coolant ... possibly a leak in the radiator or the thermostat.

Driving your car without coolant can result in an expensive repair job

[webguru]

The 'hoover' noise you are hearing is the fan that comes on when the radiator is unable to cool the engine effectively.

More importantly however, you shouldn't be putting water into the the radiator, you need to get some BMW approved Anti-Freeze and Anti-Corrosion coolant, which you mix 50/50 with water.

This happened to my 03 Cooper a while ago, the radiator was leaking and needed to be replaced.

[mab01uk]

I would advise you to stop driving the car and get this fixed ASAP like the AA man said, or you will have a much bigger repair job on your hands like a blown head gasket or worse if you carry on overheating the engine with no coolant!!

[The Eggman]

Get the car into a Mini specialist not BMW, where abouts do you live ?

[hmd84]

I'm not using it right now, I just need to know what parts to order- the stephen james cooper specialists near me completely ripped me off in October with a small problem with the back window wiper-it wasnt fixed correctly and i had to pay out again only three weeks later and they were no help at all when i called them and explained i'd only just had it done-plus they quoted me £1,248 to fix my bumper (just a small dent) and i got that fixed privatly for £110, needless to say i have no faith with them whatsoever. I'm in South-East London

Also wasnt just puttin the water, got the anti freeze stuff and mix that 50-50