Coolant drained from car...

[vrock24]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum. I drive an 03 mini cooper base. I recently had work done on my cylinder head. (burnt valves). I just got the car back two days ago. I've driven it 2 times since with no troubles. Today I was driving along and all of a sudden my temp gauge goes up, I pull over just as it begins to blink red and shut it down. Upon opening the hood I see I have no coolant in the reservoir. Of course I called the tow truck and had it towed home. Its wet near the front of the car....in the vicinity of where the air filter sits only under the car.

I guess I have a couple questions:

Do the hoses need to be removed in order to get the cylinder head off. The mechanic said he had to pull the front bumper, etc. I'm wondering if maybe a hose wasn't connected properly and it blew off....

I'm not sure what hose it is or where it exactly blew out from. Is this something I could potentially fix myself easily? Anybody have any tutorials?

Obviously if it's something that may have happened because of the work the mechanic did i'll be taking it back for him to fix if it's his mistake.

I just want to know if its a fluke thing or if it could be related before I call him and put my foot in my mouth.



Thanks

[mab01uk]

Diagrams of coolant hoses layout here:
RealOEM.com BMW R50 Cooper Expansion tank/coolant hoses

[vrock24]

Thanks for the diagram.

Anyone know of an easy way to get a look at the hoses?

It all poured out at once so i'm hoping a hose just came off? Would that be an accurate assumption?

[mab01uk]

You may need to remove the plastic air filter housing assembly to get a good view of the hoses in that area, also the thermostat housing/hoses connected to it are below the yellow coolant pressure/filler cap on the RH side of engine/head (filler/themostat housing is shown in diagram above number 7).

[vrock24]

I checked all the hoses and found that the large hose at the bottom of the radiator on the drivers side was not properly reinstalled. The clamp was 5 inches down the hose and therefor not holding it on. The hose was barely hanging on. I reattached it all, filled up the coolant and turned the car on....it was still overheating. I tried to bleed the system but I don't know a lot about that so what i did didn't help. I wound up towing it to the mechanic who had worked on it last. He took responsibility for not reconnecting the clamp and bled the system for me. So far its back to normal again. I'm glad it wasn't more serious.

Cheers!