[heo1977]

I had brown water at the cooling system at my Cooper S so i bought a cleaning kit for the system. The tank had also a leak so I bought a new one.

When I should fill on the new cooling liquid I don't get more than 3 litres into it... There shall be 6 litres at it.

I god about 1,5 litres into the tank and about 1,5 litres in by the air screw at the front of the car on that water hose.,.

So, I have to get in another 3 litres but it seems to be full everywhere..

I opened the hose at the bottom of the radiator to get of the old water.



Any tips?


Regards
Hans Erik
Norway

[Lanfear]

Quote: Originally Posted by heo1977

I had brown water at the cooling system at my Cooper S so i bought a cleaning kit for the system. The tank had also a leak so I bought a new one.

When I should fill on the new cooling liquid I don't get more than 3 litres into it... There shall be 6 litres at it.

I god about 1,5 litres into the tank and about 1,5 litres in by the air screw at the front of the car on that water hose.,.

So, I have to get in another 3 litres but it seems to be full everywhere..

I opened the hose at the bottom of the radiator to get of the old water.



Any tips?


Regards
Hans Erik
Norway

With my previous car, I would start the car with the rad cap off and keep it running until I started to see the coolant circulate with bubbles coming to the surface. I would continue filling until the rad was almost full to the brim, then I would rev the car (to make the coolant level in the rad go down a little), pour more coolant in, put the cap on, and ease up on the throttle after the cap is on securely.

I'm not sure how this would be done with the MINI. It could be completely different.

[Lanfear]

Quote: Originally Posted by Max

It's the same. Run the engine gently a bit and the level should drop as coolant is pumped into all areas of the system. Then keep topping up. Then give a few high revs, then top up again.

Finally replace the expansion bottle cap.

Go for a drive to normal driving speed, keeping an eye on the temperature guage. Ensure to take some spare coolant with you.

After this, let the engine cool down, check the level and top up to between the Max and Min marks.

If you remove the expansion bottle cap when the engine is hot take care.

Thereafter check the coolant level weekly when you check oil level and lights etc

I'm glad to know it's all the same. Hopefully I won't need to use my old tricks any time soon though. My previous car had a real problem with the cooling system.

[moonshine]

there are also 2 plastic screws om the coolant hose to assist with bleeding air. - on the cooper one is about 12" left of centre of the engine, on the hose that runs along the top of the bay, as you would look at the engine if standing at the front, with the bonnet open. IIRC, there is a second one about 12" to the right, but burried somewhere lower down in a hose somewhere.

When my radiator cracked all the coolant was locked and the BMW assist man came out and topped up the radiator - he then bled the system with these screws and the header tank cap off and the engine running

I don't know how the mini cooling system works, but i know some cars need to have the system bled - my brother in laws race Caterham has a Rover K-series engine and it requires to be bled after a radiator coolant change - one time we forgot and blew the head gasket - OOPS!

Gerry

[heo1977]

I found out that there is a plug under the exhaust manifold that I must open to get out the water from the engine. I thougth that all the water came out when I opened the hose at the bottom of the radiator but I was wrong.

That plug is over the cooling fan to the servo pump and it is a h... to screw it out so I'm doing it the easy way, driving to the Mini garage tomorrow so maybe I can try a new BMW in the meantime!

Thank you everyone.


Hans Erik