New fan needed; but is the head gasket also gone??

cbds

I noticed that the thermostat on my 2005 Mini Cooper started flashing red today just as I was parking the car after a 2 hour drive. About 2 years ago it overheated before but that was due to a coolant leak and I've never had any problems since! Anyway, I noticed today that even though the car was overheating, the fan never came on after I switched off the car! Surprise surprise, mechanic tells me today that the fan is gone and needs to be replaced! I can cope with that except that he also told me that the oil was very low in the engine and it could be a sign of something else 'starting to go'! What does this mean? should I be worried??

Muckie

'starting to go' the get out expression by mechanics!

Checked a VW polo today similar problem to yours, car overheated.

Thermostat was at fault, Car was also low on oil, now is going grand now.

If it had not have been the thermostat, then next stop fan, radiator.

Can't see why your car shouldn't be fine with a new fan, if thats what it needs.

Nissan doctor

cbds wrote: »

I noticed that the thermostat on my 2005 Mini Cooper started flashing red today just as I was parking the car after a 2 hour drive. About 2 years ago it overheated before but that was due to a coolant leak and I've never had any problems since! Anyway, I noticed today that even though the car was overheating, the fan never came on after I switched off the car! Surprise surprise, mechanic tells me today that the fan is gone and needs to be replaced! I can cope with that except that he also told me that the oil was very low in the engine and it could be a sign of something else 'starting to go'! What does this mean? should I be worried??

Replace the fan and then get a proper mechanic to do a combustion leak test(sniff test) which will tell you, without any guessing, if the head gasket is gone/going.

DublinDilbert

Sounds like the stage 1 resistor is gone on the fan. Someone with know how can crimp in a resistor into the wiring loom on the fan.

Failing that approach the fan needs to be replaced, which is a complete pita! The whole front needs to come off, de-gas air con, drain coolant, remove rad then eventually get to the fan...

El Guapo!

Had the same prob last week with a Mini Cooper S. Car was over-heating due to the faulty fan. It kept blowing fuses. The thermostat housing was also leaking (a common fault with these).
So I replaced the thermostat and thermostat housing. The fan has a high speed and a low speed, The high speed was causing the problem. You can actually remove the high speed and leave the low speed. Problem solved and you don't need to replace the fan.

DublinDilbert

The design of the fan control on these is very poor, I'm not sure what BMW/magna were thinking... Most of them fail cause of the resistor. The resistor and high speed relay could of be mounted lots of different places and not on the fan...

El Guapo!

DublinDilbert wrote: »

The design of the fan control on these is very poor, I'm not sure what BMW/magna were thinking... Most of them fail cause of the resistor. The resistor and high speed relay could of be mounted lots of different places and not on the fan...

Yeah there wasnt really much foreward thinking when they were designing the car. Sure bmw say its engine out to do a clutch on one aswell.
I'm surprised they don't actually cover even part of the repair for the fan or create a recall campaign as it happens so often.

cbds

Thanks for all the replies, appreciate it:)