Mini problems (perhaps)

Black_Knight

Hi all. So we've been using my girlfriends Mini One (06) for commutes to work these days and ive gotten to discover some problems with it that im a bit clueless about. Ive googled a bit, and got mixed results, so I expect much of the same here.

She's had the car a bit over a year now, never anything wrong with it (though ive only recently started having to drive it), but im pretty sure before she bought it it was sitting up for a number of months.

Problem #1:
An intermittent judder when driving off in 1st gear. The other day in town it was pretty frequent, but now today it didn't judder once. If I had to describe it, id say it feels like the clutch is slipping. I read people saying its the clutch, the flywheel or the engine mounts. Any better ways to diagnose this? I'm gonna see can I "rock the engine" in the morning, ive heard that's a way to maybe check the engine mounts.

Problem #2:
Got home from work the other day, and heard a gurgling/bubbling sound in the car. Tracked it down to the coolant expansion tank which was A) verging on empty (not min, empty!) and orange and had an inner coating of rusty gunk. Topped it up with water today and gonna keep an eye on it, but the rusty gunk has me worried. Again, ive read varied reports of "ah its grand" to "head gasket death is immanent", so im clueless. FYI, Temp gauge never goes above normal. Should I get coolant or any additive for it or is water ok for now?

Problem #3:
Im a man driving a yellow mini from time to time.

We've plans to get it serviced by my mechanic (and fix what needs fixing hopefully) next time im near him (end of the month id say), but just looking to get a bit more info and know what's going on until then.

biko

Water is ok for now but you should get proper mix pronto as temps may still fall, probably not below freezing mind.
Dist water and coolant is best to keep corrosion away.
Keep a keen on on the coolant level. Gunk can look scary but it's winter and you seem to just use it for short trips.

SleeperService

1) hard to saw without trying it out. That car has a different gearbox to the mini I drive sometimes, but it does judder a bit when taking off - clutch is near the end of its life here alright. Do you mean when taking off, or when driving slowly in traffic? (im assuming petrol, 1.4 or was there still a 1.6 One that year)

2) if you haven't already, open the rad cap (careful, not with hot engine) and check the level there - if the expansion bottle has been empty for a while then there may be air in the system - may need to be burped or bled. Check what colour the coolant is in the rad? Green/yellow? Pink? Blue? I would guess that it has never had coolant flush and replace. That might be cause of some discoloration in plastic, or mixing of antifreezes?

As for where water is going, keep an eye for leaks. Ive heard the expansion bottle can leak along the seam. Some minis suffer from the bmw leak around the thermostat. Otherwise look for general leaks from hoses or rad. Keep an eye on the level so you know how quickly it is losing coolant.

Black_Knight

SleeperService wrote: »

1) hard to saw without trying it out. That car has a different gearbox to the mini I drive sometimes, but it does judder a bit when taking off - clutch is near the end of its life here alright. Do you mean when taking off, or when driving slowly in traffic? (im assuming petrol, 1.4 or was there still a 1.6 One that year)

Only (sometimes) when taking off. Tipping along slowly in traffic hasnt raised any issues.

SleeperService wrote: »

2) if you haven't already, open the rad cap (careful, not with hot engine) and check the level there - if the expansion bottle has been empty for a while then there may be air in the system - may need to be burped or bled. Check what colour the coolant is in the rad? Green/yellow? Pink? Blue? I would guess that it has never had coolant flush and replace. That might be cause of some discoloration in plastic, or mixing of antifreezes?

As for where water is going, keep an eye for leaks. Ive heard the expansion bottle can leak along the seam. Some minis suffer from the bmw leak around the thermostat. Otherwise look for general leaks from hoses or rad. Keep an eye on the level so you know how quickly it is losing coolant.

Had a look at the expansion tank this morning after filling it to min last night (did 1 short drive after filling it) and it was back empty. Filled it to max before work this morning now so ill keep any eye on it. Im assuming the rad was running a bit empty and hence what I filled up just drained into that. Didnt see any sign of leakage under the car this morning.

Here's the beautyshot of the expansion tank after I gave it some water

SleeperService

Yikes. I thought you meant a bit of discoloration of the plastic in the expansion bottle.

biko

For some reason I thought the gunk was on the oil filler cap and not in expansion tank.
Did you check oil cap?

Is car smoky on cold startup? Besides usual winter wispy smoke.

dr.fuzzenstein

That does not look healthy.
Is there any mayonnaise in the oil-filler cap?
Do you get any smoke on startup or under acceleration?
All this with a shudder is not looking promising.
I would fill it up in the evening and park it over some cardboard, to see if there are any drips/leaks. Not sure if this will work with the current horizontal rain, though.

Black_Knight

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

That does not look healthy.
Is there any mayonnaise in the oil-filler cap?
Do you get any smoke on startup or under acceleration?
All this with a shudder is not looking promising.
I would fill it up in the evening and park it over some cardboard, to see if there are any drips/leaks. Not sure if this will work with the current horizontal rain, though.

Underground car park for the win! Ill see if I have any cardboard. I at least have piles of that blue restaurant kitchen roll stuff I can lay down.

Ill do a mayo check at lunch if I can.

No white smoke at all on startup or acceleration.

Black_Knight

So the oil filler cap is all nice and oily. No signs of mayo at all, but I did notice this down the bottom of the radiator, passenger side. Oh, and the coolant expansion tank is empty again after I filled it this morning! :eek:



Id be guessing the image above plugs into the rad, and since its out the rad is leaking... hence the empty expansion tank.

SleeperService

External air temp sensor. Not part of rad. Should be clipped behind bumper iirc.

Get it looked at asap if water is disappearing that quickly.

dr.fuzzenstein

I don't see water leaking out past it, so it's just the cap that's off?
Check it out anyway.

Black_Knight

Darn. Though I was onto something there. Ill fill it up with water this evening, lay down some card board and scratch my head in the morning when the water has disappeared.

Superdedupity

I don't think Id be driving that, relying on topping up just an expansion tank. If its losing that much water, by filling the tank youre not bleeding any air out. Its not some worthless wreck, and if you haven't all ready, you run the risk of doing some serious harm:)

Interslice

Black_Knight wrote: »

Looks like someone has mixed the wrong types of coolants together.

dr.fuzzenstein

Crack and egg into it and some porridge.
(Don't!)

Black_Knight

Will wheatabix do? :pac:

Might it be the waterpump thats failed? There's 90k miles on it now, and since its a timing chain id only guess the pump hasnt been changed.
Waterpump not pumping - water doesn't circulate - water just boils off.

Dfmnoc

Black_Knight wrote: »

Will wheatabix do? :pac:

Might it be the waterpump thats failed? There's 90k miles on it now, and since its a timing chain id only guess the pump hasnt been changed.
Waterpump not pumping - water doesn't circulate - water just boils off.

temperature gauge would sky rocket

check the bottom of the cap on the rad see what condition its in just to rule it out

biko

Considering the speed it drains it has to be a leak somewhere. Next step would be to check everywhere if you can see any tell-tales and of course some cardboard underneath. Feel under the rad if there's wetness anywhere.
See if you can get a mech to pressure test it.
Remove expansion tank and clean it, flush the system with clean water to get gunk out.

Marcusm

I've had the waterpump let go on a 2009 MCS and got the impression that it was not an uncommon fault. As it happened, I was on a 3 mile drive to the main dealer for an MOT when it pissed itself. All was fixed under warranty; apparently there was in issue of a leak through the temperature sensor (which was the link to a number of other occurrences reported on MINI2 forum).

Black_Knight

Dfmnoc wrote: »

temperature gauge would sky rocket

check the bottom of the cap on the rad see what condition its in just to rule it out

Couldn't see any cap on the rad itself. Ill try have a better look after work.

Ill fill it up this evening and park it up over some cardboard and report back.

SleeperService

Black_Knight wrote: »

Couldn't see any cap on the rad itself. Ill try have a better look after work.

Ill fill it up this evening and park it up over some cardboard and report back.

Rad cap is not on the rad, its near dipstick if 06 still has the same engine as the original model. Yellow sticker with an exclamation mark.

Edit, closer to oil cap actually.

cpoh1

More than likely a leak in your thermostat housing, a really common issue with the minis.

check your housing which is near the rhs engine mount, you'll spot the wet area around there.

Minis despite their appeal are one of the most unreliable modern cars around from my experiences, thermostats, ABS sensors, engine mounts, auxillary belts and tensioners...

SleeperService

cpoh1 wrote: »

More than likely a leak in your thermostat housing, a really common issue with the minis.

check your housing which is near the rhs engine mount, you'll spot the wet area around there.

Minis despite their appeal are one of the most unreliable modern cars around from my experiences, thermostats, ABS sensors, engine mounts, auxillary belts and tensioners...

They had to get the modern standard of german engineering in somehow. Yeah, leaky thermostat housing or waterpump maybe.

dr.fuzzenstein

cpoh1 wrote: »

More than likely a leak in your thermostat housing, a really common issue with the minis.

check your housing which is near the rhs engine mount, you'll spot the wet area around there.

Minis despite their appeal are one of the most unreliable modern cars around from my experiences, thermostats, ABS sensors, engine mounts, auxillary belts and tensioners...

If it doesn't throw all it's cogs and springs out the pram at least once a year and costs thousands to fix, it's not German.

Black_Knight

Had is sitting over card board the last 24 hours or so. Bit of a damp spot right under the center of the engine. The zero ground clearance doesnt make it easy to see whats causing it, so I took some terribly useless pics by sticking my arm under the car, above the wet spot and randomly taking pictures.

Something looks wet, and a bit pinky. Took a few videos too from underneath which show it slightly better.

Also took a video to record a rattle I notice. It sounds like static from a TV, and sounds like its coming from near the radiator filler cap. The vid should make it obvious.


Waiting for all vids and pics to upload, stay tuned

Black_Knight

Best pic I can get of what seems like a leak:


Video of the leak from underneath. I go up and down the length of the leaky area around the 10 second mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzdZgrS0chs

Video of the rattle ive heard. Sound is most obvious around the 6-12 second mark, but it continues until about 20 seconds until I move the camera away from that area (in the pic previously)
The place I hover at at the end of the video is where if I look straight down, I could see a drops on the cardboard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JnYV1SY9nk

SleeperService

Auxiliary belt, timing chain, oil pump, water pump are all on the other side of the engine afaik. (only sure about the aux belt tbh)

Definitely time for a pro to have a look and listen.

SleeperService

Btw if that noise is new, then your problems are getting worse quickly. If its anything more than it needing a top up of oil to get rid of that noise, I wouldn't like to drive it far. I am far from an expert, and I might chance it with my own car but advising someone online I wouldn't like to tell you yeah drive away

Black_Knight

SleeperService wrote: »

Auxiliary belt, timing chain, oil pump, water pump are all on the other side of the engine afaik. (only sure about the aux belt tbh)

Yeah. All the belts are the other side from what ive seen.

Not saying the noise is new, but ive only noticed it today.

biko

Have you started driving with the radio off and intently listening to the car?
Once something goes wrong every other little noise and creak is suddenly really obvious

SleeperService

Black_Knight wrote: »

Yeah. All the belts are the other side from what ive seen.

Not saying the noise is new, but ive only noticed it today.

Thermostat housing is on that side of the engine where you are seeing a leak. Definite suspect for the leak.
Is noise a sign that your coolant loss has damaged your engine? Hope not.

Black_Knight

Off to the garage it goes. Guys at work are convinced its the water pump. Hopefully the garage can figure it out.

DoraDelite

Had the same thing in an 03 mini, turned out to be a crack in the radiator near the piping. Had to get a new radiator.

Black_Knight

SleeperService wrote: »

Thermostat housing is on that side of the engine where you are seeing a leak. Definite suspect for the leak.

DING DING DING!!! Winner!

Thermostat housing cracked.

biko

Motors forum saves the day, again

SleeperService

Was that the direct cause of the noise as well as the leak? Hope it all gets sorted. Must check the mini at home now. Should be easier to see thermostat housing on that, no airbox in the way.

Black_Knight

Who's to say the noise isn't normal? You know how it goes. Any little rattle all of a sudden becomes a symptom.

We'll see how it goes after this is fixed. As for the shudder, ill keep an eye out for that and if it doesnt go away, ill bring it to my mechanic back home. Needs a service anyways