Our 2009 Mini's lower radiator hose was drooping enough to be abraded through, dumping all the coolant and requiring a tow...

Before all the pressure bled off, it was very difficult to push the hose back up into position behind a sort of air dam. There's a plastic clamp that's apparently intended to hold the hose in place, but the clamp itself it only held in place by a sort of chinese-finger arrangement. Anyway, I doubt the clamp's attachment to the body could resist much force from the hose. With no pressure, the hose flops completely down, as you can see in the pictures below.

The service manager at our local dealership says it's not a warranty issue and that we must have driven over something and backed up to pull the hose off (we did not).

I told him that in my opinion, it's either a design defect (putting the hose where it's easily damaged, with insufficient support to hold it in place); the factory didn't put it in correctly; or his service department re-installed it incorrectly after changing the water pump six months ago.

When pressed, he said there was evidence of impact damage and that "the bracket holding the hose" was bent, and was going to email me pictures of the damage Friday afternoon.

My wife actually took photos of the hose after the wrecker dropped the car off at the service department, and I don't see any damage.

He hasn't sent me his pictures yet, and seems to be ducking my phone calls.

I just don't think there's any good reason for this to fail in normal use.

At first, I wondered why they would have taken the hose off, since it appears to go from the thermostat to the radiator, and the water pump is at the other end of the engine, but after reading a few threads, removing the hose seems to be a common way to drain the coolant. As further evidence of a possibly poor repair job, I think that when I looked at it, there was no clamp at the radiator end of the hose, but I don't have a picture of that (and would be a little surprised to learn that it stayed in place this long with no clamp).

I just wondered if anyone else has had a similar problem, or has noticed the hose drooping, or could go feel theirs and tell me how likely it seems to come out of the clamp.

Thanks,
Heath

PS: I would be less annoyed if they didn't want $300 to replace the hose (and refill the coolant), which seems excessive to me, even for BMW/Mini.

 

mine has popped loose before too but I saw it before any damage occurred. it is a bad design because it is simply pushed into place and can pop loose with a pot hole hit or something similar.

 

You may be on to something there... That wear looks like it took some time.

 

Wow. mines got 2 spots where those crappy finger thingys are and they seem to hold it up out of the way. I had to push the one closest to the elbow back on today while i was under there. even with that undone it only hung down an extra inch or so... and with my 3" of ground clearance at best, I gotta stay on top of it lol. Ill probably add a zip tie for insurance

Yours just looks sloppy.... like something hit it, or like was said, installed wrong

 

Mine also fell below the frame and as a result a hole wore through it. Almost exactly the same as the top poster. Seriously, his photos could have been of my car.

And, like the other poster, Mini dealer tried to blame me for supposedly "hitting something," which I most certainly did not. My dealer also sent me photos that they claimed showed damage to the bottom on the car, but it looked like normal scraping to me. Clearly, the bracket fell off and the hole wore through the tube over time.

I have to deal with Mini USA tomorrow.

 

Mine pops out about once a week, when i get some garage time ill see what i can think up that BMW did not

 

Dude, those pictures from the OP show some serious scraping to the spoiler. They parked too close to a curb and then as they pulled out it scraped and yanked the hose off the attachment point. I agree the hose is in a bad place if you hit something though, there should be some kind of plastic or aluminum tray down there to hold the hose up and protect it when you do hit something.

 

Still a problem on 2012 model, yet my dealer says mini does not recognize that a problem exists because there have not been enough complaints. At the same time the service manager says its is a normal occurrence for the hose to come lose from its rinky dink setup.
The lack of a fix for a commen problem really sours me on mini.

 

Is there anything decently solid you can zip-tie the hose to in order to keep it from drooping?

 

Is the hose expensive to fix? I'm around Concord in the Bayarea. I have to take my Mini to an independent mechanic within the next few days because I am leaking coolant. My coworkers checked and determined a leaking hose.

 

From the stealership, it's about a $300-$400 job. I just had this done, but they covered it under warranty because it was their fault and I was able to prove it. My car was in for a thermostat change and the hose clamp was never popped back into place. My MINI is so low that they tried to blame me, but I had pictures that were date stamped which shows that right after I got my car back, the hose wasn't attached. Sucks that I'm forced to check their work, but they ALWAYS mess something up. I even get my car back with CEL's.....go figure!

Either way, an independent should fix this for way less. See if ECS Tuning has the necessary hose and clamp....grab the coolant from them too if you want.

 

Here is that lower hose clamp: 11722756407

Link to hose clamp and JCW GP2 Belly pan protection.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-rad-hose.html


Lower hose itself, R55 / R56 / R57 / R58 / R59 Cooper S/ JCW



17122754223 #8 in the diagram.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/17122754223/




Coolant:

And here is the MINI Coolant that is Blue in color. Its concentrated, so it will have to be mixed with distilled water 50/50.


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/82140031133/ES196253/



Thanks

 

Thanks for your quick reply on the cost for repairs. Turns out that it is the water pump and not the hose. The coolant leak was on and off, it would leak every 2 days and stopped. When I took it to the shop (independent mechanic I've been using), they said nothing was leaking at the time. Few days later, it started leaking after every drive. Took it back to the same shop, it is the water pump leaking after all. The cost would be around $500 I was told.

 

You are welcome:


Check out this thread for the waterpump leaks and thermostat, with parts linked. You could save on the parts side at least .

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...8-no-heat.html



Thanks

 

Yes the GP belly pan is your best bet. One more reason to get it.

 

+1 Running Mine and really like it.

 

Had the same happen as the OP. Dealer replaced the hose under warranty but supported the new hose on the original clips, that had popped loose. I added two more heavy duty zip ties.

 

Yeah, my hose started to flop too. The clips are really junky.

I replaced the clips and also added the belly pan to avoid further issues. It's a nice piece of kit.

 

Gubl - thats the best combo for the fix.

 

Yesterday I installed the GP2 engine belly pan on my 2013 R56 JCW. I see what everyone is talking about as far as the lower radiator hose. Both the clamps on my car were open all the way and the hose was just flopping around. I couldn't get the belly pan to even come close to fitting until I squeezed both clamps together and pushed the hose up as far as it would go. Finally got the belly pan installed. In 100F heat in my driveway on jack stands I might add.

Also for those of you that want to install the pan I'll tell you the 2 clips in the crossmember, and one on the drivers side can be a real bear to get in. I ended up cutting off a piece about 3" long off the end of an old broom handle. Using a light hammer I popped them right in with no problem. You have to use 2 of the screws from the splash guard that is already on the car near the oil pan for the front of the belly pan, as they don't come with the pan.

Have fun!

 

I have 3 minis. My 2010 mini had the same issue. I could not find a replacement hose so we ended up cutting off part of the hose and reattaching it to car. Ow it been 3 or 4 months and the lower radiator hose is leaking again. So we ordered a. Ew at a cost of 51 dollars for Rein hose. Waiting for it to come in. In the mean time my daughter is driving my spare mini to get around. I have her replaced the lower hose so I am hoping for a quick repair. Also radiator fluid I use. BMW fluid in my mini. It is blue in color like 30 dollars a gallon. So once all the parts come in I should be good to go. I had the engine rebuilt under warranty a little over a year ago. It would have cost us 5300 for the repair. I don’t think the entire car is worth that. I love my mini but once these are gone never pay what I paid again. No dealerships within a 150 miles of us

 

After a similar love/hate relationship with our 2009 JCW, we got a 2018 Cooper S. Couldn't be happier. Quality of the 3 series is exponentially better than the 2 series. All those Peugeot engines should have been recalled and crushed.

 

resurrection from 2014