Hello all-

I just finished replacing a leaky oil filter housing. Many thanks to this thread (F55/F56 2017 Cooper S coolant leak diag help? - North American Motoring) as it was a life saver!

I am in the process of trying to bleed the cooling system, and despite many attempts I cannot get the auxiliary water pump bleeding function to start. Based on the Haynes F56 cooling service video and other spots online, the prodcedure is:

With a battery charger connected (not required I guess, but advised)
1. Ignition ON (not started)
2. Headlights ON
3. HVAC temp at MAX, fan speed at MIN
4. Accelerator to floor for 10 sec

This should start the auto-bleed process with the aux water pump and run for ~12 mins, but I cannot seem to get it to work. I tried the suggestion in the above thread of depressing the accelerator 10 times before the final 10 sec hold but that didn't work for me.

Any thoughts? TIA!

 

So I'm the author of the thread you linked to! Two major thoughts.

(1) How did you determine that the process (either process) didn't work?

(2) I obviously did use the process in the thread I wrote, and it worked. But I went through the whole mess -- both the basic process and the secondary (the aux pump) process -- 4x each, and had to allow the system to get cold (not "cooler" but fully cold) between each run, because both processes presume you are starting with a cold engine and effectiveness may be impacted if you don't presume same. The 4th iteration ended up not leaving me with any more coolant to add -- which tells me that it took a full 3 rounds, minimum, to get square in my case.

Also, what year and model MINI do you have -- same as in your signature? 2016 Cooper S?

 

Here is the process that I used for the aux water pump.Starting the cooling system bleeding procedure:

1. Switch the ignition on.
2. Set heater to maximum temperature and turn blower down to lowest speed.
3. Press accelerator pedal for 10 seconds to floor.
4. Then start the engine and run in idle.
5. The electrical shift valve and the electric coolant pump are automatically switched on.
6. Add coolant permanently up to maximum.
7. After 5 min idle:
   
   - Press on accelerator 5 times up to approx. 2000 rpm.
   
   - Idle for 10 s.
   
   - Press on accelerator 5 times up to approx. 2000 rpm.
   
   - Idle for 10 s.
   
8. Add coolant permanently up to maximum.
9. After another 5 minutes in idle:
   
   -Press on accelerator 5 times up to approx 2000 rpm
   
   - idle for approx. 10 s.
   
   - Press on accelerator 5 times up to approx. 2000 rpm.
   
   - Idle for 10 s.
   
10. 10 minutes after the engine starts the charging/bleeding procedure for the electrical
    
    shift valve and electric coolant pump is ended.
    
11. Add coolant up to maximum
12. Close lid on coolant expansion tank.
13. Coolant routine ended.

Important: The engine must be cooled down before the coolant level is checked.

Adjust filling level in the coolant expansion tank up to the maximum.

 

Sorry; was out of town for a couple of days and just got a chance to respond here. First off, thanks again for that writeup in the other thread; it definitely made the job easier!

Yep, 2016 Cooper S. So my assumptions on the procedure not working were mainly because I didn't see any activity from the pump (noise, touched the pump and couldn't feel it running, etc.) after trying to get the procedure going. I did all of this with the engine off, as that's how the Haynes vid laid it out. That being the case, my effort basically ended at step 3 in your reply above. I ultimately ended up going kinda old school/manual with it. Went through the "squeeze upper radiator hose" process a few times, topped it off as needed, and then started the car. Turned the heat on, let it run for short time, and then turned it off and topped off the coolant again. More squeezing, added more coolant. With the header bottle cap off, I started the car and cracked the bleeder screw until nothing but coolant came out (it was almost immediate). From there I buttoned everything up, started the car, and let it warm up in the driveway until it reached normal operating temp. Everything appeared as it should, so I followed that up with a drive the next day; monitoring the coolant temps via BimmerLink. Temps were rock solid, it seemed to be keeping things right as they should be (temp regulation-wise), and no other issues to speak of. Since then been driving the car like normal and all seems to be well. Coolant level has not changed. It's entirely possible I just got lucky with it, but so far so good!

I really appreciate the info! I'll keep an eye on things and may try that aux pump process again with the info you provided, but not sure I need to now based on everything running normally. What do you think?

 

Glad to assist - glad things are looking good so far.

That said, those instructions are from BMW technical documentation, not 3rd party. And while cruising a stack of YouTube videos last night, I just happened to run into one from a guy who did not follow the bleeding protocol, and the short version is that he was fine until he wasn't, and wound up having to replace a part as a result, a couple of weeks later or something like that.

Effort to run the procedure is pretty minimal, so for me and my Mini, I'd do it again. It can't hurt and might help. I would rather not learn I should have done it by way of engine damage, expensive later-repairs, yadda.

And don't forget this part:

So if you do it more than once (took me 3x to get all the air out), you need a full cool-down between each run. Engine needs to be dead cold at step 1 the first time, second time, blah blah.

Hope this helps!

 

Definitely don't want to cause more problems as a result of not doing things right. Perhaps I should give this another shot. So based on the steps here, it appears that the entire procedure (through step 11 above) is carried out in one go, with the expansion tank cap off? Then its cap on, let everything cool fully, then execute the entire procedure again if necessary?

 

Yep, you've got it exactly.

And hey, I would use a stopwatch/similar, starting at the point when you start the engine, so that you know objectively when you've hit the 10 minute mark identified in step 10. That way you're not wondering what's going on/not going on/you get the idea. Let what the car is doing tell you what's going on, but keep a clock going in case it ends up being unclear regardless.