So I was driving my '02 Mini around tonight, I get close to my friends house and I can hear the fan in my engine running over the other noises and music and such, so then we get there and after I shut the car off the fan's still running for a good minute or so. Almost a year driving it, first time anything like it's happened, I just thought it was a little weird having it run after the car was shut off.

I mean yeah, fan's running, it's cooling-- always a good thing, just wondering if anyone's had this incident before, if there's anything that could be a problem? Wasn't beating on it, a little high reving but nothing out of the ordinary... thanks.

 

I have an 06, 2500 miles on it. Im starting to get paranoid about this fan thing. I too have heard it very loud over my stereo. Im pretty sure it was the radiator fan. It does go on when I have the heat or AC on.
The really strange thing though is about 2 weeks ago driving home in traffic I noticed that my steering column on the inside got very hot. It was 80 degrees out and I didnt really think about until I started learning about this power steering fan issue. Also I have noticed that when I turn the wheel, the "squeal" is getting a little louder. Im taking it in to the dealer to have it checked. Im calling them on Monday. Better safe than sorry

 

The Mini has an electric fan that is really loud for what it is. I've heard mine click on in a drive through and it was a small tornado of sound from the hood. Almost any car anymore will turn the fan on automatically when the AC is on so that's normal. Until the car overheats, it's not an issue. Oh, and I've noticed a fair amount of heat emits from the vents even with the heat off. This is also normal as coolant flows through the heater core and slow moving air wafts over it. Is this maybe why the column was warm? My car I really noticed it after I added water wetter, especially.

 

Yeah, I never use the AC, and in the winter I try and let the heat from the engine pour in instead of turning on the heat, it's nuts how much comes through. But yeah, just wanted to be sure it was a normal thing and nothing for me to get whacky about. Thanks guys...

 

MINI has a 2-speed cooling fan. What you probably heard was the higher speed kicking in when you slowed down for the drive-thru. Perfectly normal, no worries.

 

My '04 cooper S has heat coming from the foot vents when the A/C is off and it's not set to have heat on. It should be just outside air coming in but it is warmer than that. So is this the way they are?