So this is the third time its happened. First time it happened, the yellow warning light comes on, so i pull over and let it cool down. The light turns off and off i go. Second time it does it again ( but a couple of days later ). Third time, ( couple days later ) same thing, however within 5 min, the yellow light comes back on and then it turns RED called into MINI Mt.view and they are calling it a "emergency" and squeezed me into tomorrows time slot.
The weird thing is, it only happened this month when i drive to San Francisco.??!?! driving back is fine.
weird..i hope theres nothing serious with him..

 

Driving to San Francisco was North? That's uphill. Perhaps it's easier on the trip South.

But seriously, now's the time to find a problem like this while it's fully covered by warranty. Good luck. Please keep us posted.
-kARL

 

could be...but its only this month. i got my car mid Feb. i commute almost everyday to SF but its only this month..... i also go up north through the east bay side too..no problems there.

will do....and hopefully no one else will go through this

 

Probably have a sensor or thermostat problem, also have you inspected your radiator coils to see if you picked up some bugs or dirt, may need cleaning.

 

The possibilites are pretty varied based on the info provided.

Questions:
Time of day for the "to" and "from" trips?
Were you running AC? Running AC usually forces a cooling fan to come on for the condenser, this also acts on the radiator. Don;t know the MINI system.
Is the cooling fan coming on for the radiator? When the car is over heating is the cooling fan on?

Few Possibilities:
Sensor fault? Maybe.
Air pocket in the cooling system? Perhaps.
T-stat fault? Could be.
MINI has an on demand water pump... malfunction? Don't know the system.
Restricted airflow path through the radiator? It costs nothing to take a quick look with the ole eyeballs.

From the stange but true file:
I once had a car which overheated on the freeway but was just fine around town and idle. It turned out that the electric fan connector had wires crossed (crossed polarity) and the fan was spinning backwards. The fan was on the aft side of the radiator and it was "pushing" air across the radiator. At highway speeds, the "ram air" would fight against the fan air and the net effect was, well... overheat. That was a tough one to find.

 

hmm so i got my car back. MINI is telling me that the fuse for the enigine/AC fan was broken, and they dont know how it happened. so they replaced it and did a over night run of the car to see if the fuse will blow again....and of course it didnt.

 

Which fuse is that?

 

Check this thread on mini2. One guy reported his fan didn't come on and mini fitted the 30 amp fuse with a larger 40 amp fuse. BMW said that the 30 amp wasn't big enough.

http://www.mini2.com/forum/2nd-gen-m...an-coming.html

 

Uohhhh. I hate the smell of wires burning!

 

Go to change a fan fuse<chip> at the dealer, in Thailand there are 3-4 of the R56 engine overheat sight shown up, and they go to the dealer to change a engine fan fuse<i dont know what it calls in your country but it means chip>the problem gone...