I'm beginning to get very frustrated. For the first 14 months, my car ran like a champ. Then in Jan I took it in to have them replace the clutch and ever since nothing but overheats. 4 times I've had the car overheat, the last being on Friday. Two required tows from the open highway, the latter from my house.

Can't use the lemon law (NV requires 30 days total in the shop and written notification within the first year after delivery) and not sure I want to, but this is getting ridiculous.

First time my dealer found nothing; second time a different dealer found nothing so they blamed my dealer, claiming they must not have bled the system correctly. Third time my dealer found and replaced a sticking thermostat. 6 weekends later, well, we'll see what the say this time.

Sorry...had to vent.

 

Ive never even seen mine get hot. Thats a real drag. i would check the coolant and see what it looked like as well as the level also the radiator condition other than that i havent got a clue

 

I feel yr pain. see my sig. The love blinds are lifting...

When you say "second" dealer, who are you talking about? I thought Desert MINI was the only Sin City show in town...

 

get out of Sin city, and you will be saved!!! LOL

 

for me, my car never over-heated but It is either coolant, thermostat, water pump in my opinion.. i wonder what's taking so long to find a problem by dealers.. why don't you take it to a trust-worthy independent shop? (ask people in your area)

In my experience, dealers are nothing but pain in the ***. my mechanic (a former bmw dealer mechanic) even said that, they were told to do at least 4 hours worthy of service when a customer comes in.
like, if someone comes in for an oil change, you do alignment, or something. u know?

 

The second time I was on the way home from Park City when it overheated on I-15. Mini of Murray (MoM - Salt Lake City) was the closest dealer so that's where they towed it. Couple of more hours on the road and I would have been closer to Las vegas and that would have been where they sent it. MoM could find nothing wrong so they concluded that the previous fix must have been done improperly.

 

Because I'm a cheapskate and it's under freakin' warranty. That said, I have a very good mechanic that I trust 1000% for my other cars. If this happens again then I'll suck it up and have him look at it.

 

I'll add that it's blowing coolant when it happens...the boot is always "greasy" after such an event.

 

heater hose connections (or the hose proper?) defective therm gasket housing? (a common problem with many cars, except mine.) for the life of me I cannot figure out how a clutch (and I presume dm flywheel) replacement could be the cause of overheating....

dont rule out the chances of a second defective themostat, because I just had my second driver side CV joint replaced barely three weeks after it went in. Defective parts seem to run in batches with these cars.

I would stick with the dealer on this one, since U are under warranty, because if you let some indy shop f*** with it, it could jeopardize what warranty you have left.

sucks. we get to love these cars, then they throw their little mechanical hissy fits that leave us perplexed and wondering "why the MF did I buy this thing in the first place?" Must be the ghosts of Rover lurking within, pissed at how BMW abandoned them for the likes of uh, Ford.

 

I think, sequence, it's cuz they're built on British soil. Quirkiness and the ghost of Joseph Lucas (and his ilk) haunt them still. 'course, after a half-dozen or more British cars, I've grown to expect things like this. Love 'em still.

 

yeah, odd, isnt it. I dont hate my car, it's just that now when folks gleefully ask me "how do you like yr MINI" my response is just a shrug of the shoulder and say "great resale value mate."

(oh and I might add, with all my car's mechanical issues, never once has it had to be towed.)

 

[jealousy] Wish I could say that [/jealousy]

 

My friend that lives in Phoenix has an S built the same week as mine, and in 65k miles has had only one problem, a snapped clutch cable, that was towed in and fixed under warranty. So it is a crap shoot.

 

Seems this time the thermostat housing warped and apparently let the coolant leak. The dealer did give me a jug of pre-mixed coolant though so if it happens again I should be able to move the car again.

 

ive had my mini for lil over a month and drive it maybe once a week. and i also ran into a overheating issue.
Mine ended up being the cooling fan on the radiator. as long as the car was moving it stayed relatively fine. but if i went through a drive thru or something like that then i would being to overheat.
So maybe that could be something to check.

 

Yesterday was 105 degrees and my S's needle was below center. These things don't need much to cool the small 4 banger engine. Is your cooling fan disconnected?