......its in the shop after 150 miles. As I was driving, the temp gauge started shooting towards max and maxed out by the time I got a chance to pull over 5 seconds later. Vaporized coolant was shooting out the back of the car (but not out the exhaust) and out of the hood. Luckily I was only 1 mile from the dealership that I purchased it from and managed to let it cool off enough to start it again and coast into the shop.
Flash forward 2 weeks later they say it is the supercharger and water pump that failed so they are replacing them both. The teeth were stripped off the water pump gear. They also found combustion in the coolant supply and stated it is from the supercharger. Is this a fair assessment for my symptoms? What else should I be looking for once I get the car back? Thanks in advance guys..

 

Sounds about right. My supercharger went out two months ago, same symptoms. No power steering, high temp. Water pump was okay though. But it took them two weeks to find out the issue? My mechanic took one look at it and knew what it was.

 

Yeah this has happened before to have the supercharger gears fail. As for the combustion in the coolant? That isn't that common, but sounds like they are taking care of you. It sounds like a head gasket, but that isn't common. Let them fix it under the warranty and see what happens.

 

My power steering was fine, however they said that the reason for the coolant everywhere was that the water pump wasn't circulating the coolant and it expanded out of the tank. Should I have them check the expansion tank for splits in the seams or would that be obvious?
They've been waiting on parts since last Thursday and it happened new years eve, hence the 2 week wait period. Luckily for me I bought the extended warranty. So when I get the car back what else should I look for?

 

Like Way mentioned........head gasket may be blown.


...Les

 

Head gasket, well that's splendid. I'm guessing that since these engines are compact, it is easy to warp the heads as well. Is there any possible way for the failure of the supercharger/water pump to cause combustion to end up in the coolant?

 

Sorry to hear you're having problems.

Hoping you'll have your MINI back home soon! Glad to see you're getting some useful advice here.

 

The water pump is an integral part of the supercharger. In other words, the supercharger drives the water pump via internal gears on the drivers side of the supercharger.

But you already knew that.

If the water pump fails to pump water due to the gears being destroyed, the engine will overheat very quickly.

The heat will cause the head to warp thus allowing an exchange of elements between places that shouldn't be exchanging elements.

And you probably already knew that.

Your shop can test that.

But denial won't fix anything.

Press the repair shop to thoroughly test for a blown head gasket. And keep your warranty papers handy.

...Les

 

A "Leak Down" test will tell you all of this information.

 

Yes I know all of what you said, more or less (pun) and I'll admit, there's some degree of denial here....especially since I had my car 2 days before it broke down and I'm itching to get it back.
I am mainly asking just in case the dealership tries to feed me some bs about the supercharger causing the coolant to have combustion in it and I do not know enough about these cars to call them on it. I'll definately demand them to do a compression/leakdown test if they didn't.
Thanks to LadyGodiva for the welcome wagon.

 

Lol...nice pun.

The supercharger its self cannot contaminate coolant. It doesn't have access to the water jackets.

You're on the right track tho, stand your ground.

When you get it back, you'll have an absolute blast driving it.

...Les

 

Finally got the car back and boy I missed it after being stuck with a honda civic for over 2 weeks. The final bill was 2467.00! They did do a leak down test and everything checked out. Looks like I dodged a bullet with the head/headgasket. Drove 30 miles today with no issues. I did smell some coolant but it seems to be splash/spills that are burning off. Now maybe I can actually get some mods in