My 03 Mini has terrible heat in the cold weather. Now i know that it has a small motor so it won't throw heat like a bigger car but it is pretty shitty. While the car is moving and the revs are high it's ok but when I'm stopped it's bad. Anyways, I wanted to know what some of you have done to help the situation. I will be putting some cardboard in front of half of the rad. Have any of you had any luck with a different thermostat or any other fixes?

When I say cold I mean I live in Northern Ontario Canada. From now till March temperatures are often below 30° Celsius. The deer up here fart snowflakes.....it's that cold.

 

its 9 F here...not quite as cold as you are...but have always be able to cook myself when I wanted to (since new) in my 2005 S....
Has the cooling system ever been flushed? The heater core is the LOWEST point in the system...so it collects all the scale/rust..lowers the flow...resulting in MINIMAL heat or NO heat....
The cooing system is the MOST NEGLECTED item on gen1 mini's....FLUSHES are done every 3-4 years MAX.

 

Well I bought the car last year so I'm unsure of the last time it was flushed. But that's a great tip. Pretty cheap to do also. I may go get that done tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

 

Most likely culprit is your heater core. They clog easily. Good news is that it's easily changed. If your mechanically inclined takes 30 to 60 min.

 

Good to know. Gonna try a flush and see how that goes. Then maybe a new core. All I know is even with a small var the heat should be better than it is. When stopped at idle the is almost no heat. Once I get going and revs are up it gets better. So maybe lack of flow thru the core.