Hi all... So the timeline of my story is this: About 4 months ago I noticed the original heater core in the car (~120k miles on it) had clogged up and heat was not working. I bought a brand new heater core from my friends at Classic MINI and installed it, along with replacing the coolant with my usual Pentafrost NF + Distilled H20. Everything was peachy and the heat was blasting. About 2 months later I smell coolant in the car and have damp carpet around the center console.

I bought a brand new heater core from MINI of Portland and installed the same as the first time. The heat worked fine. I took the 1st replacement back for warranty and got my money back. I thought, OK, bad luck. I guess i got a Mfg defect. Well, almost the same period of time goes by and I'm out at lunch yesterday and here comes the coolant fog coming out of my heater vents!!! This time it was bad enough that I couldn't limp it home and took it to a shop.

I'm wondering though, what the heck could have caused this?? Do I just have that bad of luck with these parts, or...? I thought I was doing everything right (approved coolant with distalled water, using the new gaskets and clamps with each heater core)..