New to the forum and to Mini's so lets start with a hello.

Just picked up a 2009 JCW with 55000 miles and am trying to figure out a few things. When I park it I can occasionally pick up a ""burning" Smell. Faint but there. Under the hood that turbo seems mighty toatsy. I'm trying to figure out if the fan should still be running on shutoff and what about the water pump I keep reading about that evidently runs after shut off to cool the turbo. Does it make any noise that you can hear? I don't hear anything. I've done some searching and have not come up with a satisfactory answer...... And ALSO. There was an electrical plug just to the right of the turbo that was disconnected. I plugged it back in....any ideas what it is?

-Steve

 

You have to drive the car pretty hard to get the fan to run after you shut it off. You CAN hear the after run water pump when you shut down the engine. its quiet, but you can hear it (having the hood open helps).

As far as the smell goes, check the oil line that connects to the top of the turbo. If the turbo underneath looks shiny at all, the line is leaking and you're smelling the oil burning off (common issue).

 

Welcome to NAM

Like imdapope stated you either must drive your MCS hard for a few minutes or if it hot outside and you just got off the freeway the fan will come on shortly after you let it idle for about 15-30 seconds or shut off the engine. I would refrain from driving hard until you find the burning smell, it's most likely a small leak of oil or coolant.

Typical failures for the R56 MCS are oil feed line, thermostat housing (plastic), water pump (also plastic) and the HPFP. Also take note that these N14's typically burn oil sometimes at an alarming rate, typical is about 1 quart every 1500 miles, check your oil every gas up until you know how much your engine will burn. It would be a good idea to get a compression test performed so you know how healthy your engine is.

 

Welcome to NAM and congrats on the JCW. Can you upload a picture of the electric connector that was disconnected?

 

I forgot to mention that in March 13th 2013 when I purchased my MCS for the first few months I never had the fan on at anytime, a month later my thermostat housing failed and was replaced. After replacing it I immediately noticed that my fan was much more active and on more often, even stopping at a red light in warm weather. There are two sensors, one for coolant temperature and the other triggers the fan when coolant reaches a preset temperature. I thought this might be relevant.

 

I'll keep an eye out for leaks. I bought it from a dealer so the engine is cleaned up good plus the obligatory overuse of Armor All (Which I haven't ruled out as the cause of the smell). There does appear to be some oil staining in the pic as you can see. Time will tell if it's old or continuing.

Then the connector that was unplugged.....I am pointing to it in the pic. What does it control?

 

I'm not sure exactly what it does but it's a part of the PCV system which can smell pretty stinky if not operating properly, mostly unburned gas and oil vapors. These plastic valve covers typically last about 50,000 miles, I had to replace mine at 47,000 miles. I found an alarming amount of oil dripping out of PCV tube you're pointing to in the picture which connects to your turbo inlet.

Pull that plastic base/sensor out and see if there's oil in there. There should not be any dips or flow of oil in that PCV hose, with my defective valve cover there was a bit of oil in that hose. After 3000 miles of driving with the new valve cover it was bone dry with no oil present in that PCV hose. I might add that the PCV system is integrated into the valve cover, there's two ports, one to the throttle body and the other to the turbo inlet.

Usually without an OCC the hose connected to the throttle body you should see oil in that hose, Mini has a crappy oil return system which is why we burn some of the oil.