Sitting in my driveway just now waiting for the garage door to open and I notice white smoke coming out of my hood scoop. My initial thought was that my expansion tank had finally gave out like everyone talks about and coolant was just burning off on the manifold. I open the hood and see smoke coming from the top of the radiator. I just replaced the upper hose beside the dipstick so its not that. I looked around with a flashlight and saw a couple drops of coolant on the skid plate by the bottom passenger side corner of the radiator but I can't see exactly where its coming from. Has anybody had a leak like this that could tell me what the source was? Please tell me theres a little hose down there thats the problem and that I don't have to replace the whole radiator

Car is an 05 MCS w/60k

 

Sounds like the rad at the seam or the neck connection to #1 to the rad. . Or the hose is not all the way clipped on ? #1 , check the #4 also .

 

All those connections look fine. I'm beginning to think its the radiator itself ughhhhhhhhh

Just seems like as soon as I fix one thing another thing breaks with this car. Very frustrating.

 

Check the bleeder screw and the pipe there ?

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Both of those look fine. It's definitely coming from the bottom of the radiator because there's no wetness on the alternator or supercharger.

Is it a common thing for the bottom corner of the radiator to leak like that? I've only put ~300miles on the car since I took it out of storage 2 weeks ago and everything was fine when I put it away in the fall.

 

Mine did the same thing. Although mine is an '03 mini cooper s with 210,000km so I knew for sure that it was my rad leaking. so I replaced it. Shoulda made a DIY now that I thought of it. But its not a hard fix. Bought a new rad for $220 CAD. If you have any questions pm me. Id be more than happy to help.

 

I've been looking at some DIYs and it doesn't seem too bad. I'm just a little pissed that the canadian dollar is so weak right now because I usually buy all my parts from the states. What did you replace yours with, OEM? Mishimoto? And any other parts I should order that I might find I will need to replace when I get in there?

I was also thinking of getting an aluminum expansion tank to put on when I already have the coolant drained replacing the radiator. But again, the dollar is so bad I'd like to purchase as few parts as possible at this point.

 

i just replaced mine with oem. nothing fancy. I just wanted to get rid of the leaking. it was annoying as hell. everytime i come to a stop, smoke came out of the intake lol. everyone around always looking at me like, "shiet that car is busted". watevs though, my mini is all fixed up now. I was thinking of doing the aluminum can as well but didnt pull the trigger on it as I know mine has just been recently replaced by previous owner. I will definitely get the aluminum one though as soon as mine craps out. Good Luck with the fix, hopefully no more leaks after that.

 

So just an update. Took the car out for a ride tonight and got the temp up and there was no smoking or leaking at all. The only thing I can think of (and this is a bit of a long shot) is that I washed the car on friday and put it straight in the garage. Perhaps there was somehow some water that was pooled on top of the skidplate near the bottom of the rad that was burning off? But that still wouldn't account for why the smoking was rev dependent as seen in my video?

I'm certainly happy that it looks like I might not have to replace my rad. This was the last straw that was making me want to sell my car

 

When you wash your MINI and you get the foam insulation above rad gets wet it will steam. Also does this when driving in the rain, then you stop. I come out of the grille.

#2 and #3 , but mostly number 2 hold the water.

 

Ok that totally makes sense! I've put my car away right after washing it many times before, but this past weekend was unusually cold (snow on sunday) so the only logical explanation is that the water in the foam might've froze (or never fully dried) and then thawed when I drove it on monday. Phew!

Thanks for all your help with this