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Fan staying on a few minutes after turning the car off is normal when the car gets hot, or it's hot outside. In your case you've already checked the coolant level and found none in the reservoir. The reservoir should have coolant in it, and that is also where you fill the radiator. If your coolant level hasn't dropped too far, you should be able to fill the reservoir with coolant / water and be okay. If you find yourself replacing quite a bit of the coolant / water, it may be necessary for you to bleed the air out of the cooling system. There are a couple plastic bleeder screws in the cooling system that you can utilize to bleed the air from the cooling system.
so a quick question... with a cool/warm engine where should I fill to? MIN or MAX?? and; with what blend? 50/50 anti and water?? I have some old PEAK that will get through to a flush and fill (Monday hopfully??) where do I drain the damned rad??
If the engine is cool / warm, basically not at operating temp yet, simply fill it to the MIN level. You'll want to check the level periodically over the next few days to make sure the level stays within the MIN / MAX area. Fill with a 50/50 mix. Your old PEAK will do just fine. Of course there are MINI enthusiasts that will follow and say use the MINI coolant only, but there's no need to do that if you just want to make it into the next week when you'll do a flush and fill.
Don't worry about the bleeder screws just yet, maybe your coolant level is only low to the point just below your reservoir and you won't need to bleed the system at all. Just try filling it first, worry about bleeding it later if you end up putting a large amount of coolant / water in. Either way you have to fill it before bleeding anyway.
