I've read that the cooling fan sometimes comes on after hard driving.
I, however, have been driving just to the store and back and
when I shut off the engine, my fan goes on as if it is cooling
down a heated engine.

My gauge says the temp is fine.
Anyone know if this is something I should take my MINi in to
get checked out by the dealer? I have a 2006 MINI. And it's
been happening every few times I drive him somewhere.
Definitely not motoring enough for my engine to be overheating...

Any help/advice would be appreciated. I'll probably give the
dealer a call also to see what they say. Thanks fellow NAMers!

 

Weird - I had the same issue yesterday. Today I checked my coolant and realised why.

 

I looked at my coolant and it doesn't look low, so I don't think that's it...

 

If you have access to a ScangaugeII, that will tell you the water temp via the OBDII port.
There is also a way to access it via the OBC diagnostics, but that resets every time you start the car.

 

I actually JUST installed a Scangauge today-
but what I DON'T know is:
What's the normal operating range for the water temp supposed to be?
Thanks!!!

 

Watch your engine temp gauge on your dash. Once it reaches about half way it should stay there and not rise. Temperture on your scan gauge II will read between 200 and 210 degrees F.

When you drive you heat up the engine. When you stop and the engine is hot your fan will come on even if you are stopped or parked and remain on until the temperature falls back down a bit. This is normal.

If your fan doesn't come on then your temp gauge will rise higher than midway.

 

Thanks. I'll check my ScanGuage tomorrow. But my temp gauge on my
dash reads normal (in the middle) I've had my MINI for 2 1/2 years now,
and it has never done this before, and like I said, I'm not driving
it hard, so I don't think this is very normal.

 

I drove 10 minutes to church this morning.
The ScanGauge peaked at 230. That would definitely be over
the 200-210 safe range. I added more distilled water to the coollant
to see if that makes any difference, but it didn't look empty.
I'll give it a few more days. If the fan still goes on I'm just going
to have to take it in to get checked out. I've read posts here about
the fan sucking up the battery and dying. Last thing I need is to
be stranded somewhere.

 

For the fan to run for a bit after shutdown is common to cars with electric fans. The first time I noticed this on a VW in the 80's I freaked 'til I learned it was OK.

The 'fan runs til it kills the battery' problem oft discussed is a problem in the fan assembly not exactly related to actual cooling.

BUT - if you've noticed a change it your car's fan performance consider this....

1. Your engine could be getting hotter / not being cooled as well. How old is your coolant?

2. Your coolant could be low (mentioned by another earlier). Also note that if the coolant got low at some time and you topped it off it is possible there was an air bubble allowed to enter the system due to the way the system is built, There are bleeder valaves in the cooling system to release these air pockets at high spots. Not doing so can cause the computer to tell the fan to keep running......dealer fixed a continuously running fan for me by bleeding air off.

Those are the cheap fixes...here's the possible bad one

3. Like I said, it is not unusual for a fan with a thermosat controlled electric fan to have the fan run a bit after you shut the engine off. Both my son's 02 and my 07 will run the fan for a lil' after the engine shuts off. It is POSSIBLE your car also did this too and you never heard it but NOW you do. This COULD be because the fan is now running on HIGH where as it previously ran on low.....and that can be bad. Because with the engine off the fan is usually only run on low BUT if low 'dies' the computer will run the fan on high. Low dies when the fan resistor assemby begins to fail and low no longer works.....and the only way to fix/replace this resistor that exists today is relacement of the entire fan assembly... ouch .... many posts on this topic if you search.... When this assembly dies completely your fan is going to stay on until the battery dies. You can shut the fan off by pulling the connector to the fan on the drivers side of the rad' or disconnecting the battery. My experience with an 02 is there is no fuse you can pull that will shut down the fan under this condition....(the dealer couldn't find one either) but posts here suggest later years may have wiring changes that make a fuse pull possible.

good luck buckaroo

 

How do you test the system to see whether the low is 'dying?'

 

My coolant tank when I opened it was making gurgly noises which
makes me think this may be an air bubble issue. Like I said, I added
more water to see if this will do anything. I'm hoping that's all it is.
Your last option doesn't sound like much fun. Also, this has definitely
only been going on for a couple weeks. This is a very loud noise and
I would have noticed it over the last 2.5 years if it was happening
before that.

If it is an air bubble thing, do you think adding more water will fix
this over time or do I have to locate the bleeder valaves in the
cooling system to release these air pockets? If I do, where are
these valves located?

Thanks!

 

good question

 

I don't know of a way to test if "low is dying"

If you have air, just adding fluid won't fix it = or it didn't for me. I found the tank dry and added juice and found myself at the dealer a few days later, but their bleeding the system fixed it ('cept the discovery that slow was gone.....ugh)

To find the bleeders on the coolant lines ... "run them" .... that is trace them, as I recall there's one just off the top of the radiator where the hose jinks up....that's the most common problem point. A non S has another under the battery box. They are simple turn screws...get the system hot...open the valve and let any air escape...clamp it down....DONE.

I have to do this on our train engine every day because of the way the cooling is routed....oh, I drive the Zoo Train in Melbourne Fl! We installed a simple valve at the top of the motor so every day once it gets hot we can bleed off the air pocket that results from the rad and the eng' being different legs of U.

 

Personally, if it were me, I'd be draining that and starting again with just coolant rather than a dilution. Cheap to do and easy to do, easy to tell if it works or not.

 

If you opened the expansion tank cap with a hot engine, this is normal. Always better to check your coolant level and top up at ambient temperature wherever possible.