I had to move the Mini cause it was in the way yesterday and noticed the brake pedal went to the floor. Not really thinking popped up the hood and proceded to dump half a bottle of expensive ATE Typ 200 brake fluid in to the coolant expansion tank.

Freaking out, I used a turkey baster to suck it out. Then I loosened the dumb rad cap piece thing and pulled the lower rad hose. Got about a gallon out. Then I put a running hose in to exp tank (very slow trickle) and started engine and let it go to operating temp with heater on full blast.

The trickle out of the rad hose was pathetic! After I turned off engine and left it for some time, the exp tank still wasn't drained...

I'm not sure who I hate more - the car or myself. I really hate these new cars that are built to be impossible to service. I mean, first, no radiator drain pitcock? Second, impossible to access engine block drain? Third, a tiny hose to expansion tank so even if the system dries it flows less than spit sliding down a hill? Fourthly, an engine bay where nothing is labeled and where you can't see where anything goes? Sixthly, an underbody where nothing is symmetrical so you can't easily jack it up. Wtf. I'm used to BMWs where I can just throw the floor jack under the rear/front cross member and jack up the whole axle at once.

AHHHHH. What the hell am I to do? It won't spit out that remaining water from the expansion tank...

 

disconnect the hose at the bottom?

 

Yep. Remove the engine undershield and disconnect the radiator hose.

I guess it's time for you to invest in a Bentley manual. Here are the official BMW instructions.
The Bentley manual doesn't mention the heater hose.

 

I am laughing out loud - with you not at you. Sh*t happens doesn't it, and getting out of trouble is always harder than getting into it!

 

You are so right. Screwup took about 30 seconds. Spent about 3 hours last night jacking it up, sucking out the brake fluid and draining the coolant via lower radiator hose

Spent a further 3-4 hours today running a garden hose in to reservoir while engine running to try and circulate it all out.

Gave up on that so I started working at removing the coolant drain plug. Started with removing the battery cover and disconnecting (don't want to short out starter when removing heat shields), removing exhaust heat shield, power steering fan..then I put a wrench in sideways facing cyl #1 and used a piece of wood to pry against wrench and exhaust

And I still don't have it off, just slightly cracked.

This has to be one of the most frusterating and difficult things I've ever done...and I've done manual transmission swaps, rear end swaps, engine pulls/installs, etc.

Just for reference, here's what the back of the engine looks like:


That bolt between the freeze plugs. Next to the exhaust, the starter, the driveshaft (is that what it's called on a fwd car?) and the oil cannister

 

A little late here, but if you really want to flush the coolant system, you'll need to remove the thermostat to open a path to the rad that doesn't involve 180 deg. water. That is easier than removing the drain plug sounds. I'd also be a bit leary of using tap water - in my area tap water is very hard (lots of minerals) - not what you want in your engine block. After flushing with tap, I'd run a few gallons of distilled water through it. The radiator holds about half the coolant capacity, so if after all is done you fill that up with straight coolant, and you should have a 50/50 mix.

 

That's a great looking mini. My hometown is also Charleston. This looks like the Daniel Island boat ramp. I drove my ' 05 hyper blue/black top MCS to school everyday.

 

FYI there are four jacking points under the rocker panels. They look like 3" square protrusions that stick down an inch and a half or so from the bottom of the rocker panels. I think the MINI is probably the easier car I've put on my lift. I feel for you though, the MINI engineers sure made these things fun to work on in some places.

 

I'm starting to really, really hate this thing.

Yesterday I gave up on the coolant drain plug on the block..topped it up and then bled the brakes.

Even bleeding the brakes is a pain in the ***. On the rear calipers they put this massive mechanism for the parking brake right next to the bleed valve, so you only have like 40 degrees to turn the wrench

After that I put the heater on full blast and drove it to operating temp and it was fine.

Today I get a call that it was overheating...If you enter the car and the temp gauge is at 12 o'clock and start it, it takes approx. 120-160 seconds and it will start to overheat. And when it does, it does it real fast.

I just loosened the valve at upper rad hose, set fan on low and heat on high and started engine. Seemed ok. Heating and cooling worked just fine.

Then I closed it and it started to overheat again. So I loosened it again and repeated and left it like that. After like 5 minutes it started to overheat again

 

It needs to be bled. The Bentley instructions are pretty good. Did you follow them?

 

yep - and note there are TWO places where you need to vent . . .

 

three if you count this forum...

at least this vent location is sometimes sympathetic...

 

So where are the locations of the vents? I know there's one on the upper radiator hose.

Someone said the other was near the battery? And the third one?

 

third post here

pictures four and five

reference to third was tongue-in-cheek comment about your venting on this web site . . .

 

All comments aside about the MINI, I am just not understading the logic here. If the brake pedal "went to the floor" then why did you think just adding fluid to the reservoir would solve that symptom ?

And even if brake fluid level was the answer, then to be sure "brake bleeding" proceedures would have been involved......

 

Desperation....
jumping to conclusions...
the desire to find a simple cheap fast fix.....
completing the urge to "do something"!!!!

Good to hear the OP made decisive action to remedy the accident....
a radiador drain plug would be nice, but it only takes 2 seconds with a pair of pliers to drop the lower hose....
bleeding is universally a pain on all gen1 mini's.....

 

Because a pedal sinking to the floor would be a symptom of a system dry of fluid?

And of course brake bleeding would be involved, but you don't bleed an empty system (impossible). You of course top it off, then bleed a bit, top off and finish bleeding...

Well yes, but obviously that doesn't fully drain the coolant. Not only does that not get all of the coolant out so when you add new coolant/water you can get the mix just right, it also makes flushing contamanents out of the system needlessly difficult.

Wow, awesome, being told I am some fool. Your average jerkoff guy who thinks he is a car guy and knows what he's doing.

Look, I grew up in the garage. I've rebuilt all kinds of stuff, swapped rear ends, dropped transmissions and pulled engines. I spend my spare time in the junkyard.

The fact that I had such a bear of a job (given my experience) with this doesn't reflect poorly on me, it reflects poorly on the CAR. Any car so difficult is not a car worth existing...Period.

In any other car it would have been trivial. Suck brake fluid out of reservoir, pull radiator pitcock and engine block drain plugs then fill system and put plugs back in. Pull radiator pitcock with engine running and heat on with a hose in to engine with a slow rate..after a few gallons drain it all again and fill 60/40 distilled water/coolant and a bottle of redline water wetter. Keep exp tank cap off to bleed. An hour gone, TOPS

 

I'm not denying responsibility, I'm just saying that this mistake in any other car would have taken at most, 2 hours to correct (to flush cooling system and then bleed the brakes)

It's just the way the car is made also. I'm used to the kind of car where you can actually see where things go and how they are built..in the mini you can't see where anything goes, so approaching it is difficult. I'm sure I wouldn't have to deal with any of this **** in a Civic Si, a Hyundai Genesis coupe or a 4 cylinder 3 series....

I could understand if it was some exotic, but for a fun everyday car such difficultly is unacceptable. As a result, in the future if anyone asks me my opinion of the mini I will tell them to STAY AWAY

 

Yeah, please tell 'em to "STAY AWAY".

This pro-tip resulting from dumping brake fluid into the coolant reservoir. Now let's see, you didn't notice the blue coolant color or fact there was existing fluid in the tank for loss of pedal? You overlooked that it's nowhere near the brake master nor the icon preventing windshield fluid from being added? Sorry brother, you need to stay away from these buggers too.

 

Wow....everybody is so mean on here. He made a mistake and trying to correct it. Nobody should be telling him hes a fool because of the error but trying to help him fix the problem. He obvously knows he made a mistake or else he wouldnt have posted it. just my two cents....

 

Well, to paraphrase, the op started out, I messed up, I was in a rush, then later switched to its the cars fault, its hard to work on, others cars are not like this..


Well folks like the mini cause other cars are not like it. Compermises were made to fit a motor in such a small space....it just happens the compermises came together and made a car that is a delight for many of us to drive.
A mini has never been called easy to work on...it does have a steep learning curve, and the fact it was destined half by Rover, half by bmw makes for an interesting desgin, especially when you fig in deep.
folks do tend to lash out when told something they love is inferior...
the op was most certainly frustrated, but very smart people can sometimes have very bad days or make mistakes....but then when folks point out that the mistake is so bad it does not even appear possible (brake fluid containers have special markings, and warning on them),....
To put it simply, it is better that some folks be drivers, and not mechanics...
Technology changes, cars change...and some cars need a higher degree of expertise/skill to work on...
I think we all feel bad for the op, but many folks were just amazed..
Stunned and stupidified....the above posts are all the result of their initial reactions...
Many did go back, add pictures, and help out....for free
People donating their time.