Hey everyone. I'm new to the site, so break me in easy. I have a 2006 R53, Cooper S, 6-speed. Love it.

My fan started to run long after the car was off. I read on this forum that it might be the fan resistor... so I bought a whole assembly from RockAuto and tried installing it today. Once everything was back together enough to test it, I started the car and waited for the fan to kick on. When it did, I could hear it scraping the radiator. It was loud and started to smell like burning plastic within seconds. I turned off the car and tried spinning the fan with my hand. It was catching ever so slightly at the bottom when a certain part of the fan would come around. There are 4 "holders" for the fan shroud to sit in behind the radiator, so it's fairly idiot proof. Am I missing something? Is it just a bad part out of balance? Dorman was the brand.

Also, when I took the new fan shroud back out, I spun it to see if it was catching on anything. It wasn't, but the fan itself was warped... cheap plastic.

Does anyone have similar experiences with new cooling fans? Is that something that corrects itself... assuming it doesn't start a fire with friction? I noticed the OEM fan had similar markings, but wasn't making any noise.

Please Advise. Thanks so much.

 

Fan running long after engine off is normal as long as it eventually shuts off not coz of a dead battery but coz temp has gone down. If it doesn't, then you've a stuck relay. A bad relay would just kill your low speed. Your OEM fan should still be good. Sorry, I don't have 1st hand experience on the Dorman. You may wire a kill switch to your hi-speed fan before the fan socket on US driver's side by the radiator as a simple, practical mod.

 

Long running fan usually means the coolant is a bit low....
Many/most mini's DO have a low speed fan issue....but that does not affect fan run on when off.
Coolant usually runs low from the coolant tank leaking slowly along the seam where the two halfs are glued together....look for whitish residue along the seam
2nd most common leak is thermost gasket...but a '06 likly had the most current part...depends on the cars delivery date....a newer desgin/material was used in later gaskets (built into the thermostat).

 

Not really on topic, but my (early) 06 still had the old, white gasket and I recently replaced it. There's an excellent write up about it on the forum somewhere that I used to replace mine. There are also pictures in there that show how to check if that part is leaking.

Not having fan issues on my 06 afaik.