I have a 2006 Mini Cooper S (6spd, don't know if that matters or not) and just hit 60k miles on it. I have been having a weird not constant or consistent issue with my car spiking in coolant heat, it only does it when in stand still traffic (prime example drive thrus or long lines at lights). This has been happening about once day or two a month for the past two months and happens and don't know what could be causing it. I have looked around and only thing I could think of would be the water pump or thermostat both of which are a pain to get to and expensive to replace (labor costs). Was wondering if anyone else had any other experiences with this issue and could give me some advice or what it could exactly be?

PS. I've checked, there isn't a coolant leak or low on coolant.

 

Your description would be the classic symptom of the electric fan not turning on when the car is sitting without the cooling effect that occurs while the car is moving. Have you verified the fan is working? Also, the stock temp gauges are useless at showing anything except completely cold, reached the minimum operating temp and Oh shat, my car is overheating.

 

The temp gauge normally hangs out half way between 250 (max) and 140 when sitting at a drive thru today (prime example because its still in the 30's here in Germany), the gauge was showing normally running temp after driving at normal town/highway conditions started climbing and then when hitting about 200 the fan was blowing aggressively but not helping the cooling so turned the car off and fan was still running and then ran the car for a little while and hasn't done it for the past few hours of driving. This is a semi reoccuring issue, it comes out of no where and isn't on a constant basis. The fan works, no coolant leaks, coolant levels are normal. I just can't think of what the issue is.

 

Supercharger water pump drive gears wobbled to death maybe?

Jeremy

 

Well, I think I made the decision to just trade it in as much as I don't want to. I know I'm not taking it back to the states and also the estimate to get this taken care of at the most trust worthy mechanic here in the area I'm at in Germany is about $2k and I don't have time or money to be waiting for this to get fixed whatever the mystery issue is.

 

Where are you in Germany? I am sitting in Ramstein right now..have been for the last week!

 

Stationed at RAB living in KL. Welcome to the area.