Looking for some feedback here. I have an R53 and R52 vert and have had the thermostat housing fail on both. The housing is cheap plastic part that gets hot, warps, and then leaks.
I have a friend with a machine shop and a was looking at making some billet thermostat housings for the R52 and R53. The more that are made the cheaper the overall cost. Looks like it would work out to be ~$50-60 each. Dealer charges ~$60 but I see them online for ~$35-40 for the plastic ones.

At $55 ea would anyone be interested in purchasing these? A little more than a plastic one, but the last one you would have to buy.

 

Or cracks...let us know what your friend fabs up and if it works out for you. There should be decent interest.

Jeremy

 

That's a cool idea. We mostly see gasket, not housing failures. I know that MINI dealerships try to sell both the housing and gasket, but when they are leaky, it's usually the gasket that has failed. MINI changed the gasket material at some point because of the common failures.

 

The housing has 3 mounting holes. From what I have seen (my experience with them failing) is that 2 holes are close together and the 3rd is further away. Because of the gap between the 2 of the mounting bolt holes, the housing warps in this "longer" section.
Either way, I think an aluminum housing would have a much longer life.

Thanks for the input!

 

I just had thermostat housing #4 installed in my MINI today.

At the rate these fail and with all of the after market upgrades out there for MINIs, I'm surprised no one is marketing a metal thermostat housing.

Dean.

 

Let me know if you have these made I am definitely interested in purchasing one. I have recently developed a small coolant leak, and although a haven't looked for the source yet, I am willing to bet that it is the thermostat housing.
Dave

 

Watching and interested

 

Faint smell of coolant when I parked my car last night - I'm interested.

 

interested. Any update?

 

Same here