Well not to be a downer but, I had a car that had threw a rod and seized but it could still drive around the parking lot. It would just take a few seconds to heat up and seize. I'd get that watery oil out of the engine asap before it starts to corrode.

 

I don't even know if there is any water in the oil. That's the reason I brought it home so I could troubleshoot it. I took the dipstick out today and the oil looked fine, took the cap off the block and the oil looked fine in there too. I was told if under the oil cap had frothy bubbly liquid it was a blown gasket but it's fine no thing under the cap except oil.... How else can I check?

 

you stated here that the oil had water in it, I'm now confused?

 

Guy over the phone at the dealer said it was. But then I talked to the tech and looked for myself and didn't see anything wrong. How else would I be able to check this on my own?

 

I got ya, I'm just going off the info given.

 

Yea as was I haha. I was very surprised when I checked the oil it it looked normal.

Can anyone advise me how and what to look for to double check that the antifreeze or water didnt get into the oil? Also how can I check for head gasket leak etc?

 

 

Just wanted to post a few pics of what I found today. The oil cap and head show no signs of milky or frothy oil. I cleaned the dipstick and dropped it in again and found proper level with no signs of water or coolant. Proper level and proper color. So far it looks like all the coolant is gone but besides that I am not seeing any signs of head gasket. What am I missing??

 

Its looking good, that's a great sign you might luck out.

 

I really hope so. It doesn't look like a blown head gasket. Now to fill it with water and see where the hose leak is..

 

Crazy story lol.

My car blew up, no I just lost a hose, dealer says it has frothy oil, but wait, now the oil is clean haha.

Fix the hose, add antifreeze, bleed it, and start driving it again.

You definitely lucked out. Next time pull over. Don't drive any vehicle that's overheating. It's not worth risking your engine to get somewhere more convenient.

 

**** you dont have to tell me twice. The dealers first tech that was working on my car had it all wrong. I am glad I got it the hell out of there.

But it almost sounds to good to be true, and why did it overheat in the first place. And also where the hell did all the white smoke come from?

The dealer also told me the heat from overheating may have melted the plastics in the cooling system. Where are these plastics located?

 

Come to think of it now... Around the 70-80k mile mark on my Mini, it overheated briefly... I checked out the reservoir and noticed little to no coolant left in the tank. I thought it was weird and did not know where everything went??? Evaporate? Anyway, filled it up and now it is on the watch list when I check fluids every weekend. (e.g. oil, power steering and coolant)

Zero issues since and I'm at 112k miles now.

Thinking about throwing a rod and the car fires up... I have to assume you would have lost oil. The only times I have encountered/seen a rod thrown, there was either oil below the motor (exterior crack in the block) on the ground or oil leaving internally. Either way, this results in an oil drop on the dip stick.

We are only speculating at this point... But looking forward to hear how this goes once you have a chance to dig into him.

 

Just do what you said you were going to do. Fill it with water and figure out what blew.

Sounds like a hose but it's possible the radiator sprung a leak. Since you were blowing smoke like crazy it should be obvious where the leak is. You might need to jack it up, put it on jack stands, and look underneath the car too. Hopefully you have someone to help you but if not fixing a hose is pretty simple.

The dealer is making stuff up. You didn't melt any plastic.

 

swqp the hose. I bet it's the lower one. Fill it, bleed it, fill it, check for leaks, you'll be good to go. I don't see any signs of coolant in your oil, so I'm betting it'll be a simple fix for you. I've had mine rather hot a few times, never had any gasket problems.

Take a deep breath, it's gonna be fine.

Nik

 

Thanks all, as always I appreciate all the help. After searching forums and videos etc I really don't think it's a head gasket from the color of the oil, the oil level, and the no smoking anymore. When I get out of work tmrw I will fill it with water and run it to see if I can find any leaking areas. I think it was an air bubble in the system that caused the leak in the first place. And I really think the dealer was just trying to get my f ing money... I'm done with MINI and BMW dealers.

 

My MINI has only been to the dealer twice since I picked it up on 2002. Once for the "free" oil change while under warranty, and the second for an emissions recall.

 

Fill it up....and watch it....
If you don't see a leaky hose....
I'd bet $ it's the plastic side tanks on the radiator....where they are melted/welded into the aluminium core....the plastic gets brittle with age...cracks...

I hope you have gotten lucky one more time...hate to see a MINI dishing out crap to its owner....hate to see a dealer trying harder to scare you to try to bulley you into trading the car in to lease a new one....
I call that dirty....scummy...and a few more terms that would get ***** out.....
Why they just couldn't say...we're don't see anything obviously wrong till we start digging in was beyond me...

Be careful....your "get out of jail card" might have been punched....time to get serious!! About fixing it...or selling it...hate to say that, but it is always an option and having a running car miss it more viable...
Strange how your car has had more hose issues than most other threads I can recall reading combined...modern hoses seem to last 10+ years and 150,000 miles plus for most folks ...then they see a bulge, or other sign of impending doom, or a mechanic points it out, and they get swapped....
Be sure too look at the heater hoses....they are often ignored, but age just as fast, and can fail...only real difference is if they burst, they are smaller, so you have more time to drive....

If it seems to run ok, when cold. i would guess the headgasket is going to be ok..so it means that the coolant was spraying on something...giving you that smoke machine effect....or streaming back and hitting the exaust, and doing it....
Just remember when you fill it up with water/coolant, that there are TWO bleeds...one is obvious...by the radiator, the other is kinda hidden, near the thermostat housing....

 

I had some issues with my car (R53 JCW) bursting coolant from the reservoir cap and overheating as a result... exhaust gases went in to the coolant system causing it to pressurise until the reservoir cap gave up (as it's designed to do). Didn't have any smoke coming out of the engine though, just steaming coolant in the engine bay. Oil and water were not mixed.

This was caused by a cracked head. I first thought it was just the gasket but found the cracks after taking the head off.

You should definitely have a blow-by test done to see if you have a leak in either the head gasket or in the head itself. And check the coolant reservoir for cracks...

 

Steffen, when are we doing this? I'm free for the rad hose this weekend, then we can go from there. Have you found the hose locally?

 

Hey everyone. I just wanted to give a little more background about Barnaby and whats going on. I was contacted by memo79 who said he would give me a had to try and find this problem. I called MINI to get the final PDF report sent over and the tech and the report are totally different. The final verdict is that the hose between the heater core and the thermostat is leaking. It is fairly easy to remove the alta COI I have so tonight when it cools down I am going to remove the air intake and air box, then have a look around for any ripped, torn or damaged hoses. I will also check the thermostat and housing while I am in there! I will keep you all posted tmrw when I get a better look at it. Thanks for helping and thanks to NAM I was able to find a local friend to lend a hand! Life is good!

 

Sounds like things are looking up!

 

Ok more of an update for all those interested. I am also looking for some suggestions and ideas as to what this hose coupler is. I moved my MINI to a flat surface removed the air box so I could see better what was going on and filled the expansion tank with coolant. About 5 seconds later I heard fluid pouring out and found the MINI dealer had pulled the hose coming from the expansion tank to the coupler between the thermostat and heater core hoses. The plastic coupler I showed in the pics seemed to be more of an Y shape when all pics online show it to be a T shape. The plastic coupler was also brittle and cracked so all the fluid was leaking from there. I am thinking of just ordering the whole hose assembly with plastic couplers from ECS but I am not sure if this one thats broken is included or not..


Right below the white wire you can see a wet spot with the plastic Y shaped coupler that is broken and needs replacing...



This is the hose coming from the expansion tank that the MINI dealer left un hooked and the hose clamp was also missing ...






And this is the only schematic I found online for my car it looks like letter C is what is needed but mine doesn't look the same..

If anyone can help especially ECS with what I need I would greatly appreciate it. I am also disappointed that the dealer left the hose and clamp missing as well as it looks like they snapped the plastic inlet where the expansion tank hose goes into the coupler.

 

I broke the same part when I was pulling my engine. Got it at Amazon

 

Thanks for the link I will be digging more into it today but for some reason I still don't know if this is the right one. The one on my MINI looks more Y shaped than that one..