Wife on her way to work early this morning. Driving on a dark 2 lane road she sees a blur and then thud and something splatters on the windshield. Turned around to see what it was and there was nothing there. Turns back around and drives on and then the Red light comes on in the dash. She pulls of the road and calls me at 3:45am. Oh crap. Fast forward after the tow truck brings in home and I take off the front off. I found the front panel cracked at several mounting points. Both headlights have a mounting flange broke and the aux water pump is destroyed. Odd enough there is no damage to the bumper or either grille. The lower grille was pushed back out of the bumper but is undamaged. Too bad I already replaced the oil filter housing gaskets because it sure would be easy to do it now.

 

Sucks. :( Sorry man. Hope its back in running shape soon.

 

Oh no :(, If you need anything let me know.

 

Holy moly, that's a lot of damage. I'm genuinely curious what happened to the engine bay that was hard enough to break the water pump, but at the same time not break the bumper.

Not to be grim, but what kind of "splatter" was on the windshield? Maybe she ran over Jason from Friday the 13th and his machete got caught under the car?

 

After tear down all that was damaged was the front panel/radiator support and the aux water pump. The lower grille was push in out of the bumper, but undamaged. I could see an indent on the left intercooler intake manifold plastic housing where it hit the aux water pump. I guess there was enough inward flex to break the radiator support. The radiator support was broke in 6 places. In order to get the MINI back on the road as quick as possible I picked up the aux water pump at the dealer($44) and found an aftermarket radiator support at LKQ($199). Still amazed that there is not a mark on the bumper. A lot of work replacing the radiator support, but finished yesterday afternoon and MINI is running great again.

 

Glad you were able to fix it .. for relatively good price and quickly .. ZOOM, back on the road.