2011 Mini Cooper s coolant flush questions
 

Hi guys.
Need to do coolant flush on my mini. Got the right coolant and called two local
Places.
One told me if I want to have some gasket and filter change while they pull the pan down to drain the old coolant?
What filter and what gasket?
Can someone give me some feedback here on what they are talking about?
I was thinking of doing this myself (wetvac option to suck it out) but can't find any good instructions with pics for N18 engine and don't want messed this up.
Thanks for any info.

Filter... Gasket....?


Nope. Pull lower hose... Let-er rip.

Just make sure to use the bleed screw filling it back up.

Oh and make sure to mix the coolant with distilled water for best results.

lol.. dunno why but the guy was thinking all the time about transmission fluid change.. lol

anyhow.. got some coolant from local BMW dealer.. not sure if I am going to be able to do it on my own since all I have to lift the car are two small ramps from local auto store.. and have a feeling this wont work.
may have to end up to pay local shop to do it.

can U please explain this: "Just make sure to use the bleed screw filling it back up"

thanks

You should be able to remove the lower hose to drain the radiator coolant with some ramps. Just make sure it is cool and all the pressure is released.

When you refill the coolant, there is a bleed screw (drivers's side of engine in line with the spark plugs, down in is a plastic cross hatched screw head) that needs to be opened so the coolant will fill completely. The bleed screw needs to be turned about 3 turns to open up fully. Be careful not to go beyond that and lose the screw into the engine bay. When coolant bubbles out, close the screw down. I also did a "burp" after driving the car a bit.

Hey guys.
So I'm getting ready to do the coolant flush. Few questions:
- where is exactly the bleeding screw/nut? Anyone had a picture of it in engine area? I have 2011 MCS.
- I was told, all I need to do is unattached the lower hose from radiator and let it drain.
I was also told That its NOT necessary to do destillated water flush. I just need to drain the old coolant and fill with new one app. 1.5 gallon.

Correct?

On the t-stat housing... I'll try to get a pic.

Yes, hose.. And use distiller water. Spend the $1.50 to have me sleep at night.. Who knows what minerals/chlorine are in your water..

I'm curious to why you are changing the coolant in a 2011.

I believe the coolant should be changed every 2 years.

At some point...not sure of the year...
MINI/BMW changed the formulation of the coolant to "LONGLIFE"...they say to just replace any drained coolant after working on the system...no draining/flushing needed unless you have contaminated it....
don't know if I trust that statement..but 4-6 years seems safe as most long life list about 6 years, 150,000 miles....as opposed to "lifetime" as MINI/BMW...:eek:

To the OP

Sounds like you are over your head.....:nod::eek::roll:

you must let the air out of the system...or you have bubbles that can make the car overheat..costing you $$$$ if you blow a head gasket or warp the head....
Coolant is sold both PRE_DILUTED and PURE...last time I bought MINI/BMW coolant, it was PURE, undiluted....
So it MUST BE MIXED with water..distilled is STRONGLY recommended...
and just dropping the hose, you will get about half the coolant out...the coolant will remain in the block and the heater core...you will get ABOUT ONE HALF OF THE COOLANT OUT...
a FLUSH uses pressurized water/coolant to remove this...
a shop-Vac....lol...
The idea of dropping the hose is it is the LOWEST POINT on the car...so sediment (from using mineral laden NON_DISTILLED WATER) will come out...flushing does more..getting the stuck gunk...scale, rust, etc out.

+1, did all my fluid changes every two years.

Thank you for replay.
YES, ima getting over my head :)
Few reasons:
- I'm doing it first time in my life
- I still don't know where is that bleeding screw located
Everyone talks about it, but there is no clear pic anywhere for me to know exactly.
- what's the reason for all the DIY options if you really not getting all that coolant out?
- I got BMW FULL strength coolant

Try this pdf. (Hope it attaches... never tried it before.)

Fluids Changing
 

1. Not all coolants are the same so use the BMW blue. Too many details to explain here. Zinc and chemical additives vary you will have to trust this.

2. No coolant will last more than 50k it weakens with heat, time and contact (I know what the bottle says)!

3. I have been doing this 26 years and changing it every 30k or two years.

I have 190k on my Ford (and good bless) no water pump EVER needed in 12 years!

Flush its auto Trans every 30k, NO problems with Trans ever.

Flush brake fluids every two years or with Trans.

Synthetic in diffs. Checked one for giggles fluid (mobile one by the way) looked brand new and if my pan were new I would have re-used it! Pan was dirty.

Flush power steering with Trans and brakes. No rack problems at all! No pump problems at all............

Spark plugs- yeah. Uhemmmm. I know what the book says, look at them at 50k and tell me what you see compared to a new one and you will see due to the crappy fuels of today.

:nod:

Fluids
 

Almost forgot......Every 5 or so tanks I add one small bottle of injector cleaner or half can of seafoam. Prefer seafoam:eek:.
NO fuel pump every needed 190K today! Gummy tanks make gummy pumps make for heat= new pump.:grin:

I have been using a tool - Airlift Cooling System Leak Checker - that I got from Amazon, ~$100 and I have been very happy with the results. After draining and hooking the hose back up, this thing pulls a vacuum on the entire cooling system - via the coolant bottle top. You monitor this vacuum to check for leaks THEN hook up a tube to the tool and the evacuated cooling system sucks in the coolant from a bucket of pre-mixed coolant. No bleeding needed! It fills the entire cooling system in seconds. Be advised that you do need a compressor to operate the venturi that creates the vacuum - so if you don't have a decent compressed air supply you are out of luck. The tool is not MINI-specific [I've also used it on my F-250] and the venturi is useful other tasks as well such as vacuum bleeding the brakes.

Also, I got the coolant on Amazon as well. I believe it was Zerex G-5?

Guys I must be blind cause I don't see any bleeding screw anywhere :(

All the pics I seen so far are for NOT N18 engine. There is no visible bleeding screw in N18. Bummer.

cub4bearindiana, I've seen mine.

A thumbnail below to click on...this is the top of the thermostat housing.

Bleed screw is hard to see, usually covered by cables etc above it very close to the temp sensor.

Stand in front of the engine, look straight down from above US drivers side just to the right of the valve cover near the silver round fuel pump-ish...

Re the thumb nail pic: imagine the valve cover above the tsat housing pic and disappearing into the top lhs corner...

The cross-headed black plastic screw is the bleed screw. After 3 full turns to open it I understand it gets washed out by the coolant and drops downwards to be lost in the engine bay never to be seen again, hence the NAM advice to 'see' how far it opens when safely in the palm of your hand, before fitting.

Took some pics of the engine area. Gave up for today. 1 hr of looking for that Effin screw was plenty enough.

Here,

Just took these.

2013 n18 motor.

You are looking at the drivers side of the head.. its on top of the coolant flange area. Its a large "+" shaped plug.

http://imageshack.us/a/img534/2923/e1gl.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img710/9237/djt1.jpg

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2923/e1gl.th.jpg
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/9237/djt1.th.jpg

Would u believe me if I said: it is not there on 2011 MSC n18?

I think if you push that harness aside you'll be able to see it.

I'm really not trying to be an ass or jerk here lol. I moved things around. I tried take better pics. I used stronger light. There is no screw like you had in your pics.

I'm lost. Lol

Also I noticed difference to that silver housing right above your hand. Mine is different than yours. Looks like there were some changes made between 2011 and 2013 n18?

I could be wrong, but I believe its the HPFP or the vacuum pump for the brake booster. It has had a few revisions. Right now I can't look.. I'm being paged to give a bath to my 5 year old.. lol

cub4bearindiana, it's about 1" further down from your finger, deeper into the engine bay, I think. Look for the cross-headed black plastic screw...

Mine's an N18 MCS built in Dec 2011 and bought Feb 2012; so it ought to be the same as yours.

I've attached a couple of pics of mine that I took 10 mins ago. The red blob is a led torch shining on it. IMO it's really hard to see unless you shine a light on it.

ps, it looks like you might have a part of the wiring harness going left to right above your coolant bleed screw.
I've also had the 'thermostat enhancement' done at the dealer (which might have been done on danjreed's 2013 at the factory). If you haven't, then this might explain why we're not hidden by that bit of black plastic harness and you might be...

Guys!


No screw to be found in that same area as you all have. In that same spot I have this plastic thin hose (kinda like a wire cover) going in.
I gave up.

Btw. Bought my car brand new may 2011 but it was build in September 2010.
Any other way to do coolant flush on my own if I can't get or find that screw?

cub4bearindiana this is really strange...

I've looked up RealOEM for a US spec N18 MCS build date Sep 2010 and all your thermostat housing numbers are the same as mine, which definitely has a bleed screw.

I'd suggest raising this issue with your local dealer, even asking him to get a thermostat housing in specifically for your VIN no. (Rumour has it they're in short supply, though.) Trouble is; he'll say its 'sealed for life' and you won't need to renew the coolant, won't he?

I'm really curious to know the outcome of this! I wonder if anyone else on NAM with a similar MCS build date can offer any clues or has a tstat housing like yours?

Good luck. Please let us know the eventual outcome

I wish I had dealer in my town. Closest is 100 miles away. Damn

Ill try take more pics of that spot.

So I tried to make another attempt to find that darn screw and no luck.
I swear I'm not that stupid lol
Wish dealer was closer, so I could ask.
Now I have all that destillated water and coolant seating here without use lol

Bit of an old thread but I wanted to let cub4bear know he's not crazy and yes that's the exact spot the bleeder valve is on most minis. Mine is a 2011 also, was built in Nov 2010 and has the exact same setup. An extra sensor located where the bleeder screw should be. Interestingly enough the Bentley manual doesn't even mention using the bleeder screw. It discusses using a pneumatic venturi to place a vacuum on the reservoir instead. Probably because that is the highest point in the system. Didn't have a venturi when I flushed mine so I used a shop vac. Worked like a champ. Just applied and removed the vacuum several times and the system burped like crazy till all the air was gone.

My 2009 Mini Cooper S doesnt have bleeder either...
 

At least not where the service manual and pictures by others have shown it to be.


To flush the radiator I disconnect bottom hose and top hose from radiator and use a garden hose to run water from the top until it drained clear.


To flush engine I reconnected the hoses and filled the reservoir with water until water level stabilized then with cap off I turned the car on and poured more water in until the water level stopped dropping. Then I installed the reservoir cap and let the car continue to warm up. After about 5/10min I turned the car off and slowly removed cap. Then I disconnected bottom hose and watched more old diluted antifreeze pour out. Careful it might come out warm or hot depending on how long you let it run. You could let it cool off if your not in a rush. I repeated the steps of refilling, draining, and flushing radiator until only clear water drained.


P.s
I didn't reinstall the hard to remove "clamps/clips" on the rubber hoses each time during the flushing. Just move them back out of the way until you're ready for the new antifreeze.


Disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic, just a DIYer who has read a lot of thread and a service manual on how to do this. Of course the way I did it was a little different from the service manual as I could not find the "bleeder" referenced in the book.

Would you please share the page describing the venturi vacuum procedure. I feel I have missed an important step.

I did the coolant flush back in November last year on my '11 MCS. Up until I sold the car yesterday I noticed very slowly that the coolant started to disappear and cause my water temp to rise above 225 constantly. Did anyone else get this problem? Thanks.

Found the bleeder
 

A bit embarrassing, but I finally found the bleeder. Not exactly where others have shown it to be, but near there just more hidden. Hopefully the pictures will help others. Good luck. https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/<a href=https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/<a href=https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/<a href=
sorry, I don't know why photos are not showing.

Sorry for the delay in responding. The vacuum coolant bleeding procedure starts on page 170-8 and goes thru 170-11 of the Bentley manual. It calls for a pneumatic venturi type vacuum but a wet/dry shop vac will serve the same purpose. No coolant escaping and dripping everywhere and pretty easy.

This is my current issue. After listening very carefully, I also do not hear the fan coming on....even once it reaches 225. Before MINI did the thermostat and water pump fixes, it would come on at 220 and temps never rose above that.

I have a leak at one of the connections under the bleed screw behind the battery box.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...6489376bd8.jpg


It is leaking from the bottom hose clamp. I'm pretty sure all I have to do to get to it is remove the battery box. Is there anything I should prepare for? I've never messed with the cooling system besides keeping it topped up. What is the easiest way to access this hose and fix the leak?

'02 hardtop 80k miles

I have a large compressor and have been wanting a way to expedite these coolant flushes. so this will push out all the coolant even from the heater core and pull in new coolant?