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Howdy y'all! I'm considering buying my first Mini, so yay =). Well, it's intended as first car for my daughter, but I just did a first test drive, and can see what the magic is. The car I looked at is a manual 2012 Mini Cooper base model. Second owner, 114k miles, overall in reasonable shape. One question I cannot find an answer via Google though is, what is the sensor in the attached picture? It does not have a connection to it, I also did not see any loose cable that looked like it would/should be connecting to it. I checked the ECU via OBDII and Torque Pro on my Android, it came back clean. No warning lights in the cockpit, the car drove fine for a 4-5 mile test drive. Anybody know what that sensor is, and what the consequences are of driving with it disconnected?
Thank you! While it sounds quite encouraging, makes me scratch my head why Mini would sell a car with a part that's not needed, esp. considering how tightly squeezed the automotive is for cost control. Unless of course a newer style thermostat was installed at some point, leaving the (now unused) one in its original place. This thread suggests that may be what happened.
Last edited by sl_austin; Nov 19, 2020 at 06:18 PM.
That’s mostly what happens. I had to replace my thermostat housing with the newer design a couple of years ago. I also decided to replace the elbow as well, (one without the sensor opening) as it was leaking around the old sensor.
the sensor was part of the design in let's say Rev A. After many failures and leaks, the updated the thermostat to have the sensor. Even that was done over 2 more revs before they finally has a replaceable temp sensor. The only thing they should've done was a serviceable thermostat! not an all in one unit!
Thanks you all, much appreciated! The current (2nd) owner confirmed that the thermostat was recently replaced by an reputable indie shop just outside of Austin. So should be in the clear. Now just need to figure out how to assess clutch wear (114k miles on the car), starting a new thread for that. Thanks again, this forum is awesome!
Thanks you all, much appreciated! The current (2nd) owner confirmed that the thermostat was recently replaced by an reputable indie shop just outside of Austin. So should be in the clear. Now just need to figure out how to assess clutch wear (114k miles on the car), starting a new thread for that. Thanks again, this forum is awesome!
Drive it till it starts to slip, the once the signs show up replace it. My clutch start slipping in 6th gear, I went to pass someone at 75, rpms went up mph didn’t. So I baby’d her home, shifting at 3k and used cruse control when I could. Had my mechanic replace it the next day, all good over 10k of smiles.
Thank you Jason! That part of driving I did not do during the test drive, get on the highway and accelerate in 5th or 6th gear. It seemed to pull ok in 3rd and 4th at lower speeds. I started a separate thread re. clutch life, the asking price is $5500, so if it needs a new clutch in the near future that takes it out of the running.
When I was looking I really test drove the car, here they pretty much throw the keys at you and let you go. So I got all of them out for about an hour, plenty of time to warm them up, highway and city driving. When I was out on highway I was driving them, running through gears, 100 mph, hard breaking, etc. Then I would get off and take to an empty lot and look it over. You can find a lot out and some test drives. I was looking at WRX’s of varying degrees and what a mess some of them where. And the one I would have took had a stage 2 clutch, which was to rough on the lower back. I popped check engine lights, found out alignments where bad, brakes warped, and the burning oil. With My mini, I did the same thing, all with the wife. After an hour I was in love and the wife was happy. I say just get it up to temp and drive it a little bit harder than you did, FYI my clutch replacement was 1400 at my mechanic.
I just brought it home. YAY! Fun li'l zinger, for 120 hp it pulls well. Ended up doing a couple pulls in tall gears on the freeway, no issues, also up steep inclines, solid pull to redline. Feels better than yesterday, may be just a case of not having driven stick in almost a year. Now my daughter is out with the biggest-ever smile on her face, zinging around the 'hood learning how to drive stick with mom along as instructor.
Thanks again for all the input and super-helpful insights!
