Hey there,

Looking forward to learning what I can about this fine ride. I'm sure there's a lot of wisdom in these threads and fun mods.

I'm not new to wrenching on stuff. I am however new to wrenching on these new rides with all the electronicals and programmed everything in super tight spaces. Relatively new to turbo applications (about 2 years of tinkering with my 12 valve Cummins. Installed gauges and read quite a bit about it's turbo function and potential upgrades)

I have been an owner of a 2014 Mini Cooper Countryman S for roughly a year now. I really do enjoy the ride (although a little tight and restricting. lol) My wife digs the ride,too! It has treated us well so far. Smooth ride, tight steering, although I've always felt the throttle response left something to be desired unless in sport mode. It may be time for spark plugs and other tune up items.

I've been nervous for a few weeks now. Ever since my wife and I were riding along a paved smooth back road. You know that quiet straight road just begging that someone drag races on it? I got the urge to floor it for the first time since owning it. So I did what any other sane individual would do and HAMMERED IT without hesitation. We started around 20mph and were immediately pinned back in our seats. We quickly climbed to OMG mph. I saw the RPMs go to around 5500 and backed off the throttle a bit, back to a slightly more sane speed of 40ish. Once we recovered from the pinned to the back of our seats rush I noticed strange things and knew I pushed our girl a little too far.

When I pressed the throttle the RPM would climb, but we gained minimal speed. The Mini had no power and had developed a knock/rattle from the engine. I limped her to the nearest parking lot and went under the hood. The coolant reservoir was bone dry and there was a definite knock/rattle. I turned her off and popped the coolant reservoir cap. Pressure equalized and maybe a quart of coolant flooded back in. Oil looked good so I started her back up. The knock/rattle was gone and we hit the road very very gingerly to the nearest Auto Zone. By the time we pulled in there was very minimal coolant in the reservoir. We bought coolant recommended by their computers and filled to the line. We continued on our journey checking the coolant at every stop. It never dropped, and the power and knock/rattle never returned. Even a few weeks later.

I'm not sure where the coolant could have gone? I should have looked under the car for puddles when it first happened but my panic blinded me. What do yall think may have happened? Is there anything recommended to check apart from coolant levels after something like that? The oil looks fine, maybe a bit black and time to change it, but definitely not milky like coolant was introduced.

I've been a bit worried something happened to the transmission during the hammering of the throttle, but it seems to be shifting fine. Since I've owned it it does seem to hold on shifting till higher RPMs but maybe that's my own bias from driving only standard transmissions for the past 10 years and trying to squeeze every mile I can from every drop of gas in the tank. Is there any regular maintenance I should do to the trans besides maybe oil check - which I think is recommended to take to the dealer, but I'll always rebel that.

Many more questions. They'll come with time though.

 

Too long winded?

i floored it, coolant dropped, refilled it, hasn't dropped since. Should I be concerned? Theories where it may have gone? Wanted opinions, maybe it isnt unusual with these things?

 

tagging to watch this thread, I'm also scouring the other threads in here.

I bought a 2011 CMs4 with 101k miles 7 days ago. Overall I LOVE it. It's exactly what I wanted. Small, but big enough inside (I also have a 2010 Infiniti QX56 that's paid off, aka 'suburbitank', or 'tank'), 6spd, turbo, awd, and WAY better mpg's than tank.

Today, when pulling out of the drive way it's parked in, I noticed a pretty big puddle, but we've also had alot of snow the last few days, so I chalked it up to snow melt.

Welp, it -was- coolant. Took my daughter to see a movie, and on the way home got the 'engine overheat' messaging. But if I kept rpm's down, it went back off.

Got us the 2mi back home, and when looking underneath it's definitely green fluid underneath and the overflow was bone dry. AND there's also an oil leak. I didn't really see any oil in the bay when I got it, but they could have just cleaned the s**t out of it at the small used car lot I got it from.

I do have an ext warranty, but I don't think it kicks in until after 14 days (yeah, odd, but I remember seeing something in there about a waiting period). But, I really don't mind wrenching, I've done it in some capacity for at least the last 20 years and enjoy it, but usually no -major- jobs.

I'm -hoping- it's just the thermo/gasket. Since my ext warranty has a $100, I'm prob going to try to tackle the coolant issue tomorrow morning. Thank god I have tank to get me around for parts

 

I have an r55 so for me, my problems was the plastic cooling tank. It basically split apart at the seems. I caught it in time, noticed the car looked like it was vaping from hood scoop. I had a 10 mile trip home, so I filled her up, drove 65 on way home and parked for a day. Filled it up again and drove 2 miles down to mechanic. 2000 trouble free miles, have a scanguage to watch temps which stay around 220 F once warmed up.

 

In reading around in here, I saw that too. I'll give that a check, but initially I don't think that's it since the tank is on the drivers side, and the puddle is on the passenger side.

Based on all the great posts I've read on here so far, I'm thinking it's either the thermostat housing or he water the harder to get to water pipe/hose, but probably the latter. I say this because of the amount of fluid and rate of drip that's still occurring since it's been sitting yesterday, and because I feel if it was the thermo housing it wouldn't have dropped THAT much fluid due to the thermo being so high on the engine.

I do love wrenching, but not having time. not having a cleared out garage to work out of (It's still full of junk from my divorce a couple years ago, and the condo HOA saying you can't work on cars means I'll probably be taking this to a shop to have that thermo housing replaced. Plus having a 2nd car means I won't be stranded while it gets taken care of.

Or I wonder if @texasmontego or @MWMWMWM would let me borrow their garage and play armchair quarterback with some of the 'gotchas' for replacing those items.


side note: While I was expecting to run into some issues with a 101k mi vehicle, I wasn't expecting to have a coolant leak issue THIS soon. And yes I'll be calling the small lot I got the car from when they open tomorrow to see if they'll help out with getting it fixed, since they also have a service center. And it is on me that I didn't give the car a through inspection when I purchased it, since it had just snowed the day before and was wet everywhere. And it's on me that I trusted them saying "no issues with the car, runs and drives great!". smdh.




from front passenger side looking back. yay oil drips too!!! /facepalm




from front under center-ish looking back




from behind passenger side wheel/under passenger door looking to front of car. drips are definitely green coolant




There is a very slight incline up to the garage. The "short" streak on the passenger side is slightly colored green, so coolant for sure. There's a seam in the concrete where it appears to 'jog' over to the drivers side, then continue on down the driveway. I normally back in park in front of my single garage, so what looks to be a puddle/streak from under the drivers side rear tire is where the leak would line up when I back-in park.

 

Could be the thermostat housing, could be the coolant tank and could be the water pump. I would change all 3.

 

that was what I thought when mine happened. 3A auto has a great how to on YouTube for this.

 

Is there possibility of a coolant leak from the oil filter housing assembly?

I've been reading and watching videos a lot more since the original post. No longer am I scared to wrench on this thing. Just got done with a timing chain replacement/water pump pulley replacement and noticed a pretty substantial oil leak at the front of the engine along the bellhousing and oil pan. Figured it was time to replace the oil filter housing gaskets/turbo oil lines. BUT - having never seen the oil level drop substantially and regularly topping off the coolant, I wonder if what I'm seeing drip is actually coolant mixing with dirt and ends up looking like really dirty oil on the bellhousing. (Haven't checked it out yet, just saw it, wiped it down, and started reading more.) The oil always looks good on the dipstick and during draining for oil changes, so I doubt it is mixing with coolant.

Am I reaching a bit far in wondering if a blown gasket in the oil filter housing was the cause of my original coolant leak from last year? Is it possible for the housing to leak coolant like that but not leak oil?

Either way I'll be checking out the thermostat housing, closer look at the coolant tank, and ripping the front of the car off to get to and replace the oil filter housing gasket - if nothing else for good PM measure.

 

So I had a little mishap on the Dragon, and while repairing it, I was showed a trick that might help you on the coolant. Pressurize the coolant tank to 15 psi, if it holds your good, if you can’t get it to 15 psi start looking for the leak. I just added water and kept what pressure I could till I find it was my water pipe. If you have a pressure bleeder for your brakes it will fit your coolant reservoir.

I cleaned it out after I did my brakes and did a just in case clean to use it on my coolant. The pic above was my test when I had everything back together before filling with coolant.