So it was 52 Degrees here yesterday so I decided to give this a shot. Im happy to say that the bead of Permatex Black Silicon did the trick. I applied it on the upper portion of the O ring and made sure everything was 100% clean and 100% dry (I spent about 10 minutes cleaning and drying everything).I let the car sit overnight and this morning i checked and everything was DRY! I drove to work parked it up and 8 hours later I checked and we're still DRY. I just got under the car 4 hours after getting home from work and we're still DRY!!!


MISSION IS A SUCCESS!

Thank you all so much for you input on this issue...


PS: My Ducati radiator is leaking now from one of the rows, I swear I can never win when it comes to coolant leaks lol. Luckily I have a spare lower radiator in my garage for this bike (lower rads are known to leak on the Streetfighter models)

 

Glad to hear everything went swimmingly.

Now as for that Ducati, I'll take it off your hands. I've got a '14 Ruckus, gets me scene points but not the satisfaction of a sports bike.

 

Glad it held.

 

Haha thanks guys.

As for the Duc, it took me almost 8 months to find my Streefighter...for some reason 2 years ago they were impossible to find in NY. I rode a Ruckus once, they are pretty cool little machines.

 

This sensor just started leaking on my wifes '12. I could not find the sensor/o-ring/metal elbow listed on the RealOEM.com parts fisch site.

I thought I was going crazy, but it looks like Mini/BMW updated this part,correct? There are no Mini dealers in Idaho so I cannot easily confirm this.

Reading thru this thread it appears that the updated parts are a new upper radiator hose assembly and a new thermostat/housing assembly? And possibly a new wiring harness?

Can anyone confirm this? And if so, what are the necessary parts/part #'s for the updated assemblies?

Thanks.

-steve

 

Steve, that's right. You'll need the following:

replacement upper radiator hose
new thermostat housing assembly
wire harness adapter kit
coolant / distilled water

Do what i did and save yourself the trouble and $400 + and get a tube of black Permatex gasket maker, take the sensor out and clean everything thoroughly with brake cleaner and apply some gasket maker on the ORING then pop it back into the elbow and let it sit over night. It worked for me and is still holding. I put approx 3k miles on my car since i did this.

 

I just did the RTV repair. Hopefully it will hold. Made sure everything was nice, clean and dry.

Sure beats spending half a day and $400 to fix the Mini/BMW design flaw.

 

Awesome, yea it should definitely work i know mine did

Sidenote: I replaced the radiator on my Ducati so no more coolant leaks in my life as of today

 

I just got home after being away for the weekend to find this sensor leaking coolant all over the driveway on our 2012 Countryman S, auto. Ours has just over 60k miles on it so it is out of warranty unfortunately.

The check engine light came on for the coolant temp sensor circuit recently as well so I had planned on doing all these updates anyway but I knew it was not a crucial repair needed immediately, now I have no choice.

 

Just follow the above RTV fix and you'll save yourself money, the coolant temp light is probably on for there being an air bubble at the sensor.

Feel free to give us a call if you need any help or guidance throughout the job.

586-792-6464

 

yea my CEL came on because of air in the system. do the RTV fix just as i did and you'll be OK. my car was good till i sold it 2 weeks ago

 

The dealer just replaced my thermostat and hoses including the o-ring (I asked). They said the issue was part of a recall for the thermostat on our cars but they couldn't replace it (for free) after 67k miles. You've probably solved this by now? but just in case someone else with the issue reads this - check with the dealer about this recall.
Cheers to those of us who tolerate all the quirks with the first-gen Countryman.

 

Just an update, we finally found out that OEM part number for the sensor and the O- Ring. 13621433077 is the oem MINI part and 13621433077S is the O ring. We have it updated on our site. Its not even in the ETK. But we found it.

https://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2011-Cooper_Countryman-R60-S_ALL4-Hatchback-L4_1.6L_N18B16A/Engine/Cooling/Hoses/

 

I had the same issue. Dealer ultimately replaced thermostat.

 

I think I might have the same problem. Came home from work and coolant was dripping from the rear area of the motor. When you called the dealership did you have to really work them to get them to replace it under the warranty?

 

I know I am bumping an old thread here, but I wanted to say thank you for this post. I applied the RTV fix to my leaking Mini, and my garage floor was coolant free this morning, after driving the car yesterday. So, initial results are very promising.

You saved me some inconvenience and money with this DIY fix.

 

My fan switch started leaking last week. Today identified it's the source. The body of the sensor has some play in the metal receptacle of the elbow. This last year I replaced the thermostat/housing and water pipe. The new housing had the relocated position of the sensor with a new wiring pigtail to adapt to old OEM wiring harness. Can we eliminate the switch/sensor entirely? Replace the metal elbow that doesn't have the sensor orifice? Almost thinking this could be a universal part as long as the OD was same size. Any code to be set if the electrical connector isn't connected to this now defunct sensor?

 

You can replace it with the metal elbow without the connector or just slap some black rtv around the sensor and slap it back in unplugged.
I have mine with a nice bead of black rtv around it and a zip tie holing it in place. No more leaks. And no, you don't throw a code.

 

I had the temperature sensor in the elbow housing start leaking again. One option was to replace the O-ring with URO 13621433077S as mentioned earlier in the thread. Replace no leaks, expectations set pretty low, hoping for more than 2.5 years.

 

Thanks for the update