I drove 5 miles around town tonight, parked my car in the garage and decided to check my hoodscoop to make sure I snapped it in all the way yesterday. I did.

What alarmed me was HOW HOT THE HOOD WAS....right by the middle of the scoop a top the scoop grill. I almost burned my hand. I know the turbocharger is just beneath. Is this normal?? Has anybody else noticed??

 

It's a known issue with the R56 MCS, manual transmission equipped ones especially. Check out this thread. Is your hood scoop completely or partially blocked off? I removed the black grill in my hood scoop as ALTA recommends it after installing their cold air intake. You may want to try this, especially if your hood scoop is completely blocked - it greatly helps with underhood heat as well.

 

Thanks!! I guess this thread is not needed. I searched and found nothing so I posted here. You have sent me to the right place and it is a major concern. You watch. I bet a new warning sign will appear soon under the hood. Mark my word.

 

You're welcome. I know a few members have reported this issue to the NHTSA and BMW NA to only have the latter say it's within normal operating spec. Although I totally understand that the turbo is right underneath the hood, if that area is seriously getting up to almost 300F (Jinxy reported 280) some type of redesign is in order.

 

Those of us who've tested with much lower but still quite warm hoods find the electric water pump runs for several minutes after shut down. The only person reporting much higher temps finds his electric coolant pump doesn't appear to run after shutdown. Maybe his pump doesn't run at all. No mechanic has actually looked at his car. No offense meant to anyone, those are just the facts. From this [link] https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...114834&page=11[/link] we see Mini stated a bonnet temp of My car's peaks temps were all at the bottom scale of that range.

 

My first R56 got to 325 degrees under the bonnet at TGPR while tracking it; I picked up my camera and snapped a shot but it had cooled to 300 by then:


That car is gone (search forum for complete story) and the replacement car runs much much cooler. I went to an AT in the new car...
Bonnet temps haven't exceeded 180 degrees yet (still too hot, IMO) and under-bonnet temps stay in the 200's rather than 300's.

The only heat issue that I notice with my later-built AT car is, when I run it over 9,000 feet, I get a burnt cat smell from the engine bay. I get the same smell if I run it hard over 5,000 feet as well.
The old car did it too but I've never found anything that looks burnt or is smoking...

 

What's a burnt cat smell like?

 

How hard was it to remove the grill? Did you have to take off the scoop?

 

I actually had the mechanic do it when I got my sway bar installed. Looked like a pretty easy mod though. There's a black plastic cap in the center, underside of the bonnet. You pop that off and unscrew two screws I believe. I don't think he took the scoop out, but again I'm not sure. Very fast and not at all hard to do. Also it could just be my imagining things but I swear acceleration seems to be even better since. Would make sense as ALTA claims that you must remove the grill to get full performance out of their CAI.

 

I just removed my scoop grill. You do have to pop the scoop completely out after removing the torx screw under the black plug. Then 4 phillips heads to remove the grill. I have a newer R56 so I do have some holes in the scoop grill. Frankly....IMHO...It looks like crap with the scoop grill out. I might put mine back in after opening it up some with a drill or something.
I have an idea. I had a Pontiac GTO that had trouble with under the hood temperature also. One trick that some of us GTO people did was to remove the back hood seal above the firewall to let air pass through. I wonder if that would help our MINIS?? It might even help with the CAI. Just a thought.

 

What is AT????

 

Thanks for that clarification - definitely wasn't paying proper attention when mine was removed.

Very much agreed on the look of the scoop with the grill out. I'm planning to either get the JCW carbon fiber scoop (since my scoop is white the missing grill really stands out, with CF it isn't very obvious) or an aftermarket aluminum one powdercoated black. In the meantime I'm going to look into getting the holes in my partially blocked scoop dremelled out next time I go into the shop. I've heard mixed reviews about how the grill looks after drilling holes into it.

I asked ALTA about the fireblanket and it's supposed to make no difference at all in CAI performance/efficiency. Not sure about heat but from the looks of it I wouldn't think so.

I'm guessing automatic transmission. They're known to have much lower underhood temps than do manual equipped MINI's. Not sure why.

 

HAHAHA!! Of course it means Automatic!! I can tell now by the context. Thanks. I see that you and I both have autos.....a decision I do not regret. Modern 6 speed autos are really very advanced. I have had many manuals in the past.

 

really stink at first until all the hair is gone. After awhile though it's kinda like BBQ.

(sorry cat lovers! - no cats were actually harmed during this post)

 

You're welcome. But yea the 6 speed auto in the MINI is quite nice indeed. Although I'd prefer a DSG and rev-matching downshifts, I have no complaints yet.

 

This is why the hood gets hot , awesome isn't it? The Mini Cooper S is a sports car turbo's get hottttt LOVE IT!!!!!!!,

 

I took mine out and replaced it with a piece of gutter guard material I bought at Home Depot for $1.20. It has a squished honeycomb pattern just like the grill. I left mine aluminum colored and it looks great, but it could be painted black also. It made a HUGE difference in the temps on the hood. My original scoop was completely closed.

 

Gotta laugh at this, sort of. Some years ago I happened to meet some people who were from (blank), XX. Won't tell the city and state 'cause it might identify him. This particular VERY famous racing driver once set a cat on fire when a teenager, according to the folks from his home town.

And I'd never have guessed it from meeting the guy--seemed like a very nice fellow... I do have an awful image of it in my mind, though.

 

What a classic picture!! What I do now is open the hood when I pull it into my garage. At least it might slow down the scoop melting/warping.

 

Cool idea!! I will look into it.

 

Photo please!!!

 

You know, you could probably heat up Hot Pockets on your hot bonnets. Mmm.

 

Here's a quick snapshot. You'll notice a small tear in the material in the upper right area. I slipped with the tin snips when cutting it out and just haven't gotten around to making a new one. The gutter guard is big enough to make four of these so you can make them in different colors and swap them out to fit your mood.

 

does opening the scoop create an excess of rain water in the engine compartment?

 

Not that I've noticed. But then again, it hasn't rained here in recent history...