I just recently purchased my Mini from an auction here in South Florida. I got t for a steal. Its a 2004 MCS with 40k miles.

I noticed when I got it that the driver side was wet under the peddals. The fluid would not evaporate. I thought it was a case of a spilled protectant bottle while cleaning to sell the vehicle. I also noticed that when I used the defrost, the windshield fogged up, and the glass would not clear, and sometimes would stay all day. Then a few days later I noticed a white fog comming from the vents with a weired smell.

I did some searching, and put 2+2 together and decided to feel around this morning under the plastic cover behind the center console. Low and behold, my hand was completely covered in Anti-freeze. Well I ordered my new core and mounting equipment from Classic today, and I will be making the repairs myself.

I have worked on many cars before, so this kind of work isnt new to me, but this car is different. I look at it completely different in the aspect that I really have huminized it. Kinda crazy.

I will be posting pics of my progress here. Im going to go ahead and remove the carpets and pre-install some goodies while im at it. Untill then!

 

Well today I finally got to taking apart the lower dash and plastic surround of the core. Its a piece of cake to get off. Once you have taken apart the two pillars, you will have a center Torx (30) that you will have to remove. Once this is done, you press the two tabs and pull down the center flap cover. Then you remove the lower left and right Torx (30) and pull the surrounding plastic off. These will expose the gold Torx (30) screws.

Once this is done, you will have to firmly pull the lower front part of the core cover plastic to undo the plastic tab. Dont pull the rest!!!! There are 3 gold torx screws.
1. lower front
2. lower rear (close to gas peddal)
3. Upper rear (top of gas peddal close to the firewall) You will have to feel around to get the screw driver seated correctly.

Once these bolts are off, then pull the whole piece forward slowly as not to break it. There it is the core!!!

The 2 metal clamps can be undone with an allen key (dont do this untill you have drained the coolant!!) There are 2 Torx (30) gold in collor holding the core in place. The core will slide right out.

 

I've been looking to pull out my Heater Core to check it out. Sometimes I hear a lot of gurgling when I rev the engine. Sounds like there is air in it. I had my system flushed and checked the fluid level, but it still makes that noise from time to time.

Do you have any pics from the install and did you drain the entire coolant system?

 

Looks like i got the same problem....Was on my way to work today and went to put the heat on to defrost the windshield and it fogged up even more and i started smelling coolant.....temp never went higher than normal so after i got out of work i checked the coolant level and it was alil low so i topped it off with some water....on my way home it still did the same thing and the smell was def still there so i called the manager at my old job to see if he could fit me in tomorrow morning so ill be dropping it off which im sure they wont have the core in stock so it will stay there until its fixed and ill pick up a loaner in the mean time. glad i didn't get stuck anywhere.

it also concerns me being he said he cant remember ever doing a heater core on a mini before

 

well the b*tch is at the dealer and it figures....when i pulled into the drive thru at the shop the dash started smoking hardcore so i guess i made it in time. so now its the waiting game but i got a car so w/e

 

got a message from my friend whos the master tech over there and he already fixed the other issues i complained about and said the heater core is the problem like i expected and it will be in until weds.