I think I'm due for replacement of the main cooling fan on my '04 Cooper S pretty soon - low speed doesn't work, and I checked that the relays are OK by swapping the low & hi speed ones with no change. So I concluded that the resistor pack on the fan housing is dead, necessitating replacement of the entire fan unit. Am I right?

The next question is where to get one. For those of you that have attacked this problem, where did you buy your fan unit from? Classic MINI is having a great sale this month so I can get the real MINI part for under $200 which is very tempting. I have seen listings (googling for the part number 17117541092) claiming to be the same part on rockauto.com and autolights4u.com listing prices around $85. Does anyone have experience with the lower cost items, good or bad? I've been burned by aftermarket stuff in the past so would be inclined to pay for the part from MINI, but I don't want to waste $100 if both vendors are selling identical items.

Also, is there anything else that I should check out before buying the fan assembly just to make sure that this is the problem? I read another thread on here in which the owner swapped the fan but still had no low speed fan operation, which of course I'd like to avoid.

Thanks!