Hi,

My first post here.

I just bought a 2003 Mini Cooper S used and stripped the interior to re-upholster and paint it. When I removed the carpeting, I noticed the area by the driver side footpedals was damp and stained.

When driving the car, I also smell a sweet scent. At first I thought it could be running rich, but after reading through some posts, it sounds like engine coolant.

Driving around with my interior stripped, I've started to notice yellow/green fluid on the floor of the footwell in the driver's side. I finally traced it to be coming from what I now know to be the heater radiator. Basically, this thing attaches to two pipes from the engine bay, and this radiator slides into a black housing behind the AC control area.

At first, I thought the leak was because the radiator wasn't secured into the black housing. But once I realized it was a radiator, I knew that the black housing was just to pass air over the radiator, no fluid should be coming out of that area.

I've since removed the heater radiator and bypassed the two pipes in a loop using radiator hose. Do any of you know if there could be anything else inside of the black housing that could be dripping this color fluid, or is it a safe bet to just change the heater radiator? The previous owner did say the heater core has been replaced. Thanks for the help!

By the way, things I am working on:
1. Installing RAAMmat throughout the car.
2. Changing out carpeting and padding
3. Re-lining the headliner in a black vinyl
4. Overlaying the downtubes and 5 piece dash in leather
5. Painted doorpanels satin black from the whitish color. Also repainted the handles a light metallic silver and the oval a dark metallic grey.
6. Painted all the pillars a black color.
7. Installed DDM CAI.

I'm hoping to have all of that finished by the end of the week. The coolant leak has set me back because it keeps leaking on the RAAMmat!

 

Nothing else in there that should have coolant in it. The heater core is the only part inside the vehicle that has fluid. There may still be some coolant trapped up in the housing that is dripping down; time for some serious cleaning -that stuff isn't really healthy to be breathing.

 

Thanks for the response.

I cleaned up some left over coolant that was in the housing and on the floor of the car. Haven't seen any new signs of leakage today. I also refilled the coolant tank since I lost a lot of fluid when I pulled the heater core out. I'm paranoid that the bypass hose I attached is going to pop off while driving and scald me with hot coolant.

 

My heater core is leaking and needs replacement. How hard was it to replace it yourself?

 

Not too difficult, it's a little cramped working in the foot well but definitely something you can do on your own. Just make sure you drain the engine coolant first otherwise you'll need three hands to remove the heater core and hold the two pipes up so you don't get coolant all over your floor. Trust me, there is a lot of coolant that can potentially pour on your floor if you don't drain first.

Go to realoem.com if you want a blow out view of how to disassemble.

I actually haven't replaced mine yet, I just removed it and bypassed it using a radiator hose. But now it's starting to get cold in NJ so I need to put the new one in so I can have heat. Have you found a place online to order one? Even my local dealers don't have it in stock. I need to request them to order it. Part is around $100.

 

I ordered mine through 1FastMINI, he is local and my mechanic... nobody has it in stock...seems MINI is the only place to get one.

What replacement coolant are you using?

 

Using prestone extended life antifreeze/Coolant

http://www.prestone.com/products/antifreezeCoolant.php

I was reading through some threads a while ago and they recommended this one along with some other ones. Apparently some coolant cannot be used with Mini Coopers. But this one is safe to use.