Greatings one and All,
This is actually my very 1st post. I have a 2004 MCS w/ 47K miles and today it over heated passed the half way mark all the way to the redline. I shut the car off for about 3 minutes, restarted and it returned to normal. but then it happened again a few minutes later in traffic. The fan works fine, so I know its not the fan.
I was hoping that someone could offer me some insight as to what this problem could be before I take into the dealer. To be quite honest, I really can't afford whatever the dealer is going to charge me, so I would much rather fix this problem myself. Thanks for any suggestion or input you may have to offer. I would sincerely appreciate it.
"G"
Florida.

 

Which fan works fine? The radiator fan or the power steering pump fan? If the PS fan goes out, it will cause overheating in a hurry. Is your coolant level OK? There's a bunch of threads on NAM that cover overheating problems, with lots of good info and advice. A little searching will help narrow your field. Try typing this into google:
overheating site:www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums

 

Go get a diag scan at a shop and see where the prob is. Then go from there or refer to the MINI service manual if you have one.

 

The PS fan seems to be an electrical fan blowing on the power steering pump, I dont see how it would have anything to do with overheating the car. In fact mine was out when I bought it and I went 600 miles before finding out the fuse was blown. And my car ran fine for all of those miles, no overheating. Now if you meant the radiator fan going out, that will indeed cause overheating in a hurry.

 

You may have had the wiring upgrade done on yours. The early ones had a wiring harness that connected the two fans into the same basic circuit. Caused all kinds of nasty problems. When my P/S fan went out, the rad fan stopped too. Dealer fixed all and upgraded (split) wiring harness under warrenty. Lots of posts on this.

 

Hmmm....that original setup makes more sense, at least then you know when the PS fan failed. With the wiring upgrade there is no way of knowing without physically checking, I think I would prefer the old setup....or were people continueing to drive after the overheat warning? I guess what I am saying is I would prefer a warning lamp about the PS fan failing, right now there is none.

 

Hi- my first post as well. I had a similar problem, no apparent loss of coolant, but the coolant level was down a quart or more. The dealer said that there was a leak in the hose going to the heater core.
Jason