I have a coolant leak only upon first starting in the morning. Once the engine is warm, no more leak. It looks like its coming from the back, right side of the engine.

From what I've read here, it's likely the thermostat gasket. It's hard for me to tell completely from the RealOEM diagram though. Thermostat or something else?

 

Had basically the same problem last week, but turned out to be the water pump gasket. Pump replaced to the tune of $820. Thank goodness for the extended warranty!

 

Yes the thermostat is the most common leak, start there they are cheap too.
http://www.waymotorworks.com/thermos...t-r50-r53.html

 

Thanks for the responses. I'll be trying the thermostat w/gasket first. Hope that solves it.

Water pump replacement doesn't sound like fun, either as a DIY or $$$ repair.

 

I just had the same thing. It really looked like it was coming from the cylinder head
gasket but fortunately, it wasn't. I actually started pricing ported/polished heads until
it got sorted out, since I thought I was looking at a big job involving removing the head anyway.
It was really coming from the bottom of the thermostat gasket and housing and running
around a lip on the top of the block and around to the back of the engine then down.
Couldn't see the real source until the battery box came out.

 

I had a suspicious super slow coolant leak as well... Never did really find it, but upon flushing the heater core, and replacing the thermostat, seeming to have stopped it. :-)
Maybe it was that pesky gasket. Didnt replace it, it was perfectly fine. Just cleaned it off, and carved the new thermostat into it, and pressed it back in.
The only difficulty i had was all the stuff zip tied to the thermostat housing. It wasnt very tightly fastened when i took the bolts out either... Maybe the mini dealer's last replacement was setting me up for another failure...

 

You've described it perfectly - exactly what seems to be happening. I haven't taken the battery box out yet to verify for sure, though.

 

It does have a pretty low torque spec (just 12 Nm) according to this thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...hermostat.html

At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised of the latter. They didn't find an obvious power steering leak last time I took it in and the time before that when I got the tranny fluid replaced they said I needed a new oil pan gasket when there isn't even the slightest sign of seepage down there.

One of the few good things I can say about them is the CVT tranny fluid replacement only cost about $190, which isn't bad for the service.

 

$820... is that dealer's rate or indie mech? And is that just for the water pump gasket or for a completely new water pump?

 

This was at Mini of Charleston and although it was a gasket that needed replacement, due to the labor involved, they decided to install a new pump as well. I was OK with that since the work was covered with only the deductible for me to pay.

 

Put a new Wahler thermostat and gasket in and the leak appears to be gone!

The fix took me two tries though - the first time I tried seating the gasket to the housing with all the hoses still attached to the housing. The hoses were really stuck to the housing, so I figured why not try without removing them. Unfortunately, I didn't seat the gasket correctly, which became obvious as coolant seeped out when I tried refilling it.

Second time, I picked up one of these radiator hose picks from Harbor Freight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-...ick-96572.html

With that, I was able to get all the hoses off the housing, completely remove the housing and seat the gasket correctly. And, so far, the leak seems to be gone! If you don't already have one of those radiator hose picks, I can't recommend it enough.

 

It took me two tries to replace the gasket as well. My mess up was not paying attention to the wires that loop behind the stat housing and attach to a sensor on the head. it seems that the 10mm scocket nicked one of the two wires that attach to the sensor. This caused the temp guage to pin itself and caused the fans to run at high speed. It also tripped the service engine light. Fortunately, the service engine light self corrected after a short drive.

 

I have leak that I can see on the back of the engine that looks to be near the head gasket. I had the air box out but the battery box was just pushed to the side but the bell housing was clear of drips.

if you could show a pic of where the leak along the head was that you saw I would be super grateful. I drew in an arrow where I see the leak on my engine thanks

 

Where you've pointed the arrow is about where it looked like mine was leaking, but in fact it was the thermostat gasket leaking and dripping around the back side. My guess is yours is actually a leaky thermostat gasket too.

 

Thanks ordering a T-stat with a good gasket today. if it is a head gasket the 40-45 dollars and effort will be trivial. was suggest to me to do a pressure test too so will do that after the install thank you all you are a helpful bunch!