About a week ago my car overheated in stop and go traffic on the highway. The fan never kicked on. I replaced the radiator fan after some research on here, and I also found that the power steering fan wasn't seized but it was harder to turn so I replaced that as well. And it is still overheating. I let it idle on my driveway to see if the fan would kick on and.... Nothing. Could it be the thermostat? Initially when it overheated, I drove it home and it seemed that as long as I was moving it was fine cuz it didn't overheat at all during the 25 minute drive home. Any other ideas? Does the thermostat control the fan? Has anyone else gone through this?

 

Not sure what it can be... Are all your fluid levels ok?

 

How are the fan fuses? I've read about the fuses blowing and causing those issues. If it's the thermostat housing leaking you'd notice a drop in coolant most likely and see it down on the side of the motor. I'm by no means an expert with these cars but those are the things I've read about or experienced in situations like this.

 

Yeah the fluids are and were always good. No leaks, hope it stays that way! (fingers crossed!) turned out to be bad wiring, which makes sense because an open in a wire essentially like having a bad fuse. I have no idea what caused it, but everything appears to be good with it now. Good thing I have the Bentley manual with wiring diagrams or it could have taken me days! Thanks for all your .02 guys! Really appreciate it!

 

Where did you find the bad wiring? I'm still having overheating troubles on my 02 Mini.

 

It was leading up to the power steering fan. I'm sure it was a very rare occurance, shredded from snow or squirrels who knows... What is going on with your MINI exactly? And you did check the 5A fuse under the hood right? It's not labeled with a fan icon.

 

Same thing that happened to yours. Sit idle and car will start to overheat. Drive and it's fine. It all started happening after I went out to warm up my car previous winter before so winter of 2010. I've checked the fluids and was thinking the thermostat but I wanted to see maybe if it's your problem too. I have a 02 Cooper S.

 

Okay so your radiator fan is not working. Two things can cause that. That ate likely of course. That blown 5A fuse. It can be blown if the PS Pump fan is seized. That is on the same circuit as the radiator fan so that blown fuse will cause the radiator fan to get no current. Or there could be an open in the radiator fan. To check for this get an ohm meter, pop your hood and look at your radiator. There are two plugs at the top right of the radiator as you're looking at it. Disconnect the smaller one with two wires coming off of it towards the radiator. They will be wrapped in a flexible conduit. Check continuity through the pins of the little cannon plug. If there is infinite resistance, the fan is bad. If there is a resistance value then it's not the fan. But definitely check the fuse under the hood first. It's one of the small 5A fuses. Maybe the third one in I can't remember for sure though so you might as well check all the 5's. And if that's blown check the ps fan as these commonly seize. Fuses don't blow for no reason so just replacing it won't be a proper fix. Let me know how it goes!

 

He mike. So went and looked at the fuses. Come to find out the one you were talking about blew. Well went to the local Wally World and got another. Put it in and BAM. Fan started working. But 5 min in the fuse blew. So now we know the problem.

I gotta ask. What the heck is the PS Pump Fan? Never heard of this before and where is it located? That has to be the problem. Let me know and thanks for this.

 

PS fan failures are common in MINI Coopers. The fan itself is rather unique to this application, as it's an electrically driven hydraulic pump. The fan's business is to cool the electric motor. It's mounted to the center of the front crossmember, behind the oil pan. I forget the part number, but the fan itself cross references to a motorcycle radiator fan. It's maybe 5 or 6" in diameter, and looks like a big PC case fan. Mine was siezed when I got the car, and replacing it didn't help, which led me to realize the (also common) problem of the low speed engine cooling fan resistor failure. I kind of let that go, since it was autumn when I finally figured it out. I drove all summer with neither fan working, and did not have an issue with either engine temp, or PS failure. It's getting fixed this month, though.

 

How much are you looking at to get this fixed and could you get that part number for me? Also is it a DIY or should I get a garage to fix it for me? Cheaper the better imo as I don't have the money to bleed for a garage to do it for me. Alsois there a diagram I can look at online or get online to see where it's located?

 

It's definitely a DIY. It's two bolts to get the bracket off the car and then one plug. And then the fan will be riveted onto the bracket/plate type deal and you will have to drill them out with a metal twist drill. Easy. Got to ace and get some small hardware that will hold the fan on. Long and skinny. You'll see what I'm talking about once you have the part and the old one taken apart. Then just put it back on. I've put a wire mesh on mine in a effort to help prevent debris from getting up there and ruining it. You can get the wire screen material at home depot or ace might have it.
As far as where it is located, lay down under the front of the car with your legs hanging out the front bumper. Look up. It's just behind the oil pan. Maybe a foot behind it. And it's right there, not hidden by anything. Just maybe a 5" fan. I'll search for a link with the part number for you. But trust me, once you're under there you'll feel it. Also, it's a good idea to grab the blades and feel for resistance when turning it. You wanna make sure it is seized. I'm almost 100% sure that's what it is though.

 

According to Bavarian auto, this is the part number
32 41 6 781 742

Here is the link to the page
http://www.bavauto.com/fland.asp?par...06%20781%20742

I found one for maybe $115 shipped. Expensive little bastards haha

 

Thanks. Will be getting the part ordered and fixed. I'm not going to overheat my car this winter!

 

Refer to http://www.billswebspace.com/mcs.htm and scroll to the Power Steering Pump section.


You will see the same fan is available cheaper... all you need to do is solder the connector from one to the other.


I followed this write-up exactly, and swapped out my power steering pump as outlined along with the fan... works great, at a much less expensive option.