No, unless the engine was already hot and idling while the car was standing still and ambient temperature was relatively warm.

 

{FYI, I just noticed this OP is 2013 so I'm not sure why this got dragged up}

NO that is not normal.
I would say your thermostat open/close relay failed. The purpose of the thermostat is to regulate when to allow water flow through the engine. So if the thermostat fails, it never bothers to properly open up the water flow and the back end of the coolant system overheats, boils and steam is the result. Once the water cools it will reach natural level, air will rise, and you can bleed the system.

Are you sure you don't have a computer code? I would think you would get a code for this. Thermostat open/closed circuit error.

Keep in mind you have TWO different sensors down there on your thermostat. One is a temperature sensor and one is the open/close relay for the thermostat. The temperature sensor can be fine. Check the other electrical connection on your thermostat housing.

 

Thank you mini-is-for-me,

I am pretty confident that I have gotten the “boiling over” problem under control; I believe I have. The last time I was playing with my car, I noticed the O-ring of the expansion-tank-cap was torn. It was not creating a proper seal when closed, and that was somehow causing the boiling over problem.

I was planning on testing the sensor on the back of the thermostat housing, but the problem hasn’t persisted, so i think the thermostat is working fine.

The temp is STILL getting up higher then 218 F, so i am STILL worried that the engine will over heat. I think it is because the radiator fan is not engaging. I just received a new fan from Amazon, that i will put in. I am hoping there is something that just isn't working about the fan that is in there right now. it is just a shot in the dark, throwing a new part, because I know the current fan does go into safe mode, so I know to some extent it does work. Hopefully a new one works properly.

if replacing the fan doesn't fix the issue of the fan not engaging, I will probably take my Mini to a dealer. At least now they cannot do the usual: throw in new sensors to the problem.

oddly, I have seen several threads of radiator fans not working. I have not come across a fix for the R56 base, which only has one fan, unlike the other Mini that have the high and the low fans (I have seen for the dual fan a bridge from the high resistor to the low resistor relay, and I’ve read that works).

 

Depending on how hard I push it I see temps typically 220-222 f. I once saw them creep north of 224 and that was about the time I heard a fan kick on. Drove her hard enough one time, that a soon as I turned it off the fan came on, so I popped the hood to let it cool down, 3 straight hours of 90+ mph will do that. If you go above 222 then you might have a problem. And I have been watching this for 5000 miles via scanguage.

 

Could you please pinpoint what exactly is not normal?

Where does it say that a temperature above 218 F is not normal? And where does it say that the fan has to come on that early?

Here is BMW's functional description for the N14 engine. At the very end it states that the thermostat (not the fan!) is opened at 105 C (221 F).
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/r...t-pump/WyxzL0l

 

Water boiling in the expansion tank. That is is NOT normal!

I have a hard time believing it is the fan on the radiator. The only time mine comes on is in the summer with the A/C on and I come to a stop with the engine running and the car not moving. Honestly, I believe the "main" purpose of the fan is so your A/C "kinda works" when you are the red light. I don't believe it is for the car engine really much at all.

BTW, it is "very common" for a thermostat to "flak out" without failing. So it gets stuck open, cools down, works great for another 500 miles, and suddenly gets stuck open, boils over, cools down and works again. In fact, I would say that is a very common failure profile. Relay's and switches in general can also fail this way. They get stuck intermittently.

 

Indeed, but according to NCEdgar, that was fixed when he changed the expansion tank cap earlier on:

 

Yes, I was responding to the OP. I didn't know it was from 2013 at the time.

 

Thank you all for the contributions.

I had been tracking engine temp with my OBD scan tool. Great little investment, for about 30 dollars, not only will it read engine codes but it will also give you freeze frames and data streaming (including ECT temp reading).

I did resolve the boiling over with a new overfill tank cap.

The temp was still rising too much. While driving, the temp would read as high as 218 F, on a short trip (less then 5 miles). I did not want to take it too far incase something happened, I didn't want to tow the car again. I really did want to start overheating and wearing down the head gasket, eventually blowing the engine, I had that happen once with an Audi.

I ordered a new radiator fan and on Saturday I had decent weather, removed and replaced the old fan, plugged in my OBD scanner and started watching. I got the engine up to 200 F when the fan kicked in, and brought the temp down to 180 F. As of right now, it was a shot in the dark, because I had nothing suggesting the fan was broken, but I replaced it and now the car seems to be functioning as designed. All better.

thank you all again for the insight.

 

I'm currently dealing with the same problem. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4532988

Where did you source your fan, and did it have sensors and other parts (that could have been the source of the problem), that came with it?

 

Where did you source your fan, and did it have sensors and other parts (that could have been the source of the problem), that came with it?[/QUOTE]

I Would order my fan from PelicanParts. They gave me all the information I needed. My fan is a single fan, not the dual (low and high speed) setup. They even had a step by step walk through on how to replace. All in all my fan was really easy to replace, but with the additional information from Pelican, it was even easier.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techart...eplacement.htm

good luck.