Hello everyone, I'm new to Mini's and obviously new on this site, I've been lurking for a bit and it definitely seems like a helpful place.


Some background on the car; it's a 2004 R53, 147,xxx miles, was driven down from Massachusetts to Maryland(where I live) a week before me buying it, I bought the car on the 26th of December and then drove up 4 1/2 hours to Pittsburgh. As soon as I got up there, every drive after I shut the car off, there was a light puff of smoke from the passenger side of the front grill, and the obvious sound/ smell of burning coolant. The car eventually drained itself of coolant, so I took the hose it appeared to be leaking from to check for leaks. Now, it does look like a non- factory hose, but doesn't appear to be leaking in any manor. I filled the car up with coolant, and drove it home last night, no issues minus the light smoke.

The car runs completely fine, no leak from the waterpump area or anything. Runs at perfect temperature, so I'm starting to suspected the radiator is failing? Below are some pictures. Thanks for any help! I have ~22 days to fix the car and get it ready for inspection.








Thanks again! Any insight is much appreciated.

 

Sounds like time to get a new rad....
Look at the sticky "girls guide to service mode"...
Will show you how to get the bumper off to get at the rad...
Then toss the rad of your choice...rockauto has the same aftermarket rads as your local sutoparts at re for about $100.....or oem, more like 250-300$.
Then fill and bleed...look that up too...there are two valves to let the air out...failure to bleed results in overheating....

 

P.s. the oem STYLE of rad tends to fail where the aluminum tubes are heat sealed to the plastic endtanks with age...common design issue with most every modern radiator of this very common design.

 

Yes, looks like the failure at the seam, the other common source is at the neck. Below are the Genuine MINI and aftermarket, as well as the Mishimoto version all aluminum.

#1 on the diagram.



Gen 1 MINI
R53 / R52 Cooper S version. Auto and manual.

Aluminum Radiator Part # 17117570489


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/17117570489/








The hose does look factory but it has a different clamp on its then the stock type. The marking on the hose can change from year to year with production of the same part.



#1 Upper Radiator hose


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/17127515500/




And here is the link to the girls guide mentioned above by zippy. Its a great resource for anything on the front end.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...front-end.html


Thanks and hope that helps you out.

 

Thanks gents! And the non- oem clamp was my doing, my first thought was the hose and I've always hated the pressure style ones(they always fail on me).



After looking at the aftermath from the drive home the other night, seems to be getting a bit worse...


However, I did tighten up the hose clamp and it seems all but gone.

 

be VERY careful with the screw hose clamps...(i admit I switch when I change hoses on most cars).
Folk often tighten them too much...cracking the plastic hoses they clamp to!!

 

If you're not on a budget, while rather expensive at $300+, the Mishimoto has a lifetime guarantee with no questions. No concerns about plastic-to-Aluminum failures, either. It's a work of art.

 

Thanks for the help everyone! Just ordered a new Mishimoto aluminum radiator off Amazon, I've had some big issues in the past with ECS and the shipping time on the radiator was a bit longer than I could wait.