So last Thursday I was on my way up to Ojai to visit some of my students at a retreat site when my car received a yellow overheating sign. I should've pulled over to see what the issue was but out of my passion and ignorance I just kept on driving. It soon flashed red and my car began to lose power extremely fast. Shortly after my car pretty much died and I was forced to pull over to the side of the road when I saw white smoke flow out from underneath my hood.

I towed it to the nearest trustworthy shop and they immediately told me that I need a new "motor." Estimated fix would cost me around $4200 for a new engine and a total of $5700 including tax and labor. It's quite a hefty amount for me all of a sudden and this was about 8 months after I spent a huge amount fixing the timing chain, oil leak and replacing a blown turbo.

Anybody familiar with an engine overheating and then subsequently needing to replace the "motor" or the entire engine (including water pump, coolant, timing chain etc)?

I live in So Cal. So I'd appreciate any recommendations to a shop, or advice on what I should do and how much I should be paying. Shoot.. you may even rebuke me for my idiocy. :(

 

If you drove an overheating motor until it quit, it probably did a lot of damage. It's possible it might be fixed by going after the most likely damage areas, but there is certainly a good possibility the motor is a complete write off and there is no way to know without tearing into it and seeing what is damaged. To reduce the risk of an exploratory teardown, what's normally done in these situations is to buy a good used motor from a wreck and make a swap. They quote you have is probably for a used motor as you can't get a new one for the prices you have been quoted. And for a used motor swap it sounds a little high, although I'm no expert. It is going to cost you several thousand at a minimum. You do want a shop to do the work that is very familiar witih Minis even if you have to pay to have the car flat-bedded somewhere else.

Other option is to punt - sell the car "as is" and get another. This would certainly be the lowest hassle option.

You sorta got what you deserved for your "passion and ignorance", but you live and learn by hard lessons. I hope you can find a way to get back on the road that doesn't break the bank.

- Mark

 

Yep if you kept driving the motor even after the red temp light came on your motor is in pretty bad shape. Best bet would be to find a low mileage used one and swap that in.

 

That price sounds about right for a remanufactured motor. It is quite high for just a random "used" motor, however.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using NAMotoring

 

That quote was probably for a new motor from MINI (which are relatively inexpensive) plus labor. It's a pretty fair price, I'd say. I think local dearships to us charge about $7500 all-in.

Oh, and yes, your motor is undoubtedly toast if you drove it for extended time while overheating. Sorry.

 

This is a good example of needing temp gauges in these cars. A gauge can tell you there is something going wrong before it's too late. I have the JCW temp gauges in both my wife's 2011 Clubman S and my 2013 JCW Hardtop. I know that on my car the temp is always between 90 to 92C. On her car the temp goes up to 108C and you can see the low speed fan come on and cool it down to 105 where it runs steady state there unless you load the engine and it cools down to about 90C. That is what we see very time we drive them, so we know what to expect temp wise. If it goes beyond those readings we know something is going wrong, and can do something about it before it's too late. I cannot believe BMW doesn't put temp gauges in these cars. Gauges are cheaper than engines!

 

Temp gauges are great if you look at them & understand what they are telling you. For some folks it wouldn't matter.

The OP had a yellow light to warn them of an impending problem. He saw it & chose to ignore it & keep driving. The light changed red & again he saw it & kept driving. I highly doubt a gauge would have made the OP stop & avoid a dead engine.

It is sad that the OP ruined his engine.

 

No this is a good example of not reading your owners manual and knowing that when the red temp light comes on you have to stop immediately. Don't get me wrong I definitely wish Mini would have put a coolant temp gauge in the car but they certainly give you warning before the car overheats.

 

Sad but true!!!
Already had an incident where the temp gauge in wife's Clubman helped me diagnose a problem. Cooling fan wouldn't shut off when the engine was turned off. Restarted engine and saw the temp gauge read zero. Always read at least ambient before. So, the DME didn't know the engine temp so it kept the fan running. Knew it was the thermostat/temp sensor failure. Drove to dealer 115 miles away and had bad parts changed. So, temp gauge can be a diagnostic tool also!!

 

The thing about warning lights is that they come on as a reaction to some change. Yellow, going to red is a better idea than just "light on" but still it is a reaction and might possible indicate its too late already to avoid some engine damage. I bet the TPS goes off when you run over a bed of nails too. Sorry you lost your engine. Aren't MINI crate engines like $4500? 2 year warranty, right?

 

Well that's a hard lesson learned.

 

once you over heat a motor to a point like you did..Its very unlikely its any good at all.. While you may get it running again it will most likely burn oil like crazy and not to mention all the other things that pop up from a melt down like you had.. When you see lights that come on in the dash specially temp or oil..it means pull over now and even then you are at risk of damage.. good luck though!

 

Very $$$$ lesson.....
Replace the motor....
Better luck next time....
But ANY car....if driven into overheat...and driven till siezed will be junk...

 

N.B.-- the shop was using the terms "motor" and "engine" interchangeably. We all tend to do that when talking about cars.

Much of the engine is aluminum. It's a good material, fairly strong and yet light weight, is easy to form and carve ("machine"), nice to work with, and even copes with heat pretty well up to a point.

When you heat the aluminum up rather past that point, however, it distorts and the parts that need to be straight will be warped and bent. Other things, like plastic and rubber bits, can also get melted or partly melted, or can just plain have their strength reduced by too much heat.

Sadly, there is a very large chance that this is exactly what has happened to the engine of your car.

I don't have any good advice for you about how to go forward--that has all been said in this thread already. I did want to try to let you know what has likely happened to the car.

 

Same thing happened to my son with his Ford suv. He told me he just


learned a very expensive lesson.