dcmccune, what color is your coolant tank. the new tank is a beige-ish color

 

My coolant tank is the beige-ish color, the seam around it is uneven and has gaps. It must have very small cracks in the seam because the coolant residue was on the firewall and even on top of the overflow tank from spraying out when the system builds up pressure. I like the alloy tank from Forge Motorsports but it is hard to justify $150 for something that is under warranty, but time driving 90 miles to the dealer and back to get another faulty part sure is worth more.

 

My tank is the same as yours dcmccune, the beige color. I still have fluid in mine so far but it seemed to have dropped some today. I don't see where the fluid is coming from and only looking at the heat shield can I tell. There seems to be a small amount of spray on the firewall. The front of the tank where the two peices meet there is a small gap. Enough that a credit card can be slid into it.

I have an appointment saturday. I hope it holds for the rest of the week and the trip up there.

 

A tech at my dealership told me the brown water was caused when the blocks sat outside in the rain at the Brazilian manufacturing plant. He told me the fix was to have the coolant flushed and that it would be covered under warranty. Mine is brown and has probably been that way for some time. My 2003 MCS has 9600 miles on it and has been otherwise trouble-free (except for a boot latch problem). I LOVE my car, but have to admit, the brown water is pretty tacky. Reminds me of my VW days. A MINI rep posted recently about "helping you arrange to have the problem remedied" (not his exact words) with no mention of whether the prob. was covered under warranty. This info might not be reliable, but like I said, I heard it from an actual MINI tech who didn't seem to be sugar-coating the issue.

 

Just had my 600 mile MCS overheat today....have the NAV system so I don't have a temp gauge, just an idiot light, and the light came on. I pulled over and turned off the car to let it cool off for a while added some water, which I had with me, and drove about a mile to a convenience store to use their faucet. During that mile drive the temp light was off, but no heat would come from the heater and I could hear some gurgling from the dash area. I guess it had lost too much coolant. I added about a quart of water over the next 15 minutes while the bleeder was opened and with the engine periodically running. When no additional air came from the bleeder valve I was on my way. Drove about 20 miles home and all was well until I turned on my street, the gurgling noise was back....so it must have more air in it.
What makes me mad is that I had called the dealer, about 90 miles away, to schedule the car in a couple of days ago and was transfered to someones voicemail. I left a message and when no call was returned after a couple of hours I called back only to find out that the person whose voicemail I had left a message on, was gone that day. So I called back and spoke with a service advisor and told her the problem and asked if the coolant overflow bottle was in stock so I would not waste a trip, instead of putting me on hold and checking with the parts department, she transfered me tp parts where I got someones voicemail. So I called back and asked for parts and got someones voicemail again. So I then called again and asked for the service advisor and got her voicemail. I have since left here 2 messages and not received a call back. I hope for their sake that they were extremely busy and this is not normal treatment. The reason this makes me so mad is that I was a service advisor with Acura for 10 years and I tried to make it easy for them, I didn't want yell at anybody or make it difficult, but come on guys do your job properly. Oh well, I feel better now.....thanks for listening. I guess I will let Roadside tow it in...

 

Let roadside assistance tow it in. There's no sense in driving it there if you know there's no coolant in there. What dealership is that?

 

It's from the Mini Center in San Antonio, I live in Austin.

 

I was in and out of the shop quickly saturday morning. The service tech talked with me after he had fixed the problem and said it was a very small fracture line in the joint and said it should not happen again. He said he had not seen much of the new style tanks so this was a rare occurance.

 

new bottle leaks as well.

I have had my MCS for several weeks now and the coolant tank leaked all over the place. The car was built 3-03 and has 1000 miles on it. I have already had the beige tank replaced at the dealer. I almost feel like buying one of the metal ones just so I do not have to keep going to the dealer in the future.

Any advise would be appreciated as the metal tank is expensive.


MINI has four years to get the tank right before I have to buy the all metal one mentioned earlier. I guess if enough of us have the new coolant tank leak and MINI has to replace tons of them, then they may get motivated to fix the problem correctly. Financially motivated that is. Cha-ching.

Has anyone heard any more about the seamless tank? Or was that just a pipe dream?

Here is hoping it is resolved soon!


:evil:

 

My 5/2002 build MCS started leaking from the seams today. 5400 miles on the clock. Called dealer in East Bay, Pleasanton and they will take me in on Monday.

So does the beige bottle actually work, or should I spring for a better tank.

 

>>So does the beige bottle actually work, or should I spring for a better tank.
>>
>>

Too early to tell. I may have just gotten a bad new tank. The dealer's swear the new ones are not leaking but only time will tell.

I am going to keep having MINI replace my, if it should leak again, as it is under warrenty. Also the more of the new tanks they replace the better chance we have of them designing one that works correctly.

 

My tank leaked the day I picked up the '03 S....
the 'new' design....

 

The "new design" tank is leaking too....fedup with this....I ordered the alloy one....it costs a lot...but I think it really worth it compare to the worrying of breaking my engine....but.....BMW Mini gonna pay it...I swear :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

I might be ordering a aluminum tank soon. I have spoken to Mini Usa regarding my tank (i have the new design that leaks as well). i will let you kow what happens after i get my service work done at Prestige Mini in NJ.

I think Mini USA needs to give me the money for the aluminum tank plus shipping and instalation and if that fails then it is my problem!!!!!

 

>>A tech at my dealership told me the brown water was caused when the blocks sat outside in the rain at the Brazilian manufacturing plant. He told me the fix was to have the coolant flushed and that it would be covered under warranty. Mine is brown and has probably been that way for some time. My 2003 MCS has 9600 miles on it and has been otherwise trouble-free (except for a boot latch problem). I LOVE my car, but have to admit, the brown water is pretty tacky. Reminds me of my VW days. A MINI rep posted recently about "helping you arrange to have the problem remedied" (not his exact words) with no mention of whether the prob. was covered under warranty. This info might not be reliable, but like I said, I heard it from an actual MINI tech who didn't seem to be sugar-coating the issue.

I don't know what the reason for the brown coolant is, I have heard many different stories.
I believe that if you have brown coolant and request a flush, it will be covered under warranty.
I had my 03 MCS in for 12k service, and requested a coolant flush since it was brown and had particulate flotsam. The dealer (Momentum MINI in Houston) kindly did this under warranty.
1 week later and the coolant is brown again and has flotsam in it.
I don't like that, no matter what MINI says if it's a problem or not. It;s not so much the brown color, as the fact that there are particles foloating around in there. Will that not clog the system somewhere, at some point?
I am also considering getting the aluminum tank even though I have not had any leakage problems, but I will go on several long trips and cannot afford to deal with a leaking tank while on a road trip!

 

I've been keeping an eye on my coolant ever since I got the new tank installed. Like Red03MiniS pointed out, I am also getting very little leakage from around the tank cap.

I'll keep an eye on it, and let you folks know if there's any more to report

 

I just made a 700 mile trip yesterday (Michigan to New Hampshire), in my Oct-03 Build MCS. About halfway into the trip, I noticed that my coolant tank was leaking.

Bought some coolant and kept an eye on the temp gage for the rest of the trip. The car has not yet overheated, but I did have to add about 1/2 quart of coolant to the tank this morning.

The question is, should I try to have the tank replaced before my return trip? (Going back this coming Friday.) I believe the nearest dealer is MINI of Peabody (about an hour from where I'm staying).

If I keep an eye on the temp gage and the coolant level, what are the chances of making the 700 mile return trip without an incident?

 

I have about 5 whiteish dots on the outside of the bottle and on the heatshield below it. They were there the day I picked it up. I now have nearly 1,200 miles (almost broken in !!) I looked at the tank lastnight and with the car cold the level is at the MIN line. Is that normal for a cold engine ?? I guess what I am trying to figure out is did someone just spill some coolant when topping of the tank or should I be making a appointment for a new tank. I have a couple long drives planned and don't want any problems.

Thanks for the help......

 

>>JBUSA is on track here. If you have a very slight coolant leak at the front of the car, just behind the bumper it's the O-ring. You'll lose a little coolant intermittently. Typically there is the tell-tale dinner plate sized stain on the driveway in the morning. The front bumper and radiator must be removed to get to the O-ring. Apparently one of the robots at the factory was setting one bolt too tight and slightly ahead of sequence and it tweaked the O-ring a bit.
>>My dealer (MINI of Peabody, MA) fixed it handily just earlier this week. If your MINI service dept. is saying they "don't know" what the problem is they have been living in a vacuum! So many of the problems are so well documented that it doesn't make sense that they "don't know". Get to another service dept. if it's at all possible.


If the mechanics at your mini dealer told you about the robot, they are flat out lying to you. I have less than 20,000 miles on my 2002 MCS and I am on my third water pump. I agree that the O Ring is the cause of the problem, but they cannot seem to fix the issue. The first time it happened I was told that there was a problem with the originally designed water pump, and that they had replaced the faulty pump with a newly designed one. Then that one went bad, and the mechanics didn't know what to say. I asked them sarcastically if it was beneficial to the vehicle to be run without coolant. I asked if this method would increase the lifespan of my engine.

Maybe someone can tell me if I should be concerned about the consquences in the long run. I did not drive the vehicle once it started to over heat, but i wonder if it was to late at that point, any insight would be greatly appreciated.


Convoy

 

I was looking under my bonnet today to check if I had the Hood Rubbing Issue and I noticed that my coolant tank was completely emtpy! Bone dry!

I have the new coolant tank, and there was no visible leaking around the seems, not even a trace of leaking. The heat shield has coolant spattered all over it, but I can't tell if that's from when my original coolant tank busted.

Should I fill the tank? I've already called my dealership and waiting to hear from them.

 

Hey all, picking up my car from the dealer today. They said they "pressure tested" my coolant tank and there are no leaks anywhere.

Then how can all my coolant simply disappear? Anyone know ?

 

Go up a few posts and read about the 0-ring on the water pump.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on my tank. There is no visible leakage except very little near the bottle cap. Is it all evaporating away?

 

Somebody posted awhile ago that they suspected some of the tank failures were related to people overfilling the tank slightly. This left very little room for the fluid to compress the air in the tank, causing the tank to subsequent fail and start to leak. Since then I haven't added any fluid, only verified the existant of fluid in the tank, and that no visible signs of leakage appeared on the heatshield. So far, so good at about 6,600 miles. It is at the low mark when cold, just as it was at delivery.

 

My S is stored for the winter and today when I was starting to install my short shifter kit, I noticed a good amount of coolant loss. I cannot find the source of the leak. today was 40 degrees F. I have already replaced my reservoir tank for a leak earlier this year. The new tank looked to be okay. You guys mention a oring. You also mention a slight leak at the front. Mine seems to be further back. The car is just sitting there. I did not start her up for the last 2 months. It does not leak in warmer days. I say I lossed a cup of coolant. How can I make sure it is the oring?

Thanks
Carl