tl;dr no heat, check engine light on, temps come back when idling, looking for information.


Check engine light comes and goes. Face lift R53. One night, did a pretty hard run (30-90 in Mexico) and the check engine light came on. Pulled over, turned off car, looked around, nothing. A little power steering fluid leaked out (typical).

Turned the car back on, got up to high way speed, heat was slowly getting colder and colder until the temp gauge stopped. It's holding between the first lower dot and middle. I'm thinking it's a broken thermostat *more on that*

When I am sitting at lights, the temp begins to climb, and I think it's because the water pump isn't spinning as fast anymore, so water isn't forced by the thermostat. Also, after a few days of driving with the check engine light on, it turned off. Fast foward, stuck in stop and go, heat comes back, check engine light is on.

Mainly just looking for conformation. I have no scan tool (anyone in the Annapolis area wanna help me out?)

 

Really sounds like a stuck-open thermostat.
Lots of auto parts stores will scan for free and give you the code.
You can get more precise info about the coolant temp by picking 7.0
on the odometer secret menu. Here's how:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/faq.php?f..._obc_functions

 

Okay - thats what I think it is. I think the check engine light turned off after doing a few drives since the computer learned the new temp when running. Not sure.

Thanks for the information - I will go ahead and read it and report back after a few tests.

 

went ahead and did my trip to work. on the high way it stabilized at 65 c while i was traveling at 70 mph. heat on.

in the city it got up to 81. so, still not hot enough to open, and it only began to raise in temp when i was sitting still at idle. I think its an open thermostat from the looks of it.

 

With a properly functioning thermostat, the temp should cycle between about
85C and 95C with normal driving in this cold weather for the most part.

 

Problem happened to fix its self ???

Heat works 100% of the time, it just takes a little to get there. Once it gets there it cycles between 87 and 93 C in weather ranging from 20 degrees F to 50 degrees F. Pretty sure the thermostat is still broken, so I will be replacing it soon. Also, there was a stored check engine light for the engine not reaching temperature.


Now, however, I am having another strange problem that I will be pulling the code for again. Timing is being pulled, a noticeable amount, past 4 grand. Car stutters, and then picks back up again. Code was stored (comes and goes...) for something involving the MAP sensor based on prelim searches. Something about the possibility for a bad MAP sensor, or supercharger couplers leaking. Really noticeable with the timing pull at WOT (which in the mini is only 88%??)

I'll pull the code and look for further advice before work. Thanks everyone.