Hello all,
I'm fairly mechanically incline but not very familiar with these cars. My wife drives a 2013 MCS convertible. I don't drive the car very often. She was driving me to the hospital(long story, just a busted knee) I noticed on the way that there was no heat. She drops me off and calls about 20min later saying the car is overheating. Made her take a long trip back home. When I got home from work today I checked and the coolant bottle was empty. Filled it 1/2 way (I'm guessing what it should be since I see no markings) started the engine and let it idle about 15min. Still no heat and the bottle was over flowing. Not sure how that works since the overflow hose goes back to the radiator. Its not throwing any codes and I'm reading that a bad thermostat would throw a code? The thermostat never opened but its in the teens right now and I figured I should come back after doing more research. I did find the coolant leak from 1 of the hoses. I'm guessing clogged heater core which doesn't seem too difficult to pull as long its the same as other mini's and it by the drivers right foot. The heat worked fine before all this but I'd imagine the heater core is before the thermostat. Usually I'd just disassemble and flush the entire system. With my busted knee and the cold weather I'm hoping for a quicker fix. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Moved you to the forum section where you can get some help. Do a search here as well, there are tons of threads about the thermostat and coolant. Thermostat and thermostat gasket failures are unfortunately common on the N14 and N18 engines.

If the coolant was low enough that you weren't getting heat and then the engine overheated, you have a leak somewhere. Often the coolant pools on top of the transmission and then evaporates with engine heat so there's no obvious puddle on the garage floor.

When re-filling, it is difficult to get all the air out of the system. The Bentley manual says to fill the coolant reservoir to the full mark, then let the engine idle for 1 minute with the cap off and the heat control set to max hot, fan set to low. Add coolant to keep it at the full mark. Then screw the cap on and let it come up to temp. Shut the engine off and after it has cooled, check and refill the coolant as required.

Check for leaks!

Also depending on what state you are in, the emissions warranty will cover the thermostat beyond the 4yr/50K MINI warranty. I'm in CA, just got my thermostat replaced yesterday under the CA 7yr/70K emissions warranty.

Hope the knee is healing quickly.

 

I found the leak. It’s a joint for the bottom rad hose on the drivers side. I’ll replace the hose. I’m looking at these after market kits where I could replace all the hoses for $200. I’m guessing my issue is air trapped in the system. I’m use to a radiator cap where you can see everything going on. I’m reading there’s a bleeder on the thermostat that will probably break since it’s plastic. Can I get to this bleeder while the engines running? Do you just open it on a cold engine and wait for coolant to come out? She needs the car tomorrow so I have to at least get the heat working. I’ll deal with the leak when I get replacement parts

 

So somewhat of a success. Found the bleeder screw. Took the screw out and could see some coolant down there but room for more. Now I thought I put the screw all they way in and backed it out a few turns. Apparently too many turns out because after letting the engine run for about a minute it shot out and fell into the black abyss spraying coolant everywhere. Success! The water pump has to be working! Got it back together and it now has some form of heat. Now it 16 degrees out and I'm on crutches so I hope the leaks slow enough to give me a little time

I will say it is difficult to find info on this forum. There seems to be much devoted to just chatter and only "Stock Problems" for technical help. No catagories for what you are looking for and no real organization of the info. I know the info is here and plenty of knowledgeable people contributing I just can't find it

 

Yeah the search function doesn't work well and the forum organization could be better. A google search with appropriate keywords usually comes back with a NAM thread as the top result though.

The present set of mods mostly inherited the current organization, we are discussing some possible changes (for example, I'd like to see separate forums for each engine, with subsections for maintenance, problems, etc.) but that will be a long, slow process so don't count on it. PM me if you have any ideas.

Back on topic - sounds like you are making progress! You may have to bleed it multiple times, and also as the car comes up to temp be sure to have the heater control set to max hot. Get an OBD2 to bluetooth adapter and the Torque app for your phone so you can monitor the engine coolant temperature.

 

Yes if you need to search put this:

site:https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums

into Google, followed by a space and then what you are searching for. For example:

site:https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums coolant leak