Hello all, this is my first post although I’ve been stalking here for a while—between my wife and my kids we’ve owned four Minis.

One of my current ones is a 2008 Clubman with the normally-aspirated engine and auto trans. The car has about 85,000 miles and I recently had a new water pump installed as well as new crank and cam position sensors. Not long after the water pump replacement the low coolant light started coming on, so it was back to the mechanic who replaced the water pump. I was told the water pipe was leaking and was quoted what I considered an extortionate price for the work. The mechanic also denied that the pipe failure was related to the water pump work, although having now replaced the pipe (as I’ll describe in a moment) I realize how ridiculous an assertion that was.

i brought the car home and after watching a lot of how-to videos and reading posts on forums like this one, I ordered a new water pipe and thermostat. Over the course of three nights I replaced them (the end of the water pipe that goes into the water pump turned out be completely missing the portion that holds the o-ring, and there was no sign of it in the pump itself—I have an inspection camera and thoroughly checked it over).

Anyhow...today I got everything reconnected. After topping off the coolant until it came out of the bleeder screw, I started the car. I had the air box off to make it easier to see any potential leaks around the end of the water pipe; i.e., the throttle body had the black plastic elbow attached but that was open to the air instead of connected to the box that contains the air filter. Since the airbox was off, the electrical connector that attaches to the top of the airbox was also disconnected.

The car fired up immediately and ran great with no leaks. I had the heater on the highest setting and the filler cap off to monitor the coolant level in the tank. Apparently filling it up using the bleeder screw worked well because after adding a little when the engine started up the level remained constant. I let the car idle for about 15 minutes (inside my shop on a 101-degree day), checking for leaks and watching for any warning lights. With the engine to operating temp and no sign of trouble I revved it to 3500 rpm a few times; it ran fine and returned to idle.

The problem occurred when I reinstalled the airbox and connected its electrical connector. I’ve since read on other forums that this shouldn’t be done while the engine is running; wish I had read that before. In any event upon reconnecting box and connector the engine began surging and running extremely rough. It stalled before I could get inside the car and shut it off.

I turned the ignition off and then on and got a CEL. I have a code reader and connected it. I’m embarrassed to say that I looked over the codes (there were several), then cleared them without writing them down. I know; Home Auto Maintenance 101. I can only say in my defense that it was very hot, I had been working on the car for about five hours, and was overly frustrated that it had been running great and then died. I only recall that a couple of the error codes had to do with either the cam or crank position sensors, all of which were replaced in the last 2,000 miles.

After clearing the codes the car started but sounded weak and stalled again almost immediately. It then refused to turn over at all; the readout on the tach gave me the red SERVICE notification when I turned on the ignition and the rest of the dash lights came on, but it wouldn’t turn over at all.

I was perplexed and started retracing my steps; I disconnected the airbox and connector, checked for codes again (there were none), etc. Nothing had any effect. I disconnected the battery and let it sit for about an hour. I checked the battery with a digital tester and it tested as good (it’s less than two years old). I charged the battery anyhow and it took a full charge. Nothing has had any effect; I get dash lights but it won’t crank at all. I get the red Service message on the tach but there are no codes when I put the reader on it.

Any suggestions are welcome as to things to try before I call a tow truck on Monday and undoubtedly spend any money I saved by “fixing” the car myself. Sorry for the extreme detail but I wanted to be as complete as possible (up to and including my own stupidity). Thank you—