I need help. I have been trying to get this cross over pipe (Febi) to work for 3 weeks. I have failed try after try. I have now gathered enough information to see that literally NOTHING but basic pressure is likely holding this cross-over pipe into the engine block. I can feel with my fingers behind the water pump tube what is likely supposed to be a 3mm grove cut on the backside of the water pump housing and I believe the water pipe O-ring is just supposed to lay there and be quiet. What holds the o-ring in the grove? NOTHING! Nothing but pressure from the Thermostat. The problem is if you properly orient the water pump with the tab on the bottom, it falls out of the housing because there is "NOTHING" holding into the housing. Just the slightest bump by the thermostat against the pipe as you desperately trying to wiggle it into place, and past the auto-transmission shift and the pipe falls out of the housing and the whole thing is a fail since you can't even see where the pipe and thermostat connect back there.

THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!!!!

Even if I could somehow get everything delicately positioned, and also use the water pump screws to apply the pressure necessary to hold this whole kludge together against the water pump, I don't believe I could ever get the retaining ring into the pipe in the back. When you position the tab of the pipe to the bottom, the locking ring would have to come in at 10:30 from behind the engine but in front of the pipe.

HOW are you guys doing this? These videos make this look so easy and this is a gigantic nightmare of impossibility!

I have spent all day and still haven't gotten it. I used the faith method and the pipe appears to be against the water pump, the 3 bolts are in the thermostat, however, same different problem. now the thermostat is not going in "straight" into the water pipe.the top is in but the bottom is not and there is the way the screws are designed, they do not apply pressure to the bottom of the thermostat against the water pump...probably why people complain about it leaking there all the time. I don't see how to get the thermostat O-ring to seat into the bottom of the tube. Also, why would you key "the bottom" of the thermostat and tube which you can't SEE! Why would you not key the TOP?

 

Hello there, 2009 MCS here.

Suggestion: Make sure you lubricate o-rings with silicone grease. Makes water-pipe easily slide into rear of water-pump and allows thermostat-housing to easily pop onto to water-pipe.

I was able to get thermostat seated on water-pipe (holding with hand) while I threaded t-stat bolts in

Also, I used a boroscope to view sliding water-pipe into rear of waterpump housing...

W

 

If you are using Febi water pipe, use the Febi o-ring. No mix and match here. Some one did a detailed review of Mini pipe and Febi. Both worked, but not interchangeable.
Use dawn on Oring. Also, are you installing water pipe in correct orientation? The clip at the therm housing is slightly rotated toward the front of the engine. It is not atraight up and down. Install the water pipe to the housing and then stick it in the hole behind water pump. Use the bolts to push pipe in place

 

Correct. Actually, there is a tab at the bottom of the Thermostat arm that needs to be down.
It is correctly oriented and I have used every silicon grease, Wd-40, and everything under the planet.
I'm not sure about using Dawn as that would not be good for the coolant system.

 

Use whatever you want for lubricant. However, putting a small amount on the Oring doesn't have any permanent effect on coolant system. You asked how to do it. I can tell you how I did it. Use Febi with original gasket, dawn the Oring and Use the bolts to cinch up the housing one turn at a time. Worked like a dream. I cannot tell you how many times I tried different methods.
Good luck. Nothings as slippery as dawn on Orings!

 

I presume you mean any diswashing liquid. I have Palmolive but not Dawn.
There is no way this Febi Pipe is going in. I could use a crowbar. You may just have a different Febi Pipe. They seem to change their design constantly based on the water pump fiasco I dealt with.

If Palmolive will work instead of Dawn, I can try it because my Water pump is out and I can probably clean most of it out afterwards.


[https://www.allpar.com/threads/serio...0does%20work.]

 

I'm sure other liquid soaps will work.

 

The amount of soap you would be using is very small compared to the capacity of the cooling system. I wouldn’t get all tight about using it.

 

Thanks.
I got the OEM crossover pipe today and the O-ring it is night and day different than the Febi. It is smaller and has room for expansion in the grove just as I had indicated in my drawing. However overall is also looks smaller. Febi is just a rip-off. I'm done with these guys.

 

So going slow with the OEM pipe taking frequently breaks and about 1.5 hour later, I am 98% sure it is working. It was a completely different experience. The Febi wasn't just tight on the fuel pump side, it was also tight on the Thermostat side. With the OEM pipe, the thermostat goes in straight into it as well much easier which was not happening with the Febi pipe. Because the thermostat wouldn't go straight into the pipe, it could not push the pipe into the water pump. It wanted to send the pipe catty-corner towards the rear of the car. I don't have the bolts completely cracked down yet but so far 1.5hrs later (OEM pipe) = 4 weeks (Febi Pipe). We are little talking about 1/10-5/10th's of mm differences here. However, 1/10 of a mm is the difference between this stuff fitting and not. Yes, the knock-off equipment looks similar and it is 99.8% similar. However, that .02% difference is making a night and day difference in something fitting or not...

Live and learn. I would have thought you could reproduce these parts pretty easily and make them the same. You just have to measure things and copy them. The O-ring in the Febi Pipe and the OEM pipe is not similar at all. Once again, another Febi Fail. My guess is that after there fired the Mini engineers that create this debacle they went off to work for the knock-off companies.

 

Well, your ordeal is over. What shame to put all that work into a part that would never fit. I'd be sending that other part back for refund.

 

The lesson, over and over again, twice in this one attempt was ONLY BUY OEM Genuine MINI parts. In both cases, the parts seem IMHO to have "improvements" to prevent leaks, last longer, etc over the OEM parts if you can get them to fit. However, the tolerances are just not there on the critical places where the fit have to be absolutely exact. In any other car, these small differences of .5mm or an axle or .2mm on an O-ring are meaningless. In this car, it literally is the difference between it works or it doesn't work. It is hard, because there are obviously places where we know we can buy things that are not OEM, like brakes or rotors, and not just get away with it but they work better than OEM.

I spent a month trying to get that pipe to the FEBI pipe work and it took about 30mins to get the Genuine Mini part to work. So yeah, still not easy but there is a big difference between hard and impossible.

Thank you and everyone for their help.