I'm sitting at the dealership waiting for them to finish putting my Cooper back together after putting a new radiator in it. I had noticed a little steam coming out of the front of my car when I'd come to a stop. A small enough amount that I had to wonder if it was exhaust from the car in front of me or not - until there was no car in front of me, anyway. The engine temp stayed normal, and I kept an eye on the coolant level which stayed normal too.

Just before Thanksgiving, my doors got frozen up, and I wound up making a trip to the dealership, but not my normal one. On the way down (a 3hour drive), I ran out of windhsield washer fluid. While I had the hood open to fill up the washer fluid, I noticed that the coolant level was low. When I got to the dealership, I mentioned this. (the frozen doors is another story - no luck getting my out of warranty car to get the free new handles as described in a service bulletin). They pressure tested the cooling system, said it was fine, and topped off the coolant.

So, today I went to my usual dealership to again try to get those new door handles for free. Again, no go on that, they want $400 or so for that. I also mentioned the steam from under the hood. This time, they found the leak. Apparently, it's in a "tank" that forms the side piece of the radiator. It's not from a stone hit or other impact, just a parts failure. Of course, being out of warranty means that I get to pay for that parts failure.

Anyone else have a radiator failure? I've got 87,000 miles on my 2003 Cooper, and live in New England, which is salt encrusted during the winter, which may have had something to do with the failure.

I also wonder why the first dealership didn't find the leak... At least it's going to get fixed without it causing my car to overheat or any damage to the engine, as far as I know.

 

I know on the 03 cooper the radiator hose rubbed on the alternator mount bolt and would cause a leak....Nothing on the radiator. As for the door sticking.....Is this during cold weather of in general.

Cold weather would be the seals which need to be condtioned with a rubber seal gel to prevent the rubber from sticking to the body.

Not cold weather related would be a bad door handle id say or maybe just needs to lubed as well.

 

This was during a night that started with rain and ended with snow. The door handle squeezed and the door opened, but the handle wouldn't "un-squeeze" and the door wouldn't latch. That began the whole comedy of errors. At various times I had:

both doors opened and not able to be closed

me stuck in the car with the doors closed and unable to be opened

me climbing through the window

me outside the car with the doors closed and the driver's window wide open (after climbing through it)

me climbing through the window at a gas station on the way to the dealership

It was a fun day. :impatient

 

wow.....I found a bulletin for you on this matter.

SUBJECT : Outer Door Handles Freeze

MODEL : R50 ( Cooper ) and R53 ( Cooper S )

SITUATION : Customers may complain of one or both outer door releases failing to operate in freezing weather. This usually occurs after a period of heavy rain followed by a sudden, hard freeze.

CAUSE : Water may enter inside the bowden cable connectiong the outer door handle to the latch assembly. If the temperatur drops below freezing before the water dries out, the water may freeze - preventing movement of the inner cable.

CORRECTION : The outer door handles were improved in April 2004.

WARRANTY INFORMATION : Covered under the terms in the MINI new vehicle limited warranty.


i would call customer relations about this and see what they can do.....This was an issue prior to your warranty running out and hopefully they will take care of you.

Hope this helps you .

 

I knew about that service bulletin. I tried two different dealerships and neither would do the work for free. I'm way out of warranty on miles, and the dealerhips are not provided that kind of latitude, unfortunately.

 

I had a pinsized hole in my radiator... after about 4 months of having my mini. I got it towed to my dealer since i was overheating... fixed it without any problems....

-Josh

 

If the bulletin is issued before your warranty ran out.....and you can prove that you were under warranty at that time. Can anyone advise of they are obligated in any way to replace the handles.

 

No....I just went and talked to the shop foreman and he said they wouldnt cover it even though it was a known issue prior to the warranty running out. I also heard that there fix isnt anything better than whats on the car now.

the X5 had the same problem in which they issued a bulletin on a way to "fix" the problem rather than just replacing handles which wouldnt do the trick anyway.

This would be better if i could get the picture im looking at on here but i cant.

they actually took a rubber latex glove and cut a finger off, then poked a hole in the top , slide it over the cable ( after they disconnected it of coarse ) down to the part where the cable comes out of the jacket....They zip tied the rubber end to the cable to secure a tight fit so no more water would get into the cable and freeze it.

Now dont hold me to this, but this is the "fix" for when we get this type of issue in here on the BMW's.

 

I thought all TSB's, warranty or not had to be covered. They are safety bulletins.

 

Technical
Service
Bulletins

Not safety.

 

You got me on that one.