I noticed that the coolant in my '03 MINI was a little low the other day, so I got out the manual to see if there was anything special I should know before topping it off. Turns out MINI recommends that you replace the coolant every 3 years! Oh my, I missed that little bit of scheduled maintenance! And I won't be able to get it done in the next month or so either, so it was back to Plan A, for now, and I went to Kragen's to get some coolant.

The salesperson at Kragen's said that I should also change out my hoses everytime I get the coolant changed! We're starting to talk about some serious money here! .

So I consulted the service and warranty information book. It indicates that the coolant should be changed every 4 years!!????

I have less than 35,000 miles on my car so I'm not too worried, even though it does get kinda hot here in the summer.

Sooo... what do you all think? Three years or four? And should I get the hoses at the same time?

 

Two years seems normal and three years seems to be pushing it. MINI pushes all the services out to far for my comfort ... 10K for oil I would get the coolant changed. BTW Bentley says 4 years

As to hoses, hoses do go bad, they get dry rot or whatever. Don't what that to happen far from home, ... get some silicone hoses and they will last longer than the car

 

i usually change my coolant on my cars every 3 years. that reminds me...
i need to figureout how to drain it.

 

***sigh***

Alright, I hear you... I'll take care of it before the weather warms up too much. Thank you for the input!

How hard would it be for me to change the coolant myself? I don't do much maintenance myself these days, but I know the shops charge an awful lot for what seems like it should be a fairly simple procedure...

 

Its not simple if the backflush the radiator to get all the old crud out. In the "old" days you could just open the valve at the bottom f the radiator and drain the fluid, install new antifreeze. Did that everywinter when living in the snow belt.

These days, cars are hooked up to a machine that backflush everything out. Not sure how MINI does it but Jiffy lube uses a machine.

 

Coolant is cheap, and changing it every two years prevents corrosion.
BMW and VW say every two years, but I'm sure there's some mysterious design of the MINI that changes the chemical properties and behavior of coolant to let it last 3 years. :roll eyes:

Backflushing isn't tragically complicated, either.

More info at https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...change+coolant
and at https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...change+coolant

 

I'm sure someone will correct me if I misstate anything here...

The old type of anti-freeze probably needed to be changed every year. Most car companies now use what is called permanent antifreeze. The chemistry is different and is it designed to be used for a much longer period of time.

My MINI, Jeep, and motorcycle all have this "permanent" type anti-freeze from the factory.

The good side -- you don't have to change it as often. The down side --you need to use only purified water (which a lot of people used anyway) and you should not use the old style anti-freeze to top it off.

Another potential down side in the case of my motorcycle is that they warn to only use certain types of anti-freeze or you risk damage to the internals of the motor.

If it makes you feel more comfortable to change it more often than the manual recommends, go for it.

 

Mini uses from Factory a coolant that is only available at their dealerships.

If you do not want to use the factory coolant, I suggest you to use a good quality one,
Not all coolants are the same, the stuff that comes in a $20 bottle is not the same stuff you can buy at Pep Boys for $5.

Victor

 

which is adequate. current bmw/mini antifreezes offer very good protection and designed to work with the different materials in your cooling system.

if your really worried about the state of your antifreeze to not freeze,
check the antifreeze strength in the radiator with a hydrometer. Antifreeze should be clean, at the proper level and provide protection to 36 degrees below zero.

A hydrometer is a device that is used to determine the freezing point of your coolant solution. The probe will then indicate the specific gravity of the solution which then gets converted into the freeze from the conversion chart that is provided with the unit.

i highly recommend that the flush is done at the dealer or other place that has the machine that circulates the materals through the system to clean most all of the cooling channels that could trap crud. use mini/bmw antifreeze (its not that much more).

changing it every two years is crazy. save that money for tires.change the hoses maybe at 5 or 6 years?.

my bmw stealer ran a special of $100 a year ago for flush and refill with new bmw coolant in my 325i. can't beat that.

 

^^ looking at the above links, i think im just going to have the dealer
do the flush during my next oil change.