Radiator problems ? please help ?

[roisedan]

Hi there

Hopefully someone can help me, I bought a 02 plate cooper s for the missus last summer and its been great ! far suppasing my expectations ! Have had no real problems with it, appart from a rubbish mini dealer who has twice sprayed our front and rear bumpers slightly the wrong blue to cover up scrathes, which is really annoying ! Any help with that would be good, but the reason im on here is because, very rarely we have a stem of steam coming from the top of the radiator, its usally on a cold night. It seems to come from the right hand side. We dont have any problems with overheating or anything like that. I have notiecd that, in the area there seems to be a scoop that heads towards the supercharger? Maybe its something to do with that ? If anyone could help that would be great, thanks.

[craigsmini]

hi i had that prob and what mine was was the side of the rad was coming away.
so when siting in traffic i had a little bit of steam riseing like u describe.
i had to get a new rad witch cost me 170 exc vat then fitting on top!!!!!!!
hope this helps!!!!!!!!

[roisedan]

Thanks mate, i'll have a look into that then. Can you remember what the total bill was ? How often did it happen on yours and how long did you leave it before getting it fixed?

[craigsmini]

all in it cost me 295 inc everything i drove it for about 3 weeks before i got it done but i have a company van so did not drive it every day in those 3 weeks!!!!
you can get the rad cheaper but i went for genuine bmw parts i think you can pick up one up from your local motor factors for about 65 exc vat and fitting a rad on a mini should only take about 1.30 hours hope this helps.