MINI Bathgate edition. Update.

[holbeck]

Sit rep.

Since acquiring the MINI earlier in the week,  it's become apparent that it has quite the appetite for coolant.

A bit of poking around and I reckon it's the thermostat housing leaking.  

I've ordered a replacement but it seems the battery box and ECU will have to come out to change it.

The $64000 dollar question here is can I disconnect the battery without buggering up the alarm? Especially as I only have a key with defective plip.  

Answers on a postcard thanks!

[Parky]

My R50 was a standard 2001 model so no idea about the immobiliser or even if it had an alarm, but I removed my battery box and ECU when accessing the gear linkage and when I put it all back together everything behaved as intended.

Obviously I have no idea if I was incredibly lucky or whether that’s normal.  @Vince70 has done all sorts of things with his so he may be able to confirm?

 

[Vince70]

On my Bini I disconnected the ECU and battery etc when I was having problems with the electrics and never had an issue with the alarm apart from my remote blip doesn’t work with the key.

But once I’ve unlocked the doors the key has to go in the ignition in so many seconds or the alarm goes off.

I have just bought a late 56 reg Mini to go with my early example  as my elderly father loves my yellow peril so found him a lovely 7 example on 77000 for £495 and the criteria  was it must have a sunroof the same as mine.

 

 

[New POD]

I replaced the thermostat housing last year in one. And one of the coolant pipes this year. 

You need to remove battery, and air filter box, and there are bolts under the battery to get the battery box off.  The housing is made of plastic. Warps. I put the old thermostat in. 

 

It all worked fine once the battery was reconnected. 

[Jenson Velcro]

4 hours ago, New POD said:

I replaced the thermostat housing last year in one. And one of the coolant pipes this year. 

You need to remove battery, and air filter box, and there are bolts under the battery to get the battery box off.  The housing is made of plastic. Warps. I put the old thermostat in. 

 

It all worked fine once the battery was reconnected. 

Exactly this. Just done the same job on my r50 last week. The only slight problem was the fixing bolts in the bottom of the battery tray had rusted solid into the inserts in the plastic carrier below and ended up pulling out. Some rivnuts sorted that out.
unfortunately the thirst for coolant remains......

[Parky]

Same with my battery box, I can’t remember how I got the bolts out but recall a chisel was involved

[holbeck]

2 hours ago, Parky said:

Same with my battery box, I can’t remember how I got the bolts out but recall a chisel was involved

Oh good! Something to look forward to.

[SiC]

On 9/19/2020 at 4:26 PM, holbeck said:

Answers on a postcard thanks!

Sidmouth Seafront

Have they finished the bridge yet? Didn't end up walking that far down when I was there on Friday. 

[holbeck]

19 hours ago, SiC said:

Sidmouth Seafront

Have they finished the bridge yet? Didn't end up walking that far down when I was there on Friday. 

Yes the bridge looks finished,  but still fenced off at the moment. 

[holbeck]

Lovely day for it. 

[holbeck]

 

All back together now.   Bets on how long the coolant stays this colour. 

[gm]

Is that coolant or Irn Bru in there ?  

[Jenson Velcro]

Was there any obvious sign of leakage around the thermostat housing?

[holbeck]

10 minutes ago, Jenson Velcro said:

Was there any obvious sign of leakage around the thermostat housing?

Yes. Plenty of water staining on the housing and anything close by. 

[Jenson Velcro]

That’s good, hopefully will sort the problem

[holbeck]

Today's MINI adventure is to deal with this. 

 

Code reader says wheel sensor front right.

 

Getting the Allen bolt out was a bit of a war, but we got there in the end.

The rain really helped at this point. 

 

Success.  Sort of, but the lights came back on within a mile.  Bummer. 

Tomorrow is another day and it still has a couple of weeks MOT.

[holbeck]

Two new tyres on, and MOT booked for Tuesday. 

I'm still buggering about with the wheel sensor but the light now stays off for days rather than the minutes I originally managed. The garage guy is going to have a look himself while he has it. 

[Tartan58]

Loving the roof - not seen one like that before.

 

In other BINI news my R50 was treated to a wash before moving back into the garage again after being relegated to the driveway for the last 3 months due to house renovations.

Next year it will get an MOT if it kills me...it's becoming a bit of a joke.

[holbeck]

Yesterday was MOT day.  It did not go well. 

Quite a long list of stuff, all doable but put together quite a bit of aggravation.

Handily the ABS fault came back for the test.

The main other expense is the headlights which have u/s leveling motors both sides.

Plus front strut top mounts, exhaust and some other minor stuff.

Considering my options at the moment. 

[SiC]

That's a pretty long list! 

Parents take their old Astra H there and the tester chap seems pretty fair from what I can see on their car. 

[Tartan58]

Not too dissimilar to my fail list - that was August 2019 and I've still not got round to fixing it yet!

If your suspension bolts are as rusted up as mine (and being Scotland they probably are) then I'd just throw it away and buy another with a ticket.

That said you should also definitely save it as fewer and fewer people are bothering to keep these R50s alive anymore.....no scrap it so it increases the rarity value of mine by 0.01p.....

[Andyrew]

Sad times, 

Ive removed the headlight level adjustment stuff (switch etc etc), after an MOT fail on a skoda felicia.  This was the advice of the tester. 

A nice free fix, maybe worth checking if thats still okay on an 03 car. 

[Parky]

Lots of WD on the headlight motors, slam bonnet, cross fingers and give the adjuster a try.  One of mine frequently seized and this helped for short periods at a time. 

[holbeck]

Update. 

Having done some research,  the headlight leveling system seems to be the biggest show stopper due to cost.  If they fail, they fail at their lowest dip. Lots of stories on the web of people getting rinsed for replacements and the lack of known good second hand ones could be a problem. 

I've found a pair through a fb group so have taken a punt.  If I can sort that problem the rest can follow. 

Fingers crossed. 

(Although starting to check the classifieds just as a contingency).

[stuboy]

12 hours ago, holbeck said:

Update. 

Having done some research,  the headlight leveling system seems to be the biggest show stopper due to cost.  If they fail, they fail at their lowest dip. Lots of stories on the web of people getting rinsed for replacements and the lack of known good second hand ones could be a problem. 

I've found a pair through a fb group so have taken a punt.  If I can sort that problem it rest can follow. 

Fingers crossed. 

(Although starting to check the classifieds just as a contingency).

can the not be manually fix in normal postion and leveller disconnected

 

[holbeck]

58 minutes ago, stuboy said:

can the not be manually fix in normal postion and leveller disconnected

 

That may yet be what happens.

[beko1987]

One of the level sensors on my blue laguna was broken, but in that the arm popped off the wishbone after a few miles. 

I deffo didn't drive to near the test centre pull over, cable tie it on then presented it... It passed! 

Had snapped the cable tie and gone back to being wrong by the time I got home though

[rainagain]

On 9/19/2020 at 11:59 PM, Jenson Velcro said:

Exactly this. Just done the same job on my r50 last week. The only slight problem was the fixing bolts in the bottom of the battery tray had rusted solid into the inserts in the plastic carrier below and ended up pulling out. Some rivnuts sorted that out.
unfortunately the thirst for coolant remains......

Mine had this, turned out to be the expansion tank. Hard to spot as it evaporates. I only caught it by driving in traffic and then Stopping straight away and opening the bonnet. 
 

Even then it was quite hard to spot 

 

[Cheezey]

Whenever I see this thread title I always wonder ‘is it really called a Mini Bathgate?’.

[holbeck]

17 minutes ago, Cheezey said:

Whenever I see this thread title I always wonder ‘is it really called a Mini Bathgate?’.

Not really.   I made that up because of the tartan blanket on the roof. 

It is however based in some truth, there was a Bathgate edition of the original mini, produced to celebrate the opening of the BMC Bathgate plant. It had a thistle on the bonnet in place of the normal Austin badge.  

They used to have one at Gaydon, but I think it was sold in that big auction they had 15 years ago.