[ben2901]

Gotta pay good money to maintain a good car man. Hobo fucks you hard and doesn't cuddle after :lol:

I stick to 'redline once a day keeps the mechanic away'.. Hasn't worked too well for me so far, I enjoy thrashing my car too much

 

[ADAM]

Radseal is now in the heater core and overtime will block it - that is a real shit job to replace , getting rad seal out again , is hard , bet it says nothing on the bottle about getting the shit out .
Coolant flush products are pretty worthless , they contain a mild alkali that's supposed to counter the coolant that's turned to acid - takes about 2 years for this to happen - and that's about it
Hobo coolant 2 years , proper coolant 4-5 years
In short .. See above post

 

[WHITEY_]

Wouldn't touch that radseal shite with a barge pole. Christ knows how you're going to get that out as no idea what its made of. Like adam says I can't imagine it'll be a quick process whatever you use.

 

[carterleeds]

hey guys, the problem with radseal is basically what it says on the tin. it seals your radiator with gunky gluey stuf and blacks up any holes but in the process blocks up nearly half of the raddiator channels where the water passes through hence why you have problems after you have put radseal in.

the best soloution is a new radiotor i paid like £70 ish for mine because coolant level was dropping and noticed tiny leaks until it got bigger and just poured out.

i know many of you say mini cooling system is crap with regards to the plastic cap on the expansion tank, but the expansion tank is not pressure regulated its literally in normal peoples terms an "overflow" tank when there is too much coolant in the system hence the plastic cap.


the mini cooling system which i found out my self has 4 main components which can fail:

1. fan - low speed mainly (which is the MOST important, with out this your whole system will be knackered)
2. leaks - thermostat housing (cheap replacement part) radiator lower hose and expansion tank and hose
3. need proper green coolant from bmw or local parts shop make sure its green not blue will help cool the engine and take care of it because of its ingredients
4. head gasket failure - simple check open oil cap if creamy looking then headgasket is allowing water to leak into the engine

number 1 is the most common and most important role in the cooling system without this and without checking this first you will get NO where believe and your problems will continue as i have found out for the past 2 years.

 

[carterleeds]

+1

Wouldn't touch that radseal shite with a barge pole. Christ knows how you're going to get that out as no idea what its made of. Like adam says I can't imagine it'll be a quick process whatever you use.

 

[ben2901]

Well the rad couldn't hold any coolant for longer than about 15 minutes before so its done well to last another 10 months with radseal. I'll have to sort out a new rad at some point by the sound of it

 

[funksteruk2]

thought I would check mine, went to the shops came home and let the car run outside for 10 mins max, put the aircon on and the radiator fan never moved....... then all of a sudden the coolant pished out of the expansion tank, so what should I check first?

Fuses ?

 

[LEWIS_P]

I stick to 'redline once a day keeps the mechanic away'.. Hasn't worked too well for me so far, I enjoy thrashing my car too much

I learnt "a redline and double clutch a day means 3 weeks without a car as you fuck up the midlands g'box" :lol:

 

[carterleeds]

the problem you will have mate is sometimes that radseal gets loose and starts to mix into the coolant then go around your engine which isnt healthy at all and can cause damaged. most radseals are for emergency short term use. just saying btw.

Well the rad couldn't hold any coolant for longer than about 15 minutes before so its done well to last another 10 months with radseal. I'll have to sort out a new rad at some point by the sound of it

 

[carterleeds]

thought I would check mine, went to the shops came home and let the car run outside for 10 mins max, put the aircon on and the radiator fan never moved....... then all of a sudden the coolant pished out of the expansion tank, so what should I check first?

Fuses ?

yes fuses in the main fuse box under the bonnet.

did the fan not come on at all even when the coolant pished out? does the fan ever come on?

 

[funksteruk2]

yes fuses in the main fuse box under the bonnet.

did the fan not come on at all even when the coolant pished out? does the fan ever come on?

No it did not kick in at all, had the car 6 weeks ish and never heard the fan come on but I only do short journeys so never gave it a though

checked the fuses all are ok, still no fan on ffs

 

[Astroboy]

If you turn on your aircon and the fan doesn't turn on it sounds like the whole unit is knackered. The only other check you can do is by wiring it direct

 

[ADAM]

hey guys, the problem with radseal is basically what it says on the tin. it seals your radiator with gunky gluey stuf and blacks up any holes but in the process blocks up nearly half of the raddiator channels where the water passes through hence why you have problems after you have put radseal in.

the best soloution is a new radiotor i paid like £70 ish for mine because coolant level was dropping and noticed tiny leaks until it got bigger and just poured out.

i know many of you say mini cooling system is crap with regards to the plastic cap on the expansion tank, but the expansion tank is not pressure regulated its literally in normal peoples terms an "overflow" tank when there is too much coolant in the system hence the plastic cap.


the mini cooling system which i found out my self has 4 main components which can fail:

1. fan - low speed mainly (which is the MOST important, with out this your whole system will be knackered)
2. leaks - thermostat housing (cheap replacement part) radiator lower hose and expansion tank and hose
3. need proper green coolant from bmw or local parts shop make sure its green not blue will help cool the engine and take care of it because of its ingredients
4. head gasket failure - simple check open oil cap if creamy looking then headgasket is allowing water to leak into the engine

number 1 is the most common and most important role in the cooling system without this and without checking this first you will get NO where believe and your problems will continue as i have found out for the past 2 years.

The cooper has a flip cap the cooper s has a screw cap which is a pressure cap and its crap , if only there were 4 components that fail : the pas fan on early cars if jammed would blow a fuse , through a mastery of design the same fuse runs the cooling fan for the rad .
The rads split at the plastic join on the side , this leak is hard to spot , the fans control temp can go random from the control unit , the header tanks split at the seam and loss of pressure and coolant , the water pump on the back of the charger can have a drive failure , loss of charger belt = overheat , even when all is working the cylinder cooling is not even across the engine
SO other than the pump ,the rad ,the stat , the fans, the header tank , the tank cap , the gauge, and the control unit - it's a great system a design marvel .....

 

[funksteruk2]

if it is the loom that runs across the the top of the air intake pipe (front of the bonnet area) it has been previously tampered with cos they is electricians tape on the wire just where the passenger light is, was gonna get the psp replaced and tracking done on Wednesday, looks like I,ll have to phone my mate and get him to do this first

 

[Astroboy]

Sounds like it might have had an external slow speed resistor wired in previously

 

[funksteruk2]

see what happens next week cheers

 

[carterleeds]

No it did not kick in at all, had the car 6 weeks ish and never heard the fan come on but I only do short journeys so never gave it a though

checked the fuses all are ok, still no fan on ffs

unforunately i can only re-literate what astroboy said.

 

[carterleeds]

if it is the loom that runs across the the top of the air intake pipe (front of the bonnet area) it has been previously tampered with cos they is electricians tape on the wire just where the passenger light is, was gonna get the psp replaced and tracking done on Wednesday, looks like I,ll have to phone my mate and get him to do this first

how many plugs do you have the leads into the fan loom at the top? there should either be 1 big plug? or 2 plugs 1 big and 1 small... if it has 2 plugs then no resistor was installed because this need to be done near the resistor. but if it has 1 plug then possibly a resistor was installed, but 2 wires should be comming out from the plug.

 

[carterleeds]

The cooper has a flip cap the cooper s has a screw cap which is a pressure cap and its crap , if only there were 4 components that fail : the pas fan on early cars if jammed would blow a fuse , through a mastery of design the same fuse runs the cooling fan for the rad .
The rads split at the plastic join on the side , this leak is hard to spot , the fans control temp can go random from the control unit , the header tanks split at the seam and loss of pressure and coolant , the water pump on the back of the charger can have a drive failure , loss of charger belt = overheat , even when all is working the cylinder cooling is not even across the engine
SO other than the pump ,the rad ,the stat , the fans, the header tank , the tank cap , the gauge, and the control unit - it's a great system a design marvel .....

oh ok did not know this i aplogise, because im only running a ONE atm but now the little bro going away to uni i can sell and buy an S

the rad plastic issue was what happened to me so dumb, a lot of people bought the all metal ones from ebay and other sites.

 

[funksteruk2]

yeah 2 plugs 1 big and 1 small, so is this an easy fix? my mates a mechanic and has his own garage but the more info I can get will be a great help

thanks again