'04 R50 - no temp gauge and no heat!

[wwilme]

My wife bought an (June build) '04 R50 with Nav and climate control in April. With cold weather coming on, I was alerted to the fact that the car has no apparent heat. I asked her where the temperature gauge was sitting and she said there was none. I was sort of surprised and went to check it out myself - sure enough there isn't one. Apparently there is an idiot light that comes on to tell you that the car is overheating. (Hopefully it gives you that warning well before you've blown your head gasket.) She did admit to seeing it once during the summer when caught in a traffic jam.

So I lift the hood and find that there is no coolant in the reservoir. I started the car and filled it with the same 50:50 mix that I use in my ’95 318. Then I pushed on the upper radiator (s-shaped) hose to feel if there was any fluid going through it once the car warmed up. The hose then started hissing. Turns out that it had been rubbing on the front of the alternator for some time and that had worn a hole in it. So the leak was found.

After finding the part on REALOEM.com, I did a call around and found the only hose in MD at Towson BMW Mini. They charged me almost double the RealOEM listed price and gave me the “so you want it or not” attitude when I mentioned the price difference to them. Not only that, they wouldn’t apply the BMWCCA discount because I did not have my card present even though I had numerous CCA emails on my Blackberry to prove membership.

Yesterday I installed the new hose, removed the radiator cap (that I’d now found after perusing the cooling system on parts on RealOEM) and filled it up while letting the car run. I bled the air out first at the bleeder by the radiator and then at the bleeder on the upper heater hose. After the heater hose bleeder stopped sputtering and foaming (just straight coolant seeping out) there was heat! The exhaust manifold was however too hot to get my hand down in there and tighten the bleeder all the way. I waited for it to cool down, tightened the bleeder and went for drive. Now there was no heat again. I tried various RPMs to see if that would affect it and it did. When I was running up around 5k, I would get hot air, but as soon as I let off it would turn cold again. When I got the car home there was no fluid loss. If I had heat sitting in the driveway, what happened? Do I need to re-bleed? Is there a proper sequence? Any help appreciated.

Going back the temperature gauge, I can’t believe that BMW Mini would not include it as standard, even if it does have to be relocated to the steering column because of the Nav package. To me, it’s as important as a gas gauge. Is there an OEM or aftermarket temperature gauge kit made for this car that I can install? Can’t find one in Moss or Minimania. We need to be more aware of what the car is doing than just waiting for the idiot light.

[beken]

Check out Alta's water temp gauge.

http://www.altaperformance.com/produ...er-Temp-Gauge-

[darmog]

Probably the simplest thing you could buy might be a Scan Guage 2.

[nelsonjones07]

Yeah that's a better option and also a very handy one. I will suggest this one only.

BMW Performance Chips
BMW LED Tail Lights

[MINIGURU]

A ScangaugeII is the best gauge you can get for you buck. It will give you coolant temp along with a bunch of other information.

[beken]

I would also agree with the Scangauge II

[bimmerdriver99]

How many miles are on your car?

My wife has an 05 Mini and last winter she had this same problem. However the temp gauge would go to normal temp and then shoot up to max as it was almost overheating. The heat would be on but only cold air would come out.

Turns out she had a cracked thermostat housing. It's a black piece that is about the size of a fist that houses the thermostat and it's made of plastic. After a while that can crack and cause a leak and no pressure. I would try that or take it in for service and have it checked out.