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[dns1]

Hi guys,

Me and my dad have been having problems with our 2000 Mini Cooper 1.3.

My dad bought it as a treat for himself a few years ago, to be used for fun every now and again, not much more, so it's sat in the garage and gets a run about once a month.

We've had a load of problems with the electrics and have ended up replacing the battery, starter motor and alternator. We're still having charging issues though, which we've put down to the radiator fan running almost constantly. We've also had trouble with starting up when the engine is warm.

Today we thought we'd have a fiddle with everything and see if we could sort the problems for good.

Noticed that the engine was warming up, but only the left hand side of the radiator was getting hot. We opened the thermostat housing, took the stat out and ran it for a bit and the rad warmed up properly. Also took out the engine temp sensor, gave it a clean and replaced it.

When the temp needle hit the midway point on the gauge, the fan kicked in as it's supposed to (at standstill), but the engine seemed to idle less and less smoothly.

Any suggestions on what our problem is?

Pretty sure the thermostat has seized closed, so that's being replaced next weekend.

Wondering now whether the temp sensor is knackered too, causing too lean/rich a mixture to be injected when the engine is hot, and the rough idle. Is this likely?

As great as the Mini is, it's a lot less technologically advanced than the cars I usually work with! Normally plug the laptop in and get the computer to do the diagnosing! Any advice very much appreciated! Thanks!

[Nu2mini]

............ We're still having charging issues though, which we've put down to the radiator fan running almost constantly. We've also had trouble with starting up when the engine is warm.

This is a fairly common problem with MPI's, though not always for the same reason. Here are a couple of threads which cover the issues

MPI Cooling Fan Issue

MPI Fan Help

Before undertaking the wiring modification discussed I'd check the obvious things like thermostat operation and clean terminals on everything concerned.

This post should really be moved to the injection section