I know some of you have owned a Mini in the past or currently and are generally more knowledgeable than myself so I thought I would ask:
Fiance's car started pissing coolant out the bottle from getting too hot. The coolant warning lights were coming on as well. My indy thought there was a crack in the bottle at the seam so I ordered a brand new bottle and cap from FCP Euro. I installed the new bottle and found that one of the nipples on the old coolant bottle had nearly broken off inside the hose, so I suspect at a minimum air was getting in at that point.
The new bottle was put on and I followed an instructional video on YouTube for adding coolant/bleeding the system. I turned the car to the on (not running) position and turned the heat all the way up. I then added coolant until the bottle was full. Once full, I opened the bleeder screw and immediately the coolant level went down and emptied the bottle. Now, the video stated that I should fill until I see coolant coming out of the bleeder screw but I never did. I added coolant until the level stopped going down. I closed the bleeder, then started the car with the heat still going and let the car run for 13-14 minutes and the coolant cap off (again per instructions). I did roughly 4-5 sessions of holding the gas at 2400rpm as well. I started noticing smoke under the hood and got out to find that the coolant had gotten hot and bubbled out the top. I turned the car off, added more coolant to replace what had spilled over, opened the bleeder screw again for another 15-20 seconds (level didnt go down at all) then closed it and ran the car for another maybe 5 minutes. The level in the bottle never went down and by that time I had to stop what I was doing to leave for work.
What do you guys think is the issue here? I never saw coolant come out of the bleeder screw either time I opened it. Is there air in the system still? Is it possible the thermostat isn't opening (I would think this would throw a code, no?)?
Any help would be appreciated.