You contaminated the tester with your first attempt. You should have washed out the device with clean water before redoing the test.

You live and learn James and no harm done in this learning curve , you’ve nothing to be apologising for, keep up the good work.

Hello Mate. The test kit goes on the header tank. The engine needs to be running while doing the test. Any products of combustion are pushed up through the header tank. The Gasses are pushed up through the sniffer kit and mix with the test fluid.

Looking forward to the videos on this mini mate. It just goes to show how when you think you have sorted something it throws a spanner in the works. We live and learn. I look forward to more videos 👍👍

You are an awesome mechanic. Thank you for sharing the procedure for ensuring the right decision on changing the head gasket.

Great diagnostic video, most people wouldn't bother going to the trouble you have! Was intrigued at what the insta post was earlier but now it makes sense! Keep up the great content 👌

Interesting watching the diagnostic process! Looking forwards to the replacement gasket!!!

Stick an egg in the coolant bottle, if cylinder 1 has scrambled eggs in 20 mins u know its gone. 😂

Great work love your vlogs I have no clue about engines but love cars and think your Mondeo is sweet.Keep us up to speed with the wheels on the Mondeo and Dyno day.

Can you please turn the music volume down when it comes on? I struggle to hear your voice, so I turn the volume up. Then blow my ears out when your background music plays. Thanks

I thought the tester was supposed to be used on the header tank, because it's only supposed to "sniff" the air when you pump (rather than suck up coolant as it did in the video). That's how I've always used them (usually successfully), but I may be wrong.

Great work James. Not a fan of the new minis in all honesty but still watching as it’s all educational and never know of il end up under bonnet of one, keep up the great work anyway 👍

I'd check for a cracked head to, I would of thought that it would run down the bore side rather than dripping on the piston?

If your looking for a donor car I’m selling my 2001 mini one for £280 it’s had £1000 spent on the engine including new timing chain and head gasket

Glad you have managed to confirm it - always good to be 110% sure about something rather than guessing. Though i must admit i guessed it was the headgasket in the first video where you were bleeding the system. For one, whee did all the coolant go if it was not escaping externally?, then once you had bled it you were still getting a pretty consistent stream of bubbles escaping through the filler neck whilst the engine was running, in my experience that is a very good pointer to gas being forced into the system. The final nail for me was in this video when you showed how badly it ran when you first start it up, add that to the other evidence i was convinced it was the gasket. But its always preferable to see conclusive proof - and you can't argue with actually seeing the water dripping into the cylinder. Always good to get rid of any doubt when a lot of work is involved. But should be a fun job, like you i love doing jobs like this.

Hey, check the ground for the coil packs as that normally does the misfire typed idle and also causes high and low idling.

I've had gaskets that were not leaking into the cylinder and one of those testers was the only way to diagnose it. Mine started blue and turns green/yellow after a few minutes of engine running. In each case I've also seen a continuous stream of bubbles through the tester.

Great video 👍🏻 I’m thinking of getting a Cooper S. one thing I will say, did you drain the coolant from the previous mini video, as you used water instead of coolant. Not criticising, just curious 🤔

Can you take the expansion tank off and give it a clean. I need help with my OCD

We have one but its different. you place the liquid inside and then it screws to your coolant tank. as the car is running exhaust gases go up and change the fluid to a light blue/green colour. Another way to see what colour it should change to, is stick it in the end of your exhaust. should have the same effect

Tip to know easily if coolant is being cooked off. Have a quick smell of the exhaust gas, if it smells sweet (exactly like coolant) then you have coolant in the exhaust stream. Would have been my first test... try it before you pull the engine apart James, then compare with a properly running engine. Once you've smelt it once, you'll easily recognise the smell in future. Keep it up. Good investigative work, rely upon testing rather than guess work ftw. 👍

The miss-fire at startup is probably the coolant in the cylinder causing the fuel to not ignite properly

@james, the block tester liquid has gone off, should be blue, best way to check it, start the engine and use the tester at the exhaust end with it running it will change colour. Your meant to do it running with like the steam coming out of the coolant cap.

Thanks for you recording!! 👏👏

water pumped changed in my one & its still overheating grabbed a bottle of steel seal out of Halfords hoping she works.

Bash the inside of the door where the motor is while holding down the switch. Bang it hard! Mine goes on the blink from time to time. A good old banging does the job for me. Also pushing the window down while holding the switch has also worked once

I would of done it with the engine running and from the expansion tank i would change the head gasket any way your doing a great good james so dont worry how you doing things keep up the good work looking forward to see you doing the head gasket 🙂👍

Fair play coming up with the idea to put the pressure tester on then look in the cylinder that's what I usually do with them you'll be better off just taking the engine and gearbox out btw best way to do the head gaskets on the minis

Well done on going through the diagnostics :)

Try putting a tube between the radiator filler (an old toilet roll maybe)and the sniffer test and allow it to take in any potential combustion gases, you can also test the tester by sniffing the exhaust gases into the tester this should turn it yellow very quickly you can even then sniff fresh air and the fluid will turn back to blue and can be reused😉.

Do you have a retest again with the expansion cap Removed to bleed the system of air and keep the engine at operating temperature and put over the Combustion Leak Detector tool or sniff test tool hover over expansion tank and pump to see if the liquid definitely turn yellow or green to confirm diagnosis of fault but the camera has already done it for you

There’s some product called K-Seal try that before taking the engine to bits, it’s worked a treat for me when I’ve had gasket problems.

My tester has blue fluid...it should change to green or yellow to indicate exhaust gases in the coolant....The instructions mention that it should be stored carefully and once opened it is normal to discard the remainder...it goes off quite quickly IIRC. One other thing is that you would be safer and better to sample the gases from the overflow/header tank...same result if the engine is at operating temperature. but without the 13 odd PSI and hot coolant to worry about.

Fair play for persevering, be great content anyway. Have you got a link to the exact camera you bought?

can you make a video where you install a turbo in your Opel Astra g , I would be Happy, because i would do it in my on car (Opel Astra G)

looking forward to the future content mate

Great video, I’ve just learned the head gasket has also gone on my mini! Would you know how much it would cost roughly to get done? I’m hopeless with cars!

You needed to be 100% certain and now there is absolutely no doubt. Changing the head gasket will be a walk in the park compared to the Astra's engine rebuild.

Just wondering can you do a compression test first?, am curious how much less compression is on cylinder 1.

That start misfire kind of noise is normal on a 1.4 tsi (2015) vw engine so might be normal but not too sure about mini engines?

With the window problem it's a problem with all minis and if you hit around the speaker a couple of times whilst holding up the window switch it should release it and the window should then be able to go down

It also sounds like you have a squeaky idler/tensioner on start up.

Next video, mini front end service mode. You don’t need a timing tool for an r50, but you will need a few bits to take the drive belt off, I made do with a 16mm socket, a bit of foam a long crow bar and a 5 mm Allen key, but I have an r53 so yours might be slightly different. You will need a harmonic balancer puller, take off the timing chain cover with the oil pump. You will see some bronze coloured links on the chain. Two on the crank sprocket and one on the cam sprocket. Check the cam and followers too as they tend to wear quite badly as these engines suffer from top end oil starvation.

A good test I do is to leave the pressure tester on and run the engine, if pressure sky rockets you know its building pressure from somewhere.

I know its a lot of work for you james but i am looking foreward to this ....thank you

Not one to say we told you so... but we told you so ..lol nice job mate we live and learn I'm happy to see you go through the learning curve. Just watched to the end I would check for a cracked head mate. Nothing to apologise for we all have to learn.

Gutted, will be looking forward to seeing the usual Informative videos, keep it up👍👍

ps don't need a timing tool kit for these engines the chain is got mockers on it and you have to keep turning over and till markings on the chain and markings on the sprockets lineup

great stuff ... keep em comin

Please try out some of that head gasket sealer / fixer stuff

Had some cold weather this year might want to check for any damage if water in the block had frozen over the winter when you have the head off 🤔🤔

I know it has been a while since you published this but I have to say pretty Damn good vídeo enjoyed watching it again 👍👍👍

15:04 yes, it is coolant. But any symptoms? like misfiring morning from water? and then work ok?

check your third brake light as sometimes they stay on a common fault on minis

See Eric The Car Guy channel for all the fun he had working on his mini.

Brilliant series

I would have chucked some steal seal in that. Kit wise start the engine with the kit installed after removing header tank cap. Thats the best way to do it.

Can't say i'm surprised after the first video, unexplained coolant loss and headgasket is nearly always the problem lol. Ah well at least its more content for the channel! Think I need to buy one of those endoscope things though could be useful!

This is how we learn, well done

Stick some steel seal in the coolant, worked on our ranger and transit for the last 3 years, old car at the end of the day its worth a try

loving the music...

Enjoyed watching the stages you went through , if you knew it was a head gasket problem from the start it wouldn’t have been as much content for the channel, going through all the (it could be this or this) is good it’s better content and views for your channel, plus a simple airlock Fix could help someone else 👌🏻

Why did you not compresson test the car ?

To test the fluid colour start the car and do a sniff test from the exhaust tip. If it turns blue you know it's exhaust gas turning it blue.

My car sounds the same on a cold start up then after 20seconds or so and a little rev it goes fine. Everything is ok with my car but in not sure if mine makes that noise becuase its only a 3cylinder or what but my car makes a similar noise on cold starts

Great attitude ! These cars drive me crazy I’m constantly is looking and smelling it’s insane I can’t even determine if it’s gas oil or coolant anymore follow your nose you’re always know ha ha!

When you start up and go to the back, you can see a damp patch under the exhaust pipe, doesn't this indicate it pushing water out? sure it shouldn't do that, yes you'll get a little condensation, but that puddle is more than condensation, also I'm seeing a faint hint of blue smoke. can you smell burnt oil (sadly youtube isn't smell-o-vision) :)

Notoriously hard to diagnose a blown head gasket that isn't obvious. Had a vauxhall Astra that was losing coolant , was only slightly overheating in traffic and was still driving okay . Took it to a garage I trust and they used the emissions machine they use for MOT testing to do a sniff test , no carbon monoxide in the expansion tank . A few weeks later I decided to use the test similar to the one you used and the liquid turned blue . Head gasket was gone , as I said it's not always an easy diagnosis to make.

jammed window might just need you holding the switch down and banging on the door card just below the speaker. that might un jam the window. common fault on minis that are left standing

Great content James, keep doing what your doing because it's great.

You've got this James. 👌

The sniff tester has to be used with the engine running. The fluid should start off blue and will change to green/yellow if combustion gasses are present. If you hold the tube up to the exhaust tailpipe you'll see the colour change. You won't get any result if the engine isn't running as no combustion gasses will be pushed into the coolant.

Did you have smoke of any kind out of the exhaust? White smoke?

would love the link to the camera you used in this video

Try some steel seal, want to know if it actually works :)

Yeah clean the tool and try again good vids keep up the work thanks

Can you please post a link to the coolant pressure tester

I,d agree with some of the other comments possible airline cracked head when its warm metal expands and closes it when car cooled opens slightly and weeps in.

The Dr Headgasket fluid is blue in all of the online adverts for it that I've seen. Maybe it was used and could change back to blue!? If the tube/container that you put it in was contaminated with coolant that could have reacted with the fluid too. The dripping liquid is enough though isn't it, to decide what you need to do. ....

You said in one video that you live near an airport. Do you live in Norwich?

The tester should be on the header tank, engine running. The liquid should be blue to start. Then turn to green or yellow depending on how bad the leak is. Maybe that liquid is duff, or give it a shake up first.

The camera footage makes me think the cylinder head is cracked and this isn't the head gasket. I had this exact issue with my very first car (old MK3 ford escort), that had the same issues on starting until it warmed up. I guess we'll all see when you pull the head off. The footage clearly showing dripping down onto the crown of the piston definitely makes me think you have a cylinder head problem. Looking forward to the next video! 👍🏻

I look forward to seeing how you change the head gasket in case I ever need to do mine. Hoping to get mine over 200k miles. I hope you change the chain tensioners while you are doing it.

happy and not to hear that , but as you say this channel is all about that , so do this head gasket james and let us learn from you bro and thank you, please do i step by step like the corsa i have to change a head gasket too in a same mini and thanks again, also for the timing chain there is not a lot information for the timing so you will be the one to teach us that

If you live in Colorado I think I saw your car I saw a sticker that had your channel on it

and it will be off on one cylinder possible cos the gasket then it picks up some heat and is fine

the fluid for the tester it suppose to be blue if the gasket is bad turns to Green or yellow.. done this test 3-4 times if the gasket is bad u can see in a minute

I had two mini come into the garage same problem as all the mini have headgasket . It is cheaper to change the engine then doing the headgasket

If your confused test the air in the cylinder and see if it's the same colour as the are in the coolant and if it is there is definitely a leak

Very helpful

Great vid Jim looking forward to content on this one be careful with head bolts as mine snapped when removing head 😥

Yep, done loads of those, common problem

Hey Young Gun...as long as you get there in the end. 👍

Sounds like a canal boat 🤣can't stick them minis crap. But I want to see fix up 👆

Check the head is not warped with metal straight edge before fitting gasket the head might need to be skimmed

You've figured it out, that's what that matters!

🤣🤣🤣 did you tryed retightening the headblock bolts before you oppened the engine?

Normally if ur headgasket goes if ur exhaust is blowing white smoke check ur oil stick & it's a goowey white &water threw it as ur oil cap is white&black & sludgy,I did a few in xr3s,xr2s back in the day,don't no if newer cars AR the same,as not a boy racer now,keep chin up bro

Compression test, if it holds pressure, along all 4 cylinders, head gasket, casting, piston rings and valves are fine

Do a compression test!!!!