Hi everyone, this is my first post and it's on behalf of my niece.

I would be very grateful do for any advice you can offer on the following: niece has a 2001 MINI Hatch 1.6 First 3dr with a few issues- she has an oil leak and has recently discovered oil in her spark plugs housing; her engine warning light goes off and on and the fan kicks in strongly when she switches it off.

She has had her thermostat housing replaced twice and she still has the same issues. So, she's taken the car into Mini and paid £100 for a check to be run on the car- it's come back saying she needs a new thermostat housing!

This is the response Mini sent her: Unfortunately we aren’t able to go further with our investigation until we have cleared the fault for the thermostat housing. The vehicle has stored an electrical fault for this and there are no other fault codes stored, at this present time there is no other path for us to follow other than replacing the thermostat housing.

We have reported an oil leak on the visual inspection which you said you were already aware of but we do not think this is linked to the problem you have with the vehicle producing a warning symbol/cooling fan running on/poor starting.

In response to your further question relating to paying the £99 diagnosis today and taking the car away – if you were to return to have the thermostat housing replaced at a later date then this would cost £260.38.

Considering she's already spent £300+ to have the same part replaced, by a different garage, she's understandably reluctant.

Has anyone had similar issues with this particular part? Are Mini correct in saying they "have no choice" other than to charge her nearly £300 to replace the same part- they've also suggested it could be because "it wasn't a genuine Mini part" that she's still having this issues.

I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

Thank you.

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