M52 Water pump pulley bolts

Well.....

Dragged myself out of bed at 9 am, went out to the car just after 9 am to commence battle with the viscous fan coupling nut.  Armed with my new Draper tool, (working from the engine compartment, car on its wheels with me facing the fan) I got it located on two water pump pulley bolts at the 3 o'clock position and put the viscous coupling spanner on the nut from the 9 o'clock position and with a big heave with both arms upwards, I shot backwards away from the car.....

Thinking I had just had one of the tools slipped off I went back for another look at to my surprise I had loosened the nut.  

It just came of with a heave, no hammers or anything!

I was back in the house for a cup of tea by 10 past 9!

I had done it in less than 5 minutes, what me and the old boy had tried to do in 1.5 hours a week ago.

Fan came off, fan cowling came off. Had to de-ice the car so ran the engine before driving her up on the ramps and water was also coming out the stat O ring and dripping onto the crank angle sensor.  Not good. 

Drained the radiator with the heater fan on to try and pump out as much old coolant from the heater matrix. 

Removed the water pump by jacking it out from the block with 2 M6 bolts as per Haynes Comic Book followed by about 3.5 litres of coolant from the top of the block and head! 

Thermostat housing came out and I saw that the seal had well and truly failed, no wonder I was loosing water!  I had to prise the thermostat out.  The stat was rather worryingly coated in wax.  The thing must have started to leak out its wax which would explain why I thought I had a bit of a lazy stat, i.e. opening too early and not getting enough heat into the heater.

I put a smear of petroleum jelly on the rubber seals of the water pump, thermostat housing seal and the stat O ring before re-assembly.

I then noticed how easy the radiator would come out so that was removed from the car and back flushed with a garden hose, bit of sludge came out but I was more concerned with the build up of leaves and muck in the radiator fins so I brushed that clean under running water. 

All went back together with no problems.  I filled the system with the heater on to try and avoid air locks.  I filled it thru the bleed screw on the stat housing rather than the expansion tank cap. I used 50-50 mix antifreeze, Mobil 1 stuff that was recently buy 2 and get 1 free from Halfrauds.  Meets all the right numbers and standards that BMW say in the cars handbook.

All back together and ready to start her up.  Turned key and nothing.... I had sodding well drained the battery with having the heater on to power the auxiliary pump in an effort to avoid air locks. 

After all that I couldn't start it! D'oh.

Jump start later and no leaks anywhere, no air could be bled out the bleed screws and the heater is now seriously hot when set at 32 deg!

Nice and warm on the way to work this morning.  Heater is now hot enough for me at 24 deg instead of the more recent 28 deg!

Problem solved.  I am happy (and warm) now.  Just the front brakes to do and get a new battery!

Thanks for all your tips and suggestions guys.

Andrew

Hi Andrew. Are you going to carry out the work from beneath the car?   I tried both but found it easier to work from above with the tools in a "V" formation, ie the pulley holding tool positioned at 11.0 clock and the spanner at 2.o clock. The spanner sticks up about 1inch above the shroud but sufficient to receive the blows of the hammer with the right hand whilst gripping the holding tool in the left hand ready to withstand the force of backlash of the blows from the hammer. The pulley restraint tool has a loose hinged part that depends on natural gravity to let it drop around the nut of the pulley. Trying to do it from beneath prevented this. It is impossible to put your hand up in the space to position it by hand.
Anyway best of luck. I will be working on the hose connectors tomorrow. I am awaiting advice from Robert Stern who have been servicing my cars for about 7 years so a liitle bit of free advice should not come amiss - hopefully.

Dave E
1999 520i SE A

The Draper Viscous Fan Holding Tool together with the Draper 32mm Fan Hub wrench worked a treat. I sprayed some release fluid down a tube to reach the nut for starters but I still had to belt the end of the wrench with a 4lb lump hammer three times. As soon as it gave way the nut came off easily. My biggest worry (and still is) was disconnecting the so called "quick release" hose connectors. The main hose was easy enough, it was the two sets of smaller hoses that connect into, and out of, what seems to be an impeller pump at the bottom of the fan shroud. I have left the fan shroud sticking halfway out of the engine bay for today until I can fathom a way of pulling off these seized hoses without having to cut them loose.
The engine is a M52TV with more projections interfering with access than I have seen on any engine I have worked on.
Dave E
1999 520iSE (E39)

Psyching myself up for tomorrows assault on the viscous fan nut!

Wish me luck!

Andrew

Edited by Andrew Rolland

How about heating the nut up briefly with a butane blowtorch or similar, just to allow the nut to swell a little. If your careful, kind of wave the flame about quite a bit it should be ok (not setting fire to your beloved car I mean)

I have now bought this tool to use next Saturday morning.  Is this what you were referring to Nick? I just need to wait and see when Mister Postman delivers it!

If this one fails I think I might have to end up buying this tool which you can get from good old ECP even cheaper than on here.

Andrew

PS if the second one fails I think I mights have to end up buying another E39 at this rate! 

Makes you wonder if someone previously tried to remove it assuming it was a normal thread...

I agree these are nasty when they are tight.. you end up thinking am I whacking away with the lump hammer in the wrong direction.. so you reverse what you are doing and end up tightening the thing even more.

You can buy the correct tool that locks on to the bolts which is what I shall do if it ever needs doing again.

Nick

I don't have one of these cars but....

why not undo the pump bolts and remove the pump and the fan at the same time, then with the now scrap pump on the bench separate it by clamping the impeller in a vice so it can't twist.

Just seems that if you are taking the pump off why fuss with trying to remove the fan in the engine bay.

Giles

andrew, I have done 8 of these waterpumps and only had one difficult one - I guess you are unlucky!

the sink spanner is gound down to about 4 mm thick, which allows me to get a big flathead screwdriver on the pulley bolts.

Believe me, use the biggest hammer you have got!

If its really tricky, get an assistant if you can, and one that has hand insurance! pity you are right up the other end of the UK - email me if you need more help....