Was driving on the motorway last week, everything seemed fine. Then I stopped at traffic lights and noticed steam coming from under the bonnet! Not good... however temp gauge was normal so I found somewhere to stop and opened the bonnet to be greeted by plumes of steam.
Couldn't see anything obvious, especially with it being dark, so filled up the coolant and got the car home (I was pretty close by this point). Wanted to get the car back to my parents' this weekend so I could have a go at sorting it (they have a driveway, garage, and all the tools), so thought I'd be OK to get it there after making sure the coolant was full. Lasted a few miles then the temp gauge started to rise so I immediately pulled off the motorway onto the hard shoulder and shut down the engine. Waited around 30 mins for it to cool, filled it back up again as I'd carried plenty of water "just in case" so drove to the next exit and shut off the engine then waited for my dad to arrive with a tow rope :(
Got the car back to my parents', this morning I refilled with water and started it up - water is pouring from the heater valve assembly area, straight onto the exhaust (hence the steam).
Stripped it all down, removed the aux pump and unscrewed the water side of it - this pic is what I suspect it
should look like - i.e. one piece sealed unit (there's no physical connection to the motor, it's induction driven):
This is what it actually looks like:
All the pieces just fall out. Great, yet another piece of wonderful BMW engineering :roll:
So my car is currently off the road until I get a replacement pump. Thankfully I have another car so it's no big deal.
Anyone got a
known good auxilliary water pump? I ain't paying BMW's rediculous prices of over £100 for a small, puny pump. Sad thing is I already replaced my original pump about 6 months back due to it being noisy (no leaks AFAIK), obviously the replacement part was on the way out too. Or if you know any aftermarket suppliers who do new ones for a reasonable price? They are also used on the E34 5-series, E32 7-series and possibly others.
Paul.