1996 328i water pump

[Q_BMW]

hey
does any one know if this model has a plastic or metal water pump, i have about 106K miles and dont know the history of the car before last yr but when I got the belts changed at the dealer a month ago, he said at that point the water pump was fine but it is common to go bad. should i change it ? cuz if its metal i would rather keep it and maybe due to high miles its prob changed ? cuz its gonna be quite tedious for me to do it myself.
Q

[collin]

Yea the stock water pumps are plastic...and the do tend to crap out.l...my pops had his go bad on him like 3 months ago, bad deal, definately switch to a metal one! it'll save big problems!!

collin

[jllphan]

During the E36 M3 product cycle, BMW used plastic impeller water pumps. These plastic impellers would commonly fail from use, by either slipping off the shaft of the water pump (and no longer circulate fluid) as well as completely breaking off the shaft (on a whole, or in pieces). Failure can cause overheating of the motor. BMW continued to use these water pumps into the 1996 model production cycle (brownish color impeller).

Unfortunately, there is no way of determining which style water pump is installed in your E36 unless physically removing it. If you are not sure which style you have, it is an inexpensive part to purchase and replace. There are a few different ones available to use. The BMW P/N is 11-51 -7-527-799. Retail price is $79.95.

BTW, Bimmer magazine recomends the changing of said pump every 60K miles, but I find that a tad extreme.