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328i In Need of Help & Advice

2K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  BmrOwnr96 
#1 ·
Hi, I own a 1996 P reg 328i Auto Coupe which has covered 66,000 mls. Yesterday I had loads of steam come out of the engine bay on the front left side. I stopped immedietly and called the RAC. The guy came and couldnt find a leak and reckoned the rad cap had released it. He also said that he reckons the head gasket will be fried as it happens a lot on BMWs. Is this true? A friend advised me to change the thermostat and water pump first as it is cheaper than the gasket. What else is it worth replacing while changing these if anything?

Also incase the head has gone I have just bought one of Ebay for peanuts that has been recently reground. Are there any mods I can do to this head while its off to give performance gains (Port Polish, cams etc) and does anyone have any experience in doing this. If I have the head polished and gas flowed will I need to change anything else?

One last question, does anyone know of any good suppliers for BMW performance parts in the UK (am based in Middlesex) and good engineers for doing any upgrade work?

Thanks guys
 
#2 ·
First off. :welcome

Secondly, I would suggest you, or your mechanic, use a pressure tester to test the cooling system.

By adding pressure to the surge tank, a leaker will rear its ugly head relatively quickly.

If the system holds pressure, start the car. If you head is messed up, you should see spikes in the pressure as the cylinder pressure bleeds into the coolant ports.

My tank cap is hard to crank down all the way, and I nearly fried my car when it happened too. So that is definatly something to be wary of.
 
#3 ·
Originally posted by BMW328@Sep 2 2004, 08:58 AM
Hi, I own a 1996 P reg 328i Auto Coupe which has covered 66,000 mls. Yesterday I had loads of steam come out of the engine bay on the front left side. I stopped immedietly and called the RAC. The guy came and couldnt find a leak and reckoned the rad cap had released it. He also said that he reckons the head gasket will be fried as it happens a lot on BMWs. Is this true? A friend advised me to change the thermostat and water pump first as it is cheaper than the gasket. What else is it worth replacing while changing these if anything?

Also incase the head has gone I have just bought one of Ebay for peanuts that has been recently reground. Are there any mods I can do to this head while its off to give performance gains (Port Polish, cams etc) and does anyone have any experience in doing this. If I have the head polished and gas flowed will I need to change anything else?

One last question, does anyone know of any good suppliers for BMW performance parts in the UK (am based in Middlesex) and good engineers for doing any upgrade work?

Thanks guys
When you said your RAC guy (i presume he is a mechanic of sorts) said he couldn't find the leak... how did he look for it? just with his eyes? If that is the case, the very first thing you need to do is never deal with this guy again. Then as someone else posted, just a simple pressurization of your cooling system will determine if it is a hose or radiater or recovery tank leak, and if you have blown your head gasket you can tell from massive spikes in pressure on a coolant system test and massive leaks in compression on a compression test...

However, since you said you saw steam, but didn't mention any other engine anomolies I would venture to say that you did NOT blow your head gasket, and that your failure is somewhere in the external cooling system
 
#4 ·
I have just been looking at the car and there seems to be some sort of probe (about 2-3cm long) attatched to a couple of wires in the lower right hand side near the bottom of the radiator. It is hanging there at the moment (almost low enough to see if u get level with the floor. Anyone know what that is? (I couldnt see anywhere for it to go)

And the RAC guy just did a visual inspection on the system, refilled with water and looked for leaks. The car seemed to drive fine the mile after that before it heated up again when I stopped and got towed. (but I was driving slowly). Idles all ok.
 
#5 ·
Originally posted by BMW328@Sep 2 2004, 10:43 AM
I have just been looking at the car and there seems to be some sort of probe (about 2-3cm long) attatched to a couple of wires in the lower right hand side near the bottom of the radiator. It is hanging there at the moment (almost low enough to see if u get level with the floor. Anyone know what that is? (I couldnt see anywhere for it to go)

And the RAC guy just did a visual inspection on the system, refilled with water and looked for leaks. The car seemed to drive fine the mile after that before it heated up again when I stopped and got towed. (but I was driving slowly). Idles all ok.
wait.. lets talk about this just hanging there point... if I understand what you are saying it may be your coolant level switch.. can you either post a part number or a picture or at least a better description ? did it break off the bottom of the coolant tank?
 
#6 ·
I cant seem to upload images at the moment although I have them on my PC if someone needs them EMailed to them.

The sensor is located in the lower passenger side (UK RHD Car). It hangs down attatched to two wires. If I Look straight down between the airbox and waterpipes I can see it to the right at the bottom of the car. It has a yellow body about 1cm deep and 2 cm wide which has a black rubber part attatched that tapers down into a probe about 2cm long. It has what look like two clips on the side of the yellow part.

It doesnt seem to have broken off anywhere and seems ok whatever it is!

Hope that helps in my description!
 
#7 ·
Originally posted by BMW328@Sep 2 2004, 11:51 AM
I cant seem to upload images at the moment although I have them on my PC if someone needs them EMailed to them.

The sensor is located in the lower passenger side (UK RHD Car). It hangs down attatched to two wires. If I Look straight down between the airbox and waterpipes I can see it to the right at the bottom of the car. It has a yellow body about 1cm deep and 2 cm wide which has a black rubber part attatched that tapers down into a probe about 2cm long. It has what look like two clips on the side of the yellow part.

It doesnt seem to have broken off anywhere and seems ok whatever it is!

Hope that helps in my description!
sorry but i am terrible at picturing verbal descriptions, and more importantly I dont know enough about the UK models to guess... you can email the pic if you would like though and hopefully i will get a better idea about what you are speaking of.
 
#9 ·
That probe fits into the side of the cooling duct for the brake. On american version it's on the drivers side. I don't know what it does, but that's where it goes. You will probably have to pull the panel underneath to get to where it goes. There's a hole with about a 2cm sleeve that the sensor snaps into.
 
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