Car Heating Up - Please Help - BMW Forum

alext · 10-05-2004, 06:29 PM

Gentleman, I have a 1997 318I, last month car overheated on the freeway, the reason was the plug in the engine block, it was replaced. Later in 2 weeks, temperature gauge started moving to the right so I had to let the car cooled down in order to drive it to the shop. They replaced the thermostat 'cause it wasn't letting enough water pass to cool the car down. It was fine for a couple of weeks, and I was driving in the freeway until the temperature gauge started to move to the right again, I had to stop a gas station and let the car cooled down, I checked the radiator and the oil and they were fine. I drove it to the autoshop (about 5 miles) and the gauge moved to the right again so once again I had to stop to let it cooled. I waited for a couple of hours and I drove it to the shop finally and this time the car didn't heat up. The mechanic is checking it right now but IS THE WATER PUMP DONE? OR WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE? PLEASE HELP,

THANKS A MILLION AHEAD OF TIME.

RIBEMR26 · 10-05-2004, 07:05 PM

What was wrong with the block plug that caused it to overheat the first time?

alext · 10-06-2004, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RIBEMR26@Oct 5 2004, 06:05 PM
What was wrong with the block plug that caused it to overheat the first time?

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Nothing was wrong with the car before the plug was damaged. Dealer stated that was very uncommon to have a problem with the block plug but that everything besides that was OK. The only problem that I had before was that the A/C would turned on and off by itself but that was fixed by the dealer (it costed me some nice cash too). Is the water pump the problem right now? or is there something else I'm missing. Ratiator and Oil levels are ok.....please any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Dinan 95 · 10-06-2004, 10:45 AM

It has to be your water pump.
When was the last time you had the radiator flushed?
Stupid question but if you haven't done it in forever that could be a major part of the problem.
Also radiators do have a shelf life, your level may be ok ,but if the core is toast it won't cool worth a darn.

bonsai · 10-06-2004, 01:02 PM

Another thing you can check is the fan clutch. Fan clutch takes a very important task to cool down the radiator. It is very easy to check the fan clutch to see if it is bad. Step on gas as engine run faster (RPM) so as fan clutch. if the fan clutch turn slow its time to replace it.