Overheating. - BMW Forum

Brian325i · 11-01-2004, 04:47 PM

Ok I was driving to school today and about the time I get the the school parking lot...I see that my temp gauge is almost to red. Not long after that I can see steam coming from the hood. I just barely make it to a parking spot and open my hood to see what the hell was going on. I find that my lower radiator hose has come off of the thermo housing.... So basically I have almost zero coolant in my engine and it's all because of my fucking hose. I recently just replaced the hoses about 3 weeks ago so I have no idea of what's going on. Could it have been that I just didn't tighten it enough? I remember tightening the clamps pretty good on the hoses...Or could it have been pressure build up on the hose that it caused it to come off?? Right now I'm pretty pissed off and I'm running on like 25% anitfreeze and 75% water until I can order some more. Also, when I finally got the radiator filled back up and started driving around...my temp gauge starting sky rocketing again....but eventually went down to normal. Naturally I started freaking out when the temp starting rising again but why did it rise and then go to normal? Was it because it had to circulate through?

97alpineM3 · 11-01-2004, 05:04 PM

Well.. naturally an engine with no water/coolant mixture what so ever is going to seem rather hot untill the thermostat can open up and let the rest of that fluid reach the block. As for the hose coming off.. just be cautious.. unless you have an odd pressure build up.. I dont see any reason for that sucker to come off...

Good Luck man...

Les

RIBEMR26 · 11-01-2004, 06:23 PM

Also there would have been air in the system from the hose slip....therefore if you didn't bleed the system when you added more Antifreeze/water...the air causes the guage to shoot up...

kearnyme · 11-02-2004, 02:44 PM

On most BMW's your temp needle should stay in the dead center of the gauge
upon reaching normal operating temp.

This happend to me during the middle of the summer in Texas. In my case the neck on the side of the radiator broke off and almost all of my coolant flew out.

I watched the needle slowly go straight to red.

I sure hope your head or block isn't cracked. Its real important to pull over and stop whenever your needle starts to point towards the hot side. I have several friends that are porsche / BMW mechanics, and they all agree on this. The aluminum block won't take high heat for extended periods.

Trust me, this exact thing happend to my mom's Porsche.

Quote:

Ok I was driving to school today and about the time I get the the school parking lot...I see that my temp gauge is almost to red. Not long after that I can see steam coming from the hood. I just barely make it to a parking spot and open my hood to see what the hell was going on. I find that my lower radiator hose has come off of the thermo housing.... So basically I have almost zero coolant in my engine and it's all because of my fucking hose. I recently just replaced the hoses about 3 weeks ago so I have no idea of what's going on. Could it have been that I just didn't tighten it enough? I remember tightening the clamps pretty good on the hoses...Or could it have been pressure build up on the hose that it caused it to come off?? Right now I'm pretty pissed off and I'm running on like 25% anitfreeze and 75% water until I can order some more. Also, when I finally got the radiator filled back up and started driving around...my temp gauge starting sky rocketing again....but eventually went down to normal. Naturally I started freaking out when the temp starting rising again but why did it rise and then go to normal? Was it because it had to circulate through?