Coolant System Problems

[Runarthor]

Hey guys, i got a 316i 99" model with the 1900cc engine, and it is giving me problems.

Before i go down to the problems let me tell you about the car's history..

A previous owner was driving it and hit a lightpole gently but the impact was enough to ruin the radiator but him being oblivius to the damage he kept on driving it and thusly overheating the engine and ruining that as well. He then sold the car and the guys that bought it decided to fix it themselves rather then take it to a licensed BMW auto shop.

Now i got the car and its been nothing but problems, its not overheating or anything but i first noticed something was wrong when the radiator light came on in the dashboard. I checked it out and there was a leak on the current radiator so i took it to an auto shop and had them replace it.

Few days pass and bam, the radiator light comes back on so i take it back to the auto shop and they discover that the water pipe ontop of the engine is leaking so i have that replaced. Now everything goes fine for some time but then history repeats itself as the light comes back on..

I take it to my own garage and inspect it myself and i see the water pipe on the back of the engine is leaking so i replace it with a new one. Finally i thought i had solved this issue but i was not so lucky, the radiator light comes back on again and i'm struggling for a while to figure out where its leaking this time. Finally i see that the expansion tank is dripping water on the side so i buy a new one today when i was replacing it i noticed the two expansion tanks i had were a bit different.

The new tank had a tap on the front which i find out is the tap for the "Heater return pipe" while my old one has no such tap nor a hose that resembles this "heater return pipe". I'm wondering if the fact that the car doesn't have this pipe might be the reason for the constant leaks, maby its causing some sort of pressure in the system or something of the kind.. Could that be?

I would be very grateful if someone could help me with this as i am literally tearing my hair off, oh and sorry for the long post but i just wanted all the info on here so i could maby get a definite solution for it.

[theluis]

First of all did your heater work when you first bought the car?

[theluis]

Did you buy original equipment or not?

[Runarthor]

Everything seemed to be working as it should, not sure what you mean by the heater, is that the A/C or?

All the parts that were bought are OEM, at least i think so... I can't speak for the previous owners though, i have no idea what parts they bought...

[theluis]

by heater i mean the heat that comes out of your interior vents in the winter

[coolcooltracy]

i had a leak in my expansion tank before; i ordered the part from fcpgroton.com