[BlackTape]

Ok well as you all now I have a 325is

last week when I got new tires the place also gave me an oil change and supposedly changed the coolant and other fluids....

Since them the car has been getting hot and I was thinking maybe they forgot to add coolant.....


Today at lunch I was driving and the car got to the red area and the light turned red. When I parked I heard a CRACK and all the coolant flowed out the area started smoking... I just turned of the car and poped the hood to let it cool.

My dad picked me up and now I am home and the car is still there.

Could this be....

Radiator...
Water Pump...
ect.................................

Also the coolant that came out was green and it did not look diluted... Do you think maybe they just poured in 100% coolant and thats what made the coolant thank crack... What else could it be...

Aslo should I take it a mechanic shop or dealer??? I have about 1000 dollars to throw away HELP :help

 

[triggrhaapi]

as much as 40% coolant can look opaque. as for the crack, my first guess would be a dead hose or overflow tank, but the most likely cause of the overheat is a bad thermostat and/or fan clutch/switch. This is one you need to take the car to a mechanic for, to make sure that you didn't blow your head gasket or warp the head.

 

[Ski]

Sorry to hear that Dan..If I was you, I'd grab your Dad and someone else that knows cars and head back to the tire place w/ car in tow and start asking questions..do not go by yourself and do this since you're only 17, and then they may take advantage of you whereas you and 2 adults you might find out what happened and get a fix w/o getting raped..


I do not trust mechanics I do not know, whatsoever..past experiences..of course I could blow this whole thing out of the water and it just may be your thermo like trigg stated..Good luck and let us know..

 

[325i2NV]

I have a feeling that either your thermostat is stuck or when they put in your coolant they forgot to bleed out the air pocket in you system.

did you notice where you coolant was coming out?

 

[MrM3]

i'm pretty sure the same thing happened to bmwg84, cant remember what it was tho maybe u should try to get in touch with him

 

[triggrhaapi]

Gary had the overheating problem, it was the thermostat.

 

[Ski]

Originally posted by triggrhaapi@May 13 2003, 05:04 AM
Gary had the overheating problem, it was the thermostat.

But bmwg84 is Chris.. :drunk

 

[BlackTape]

UPDATE

Well I live with my ste dad and my mom.... MY real dad knows everything about cars so he drove 1 hour down here and looked at the problem....

The coolant "expansion tank" was cracked so we went to discount auto parts and my dad bought a expoxy and glued the damn thing shut. also he put a wire arount the tank and with pliers force the seal TIGHT. then we ducked taped the mother f#[email protected]

Any ways this saved me about 200 dollars because I was able to drive home.... We added just 100% distilled water because when the thing boiled over all of the coolant spued out.

Now my car is in MY garage and tonight I am going to buy the following....

NEW TANK
Termostat
Water Pump - may not be related but WTF

My dad says he can install all of these.....

The tank he took apart in like two minutes is their a DIY for termostat and water pump and if any one has done this do you have any pointers????

ALSO im am going to buy ALL of these parts from Car Parts Go .com they seem to have really good prices and the pictures look correct.

My dad has never owned a car worth more than 3000$ but he knows what hes doing

 

[DesmoBob]

many, many DIY pages here:
http://www.geocities.com/e36rulz/DIY.html

 

[Furious]

i think it could be any of the following. desending from most probable to least.

1-cracked thermostat housing
2-thermostat
3-cracked water pump housing
4- waterpump
5-loose hose
6-radiator return blocked
7-ummmmm cant think of anything else at the moment

 

[twckxbzd]

nearly the same thing happened to me. my radiator outlet busted. I have a 94 325is. my water pump impeller was plastic and came apart causing hte over heat. i got a new water pump(metal impeller) a new radiator new thermostat. it only took about 1 1/2 hours to replace in the driveway. my new problem is the strange noises the engine now makes and the brown smoke coming from the exhuast.. i hope you have better luckthen me.

 

[Furious]

ya. when i had an over heat. it was because my thermostat was stuck open. once it was fixed my water pump blew like a week later, (fate it seems) anyways, that waterpump problem in turn cracked the housing on the water pump (not enought to leak) but also cracked the thermostat housing causing a small leak (enough to spew green antifreeze shit all over my engine) :angry: .. so get it checked out dude.

 

[twckxbzd]

i am leaking around the thermostat housing right now. not enough to bother me near as much as the horrible sounds my engine is making. now i know the pain parents feel when thier kids are hurt. only good thing is my dad has working on bmws for nearly 20 years and one of his buddies is a master bmw mechanic. I am gonna have him look at it this weekend.

 

[Furious]

Originally posted by twckxbzd@May 13 2003, 09:13 AM
i am leaking around the thermostat housing right now. not enough to bother me near as much as the horrible sounds my engine is making. now i know the pain parents feel when thier kids are hurt. only good thing is my dad has working on bmws for nearly 20 years and one of his buddies is a master bmw mechanic. I am gonna have him look at it this weekend.

changing the thermostat housing is relatively easy.. it could be as easy as a bad gasket. but chances are you have a hairline crack. dont let it go to long. good luck. lemme know how it goes.

 

[twckxbzd]

http://www.ohiomotorcycle.com/understeer/w...waterpump.shtml
hey red tape the fan is a tough one to get off. i used a big wrench and a hammer the threads are reversed. get the wrench on and hit it till it frees. i am sure theres a tool to do that but that works fine. if you have any qustsions post them here this stuff is all fresh to me.
furious
i replaced the gaskets so i am leaning to the houseing being bad.
i just dropped all my cash on my jetski engine the other day thinking all my problems were sloved...

 

[twckxbzd]

after replacing the radiator thermostat thermostat housing fan clutch water water pump and oil i got the car to run with no smoke. i still have some of the noise but i am 80% sure its caused by the vanos. I am gonna take it out for some driving tomorrow to get the air out of the cooling system and hopfully thats the end of this nightmare.
anyone know how much/hard replacing the vanos is?

 

[BlackTape]

ok the parts came today and tommorow we are gonna do it... Just one question

how do you drain the coolant system and how do I fill it back up later correctly...

 

[twckxbzd]

as far as draining goes it should be easy just make sure you have a big pan to catch the coolent.I had to back flush the engine to get all the little parts of the water pump impeller out. To refill it i did the same thing the guy from understeer did. turn the heat on full blast and run it to get the air out.
http://www.ohiomotorcycle.com/understeer/w...waterpump.shtml

 

[BlackTape]

OK we're finished...

So we replaced the expansion tank, termostate, and water pump....it took us 2 hour total.
My dad has no clue about BMWs cause he does not live with me and he drives a 92 240sx.. The Danm fan thing was impossible to take off because we didn't have the right tools so it was kinda ghetto but it worked...

The messed up part is that apperantly the water pump was in METAL and in perfect conditon... I can't really tell on the termostat but it also looked fine. So after we tightened the last bolts and ran the engine. we poured in water into the tank and it filled up nicely NO LEAKS... Didn't drive it that much but it seems perfect.

I spent 150 dollars all told on parts how much would this repair have cost at a dealer... My dad wants to know?

 

[Furious]

Originally posted by RedTape@May 16 2003, 09:10 AM

The messed up part is that apperantly the water pump was in METAL and in perfect conditon... I can't really tell on the termostat but it also looked fine.

the water pump had a metal propeller already? good. but also ok if you changed it (preventative maintainace)
the thermostat is hard to tell if its shot, it may appear to be ok, but you have to play with it and if you experiece any trouble moving the flange than, it would mean its stuck

we poured in water into the tank and it filled up nicely

you poured just water? arent you suppose to use antifreeze or something? i dunno. here in canada im used to just using antifreeze .