Overheating issues (I think my water pump just crapped out)

[Slay0r]

***ill be posting a video soon to help better diagnose the problem***

heres the story:

Drove about 50 miles on the interstate, stopped off for about 20 mins to unload some things, continued driving (15 mins hwy). While sitting at the red light to turn on the street of my destination, the Yellow water temp indicator came on. Once i accelerated (top speed 15-20 mphs) (but no 1/2 engine cel displayed) limping down the street to my destination. Once i arrived the Yellow turned to Red, and i immediately shut it the car off.

I let it sit and cool, sprayed water on my radiator to cool it down. After i let it cool down for about an hour, i attempted to make it back home and i did without the water temp indicator goin off.

when i got home i started to restoring it back 'stock'

this included taking the CSLs off and putting the stock wheels and tires back on. While doing this i noticed that its Not leaking any water. I was using an electric impact wrench, so i owuld have to turn my car on and off to power it. While putting on the last wheel the Yellow water temp indicator came on, and i quickly finished up and shut her down.

I let it kool again and got the hose and started spraying the radiator again to cool it down. While doing this i noticed a high pitched noise every time i sprayed it with water. it was a high pitched Weeeeee-type whine

other recent problems (all started w/i the past day or so):
-i had 2 long starts (possible hpfp)
-many users report a bogging down feeling rarely during shift points. I'm gettin this no/low throttle during ALL shift-points

guess its time to get that BT scanner so i can get to work

Might Have To Turn Up the Volume, Its a High Pitched Whine
<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v495/Slay0r27/Picture.flv">

if the embed doesnt work heres the link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...nt=Picture.flv

[Lester]

Have you checked for low coolant? Also - I would be careful spraying water near the front grill/air intakes area - if you get water in the air intakes you could hydrolock the engine.

[Slay0r]

yes coolant level was fine, however i did replace the slight overflow after removing the cap


no water reached the intake

[993 911]

What tune are you running?

[Slay0r]

Jb3

[Brady1984]

What came out of this? I am having the same exact issue and I am scheduled to take it in tomorrow.

[yandy]

I was having a similar issue, turns out I lost 32oz out of my coolant tank. Filled it and hasnt happened again. I think their might have been air in the hoses/radiator.

[Brady1984]

It happened once to me a long time ago, I let it cool then and it did not come back for months. then today under some spirited driving conditions I had it happen once, same thing cooled it restarted and al was well. Then it happened a second time, this time some coolant spewed out in the engine bay. Both times the oil temp was perfect and there was no indication of a problem until the warning light came on. Thoughts?

[jeremyc74]

Here's my SWAG (scientific wild ass guess for anyone who's unfamiliar with the term)

You have one of two problems:

A - The electric cooling fan isn't working right. Did you notice the fan running at all during all of this? It should be blasting away once the car has been sitting still for a couple of minutes.

B - The coolant temp sensor is giving a bad reading, and the car isn't actually overheating. The high pitch noise may be the water pump running full speed in reaction to a bad temp sensor reading.

I think "A" is the more likely of the two, but I'd be very careful with her until you get this fixed. I can imagine that overheating an N54 could be a very bad thing. The construction materials of this engine combined with its tight tolerences probably aren't going to react to well to the expansion that happens when it overheats.

Let us know how it turns out. I'm very interested to hear the final diagnosis.

[Brady1984]

After it happened everything went right back to normal, the engine oil temp never rose above mid-way and the car did not sound, act or feel erratic after the fault cleared. I think if it did REALLY overheat that the fault would have remained after I started it back up, but it cleared. We were engaging in some spirited driving when it happened (like uphill, high altitude WOT) The think that worries me was the little bit of coolant that spewed out, this tells me that something happened in the cooling system. I drove the car home and everything was completely normal but I am going to have the dealer take a look and see if they can figure it out.

[Brady1984]

OK so the dealer called me back and gave me a heads up on what happened. Apparently the water pump was not working correctly, he said it was either quitting or not pumping enough at times. He said they did a full check and everything was fine so the part is on order and I will be back on my way tomorrow evening. They gave me a 535i loaner so I am OK for now I think it all makes sense to me, and for what happened I don't think it was enough to do any serious damage. As soon as it happened we stopped and it was about a cup of fluid. Thoughts?

[jeremyc74]

Originally Posted by Brady1984

OK so the dealer called me back and gave me a heads up on what happened. Apparently the water pump was not working correctly, he said it was either quitting or not pumping enough at times. He said they did a full check and everything was fine so the part is on order and I will be back on my way tomorrow evening. They gave me a 535i loaner so I am OK for now I think it all makes sense to me, and for what happened I don't think it was enough to do any serious damage. As soon as it happened we stopped and it was about a cup of fluid. Thoughts?

I hope the electric water pump isn't going to turn out to be problematic.

Keep us posted after you get it back, and lets see if they got the diagnosis right.

[Brady1984]

Everything is as it should be and I have had a chance to drive it quite a bit (500 miles this weekend We will see as time goes on but it looks like all has been made whole again.

[Rustler]

For what it's worth, this just happened to me last night. I drove about 5-6 miles from my house, got on the highway, and next thing I know the yellow water temp warning comes on, followed immediately by the red warning and the car wen into limp home mode. It's at the dealership right now but it's Sunday so I won't know what the deal is until Monday. I'll post when I find out what the problem is.

[Citizen Z]

What model year do you guys have and have you been filling up at Top Tier gas stations?

[HondaGoneRogue]

I was scared you guys were blowing head gaskets lol. Glad to hear that it was a failed part and not user inflicted.

[Rustler]

I have an '09 my. I'm not sure what constitutes a "top tier" gas station, but I do fill with premium and avoid the shady looking unafiliated stations. Generally, I don't pay much attention to which brand of gas I use, as long as they have a premium pump.

[pkcormier]

Originally Posted by Slay0r

***ill be posting a video soon to help better diagnose the problem***

heres the story:

Drove about 50 miles on the interstate, stopped off for about 20 mins to unload some things, continued driving (15 mins hwy). While sitting at the red light to turn on the street of my destination, the Yellow water temp indicator came on. Once i accelerated (top speed 15-20 mphs) (but no 1/2 engine cel displayed) limping down the street to my destination. Once i arrived the Yellow turned to Red, and i immediately shut it the car off.

I let it sit and cool, sprayed water on my radiator to cool it down. After i let it cool down for about an hour, i attempted to make it back home and i did without the water temp indicator goin off.

when i got home i started to restoring it back 'stock'

this included taking the CSLs off and putting the stock wheels and tires back on. While doing this i noticed that its Not leaking any water. I was using an electric impact wrench, so i owuld have to turn my car on and off to power it. While putting on the last wheel the Yellow water temp indicator came on, and i quickly finished up and shut her down.

I let it kool again and got the hose and started spraying the radiator again to cool it down. While doing this i noticed a high pitched noise every time i sprayed it with water. it was a high pitched Weeeeee-type whine

other recent problems (all started w/i the past day or so):
-i had 2 long starts (possible hpfp)
-many users report a bogging down feeling rarely during shift points. I'm gettin this no/low throttle during ALL shift-points

guess its time to get that BT scanner so i can get to work

Might Have To Turn Up the Volume, Its a High Pitched Whine
<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v495/Slay0r27/Picture.flv">

if the embed doesnt work heres the link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...nt=Picture.flv

I'm curious, what engine temps were you reading when you got the yellow and red warnings?

[RPM90]

Originally Posted by Slay0r

***ill be posting a video soon to help better diagnose the problem***

heres the story:

Drove about 50 miles on the interstate, stopped off for about 20 mins to unload some things, continued driving (15 mins hwy). While sitting at the red light to turn on the street of my destination, the Yellow water temp indicator came on. Once i accelerated (top speed 15-20 mphs) (but no 1/2 engine cel displayed) limping down the street to my destination. Once i arrived the Yellow turned to Red, and i immediately shut it the car off.

I let it sit and cool, sprayed water on my radiator to cool it down. After i let it cool down for about an hour, i attempted to make it back home and i did without the water temp indicator goin off.

when i got home i started to restoring it back 'stock'

this included taking the CSLs off and putting the stock wheels and tires back on. While doing this i noticed that its Not leaking any water. I was using an electric impact wrench, so i owuld have to turn my car on and off to power it. While putting on the last wheel the Yellow water temp indicator came on, and i quickly finished up and shut her down.

I let it kool again and got the hose and started spraying the radiator again to cool it down. While doing this i noticed a high pitched noise every time i sprayed it with water. it was a high pitched Weeeeee-type whine

other recent problems (all started w/i the past day or so):
-i had 2 long starts (possible hpfp)
-many users report a bogging down feeling rarely during shift points. I'm gettin this no/low throttle during ALL shift-points

guess its time to get that BT scanner so i can get to work

Might Have To Turn Up the Volume, Its a High Pitched Whine
<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://img.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vidmg.photobucket.com/albums/v495/Slay0r27/Picture.flv">

if the embed doesnt work heres the link:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...nt=Picture.flv

What was your oil temp at?

IF it was normal, maybe a faulty coolant temp sensor.

[Rustler]

My engine oil had not yet reached normal operating temperature, it was on the rise, but not there yet (I was only a few miles from home). I talked to the service dept. today and they confirmed that is was a faulty sensor in the electric water pump, and replaced the whole unit. I'm pretty dissapointed that this would happen after less than 2k miles.

[nordique14]

Originally Posted by jeremyc74

I hope the electric water pump isn't going to turn out to be problematic.

water pump problems? On a BMW? nah way.

[Rustler]

Originally Posted by nordique14

water pump problems? On a BMW? nah way.

Way.

In fact, within 200 miles of getting it back from the dealer I got the same engine overheat warning, and the car went into limp mode. Stranded me on the highway in the pouring rain last night. Apparently the tow truck service BMW contacted wouldn't tow me off the highway because it's a restricted turnpike, so I had to drive down the highway in limp mode in the rain (not that safe) to a place where I could get towed. Now the car is back in the shop. Less than 2,000 miles and it's on it's third warranty repair. I haven't heard back from the dealer yet on any diagnosis, but the symptoms were identical to the last time. I have a sick feeling in my stomach.