2nd Water Pump failure in 1 year & 2nd valve cover gasket failure in 2 months

[TSum75]

I have a 2008 E82 135i Coupe, which I ordered brand new in April 2008 to get the 6-speed manual... My car is completely stock (but only because of financial situation over past couple years); I always stay on top of all maintenance items and am proactive about some things; and my car has just over 83K miles. My car has been trouble free for the most part, with the exception of a water pump failure exactly 1 year ago on July 17, 2014. However, last weekend, the warning light came on to refill coolant immediately, which I did as soon as engine cooled down, but then a couple of hours later, the warning light came on again to refill coolant, and it was empty... Checked all around and coolant was gushing out everywhere, and it appeared to be coming from water pump and not hoses or something else. Worse, I also saw a bad oil leak as well, and I also noticed at the front of the passenger-side of the engine, a little section of the valve cover gasket seemed to be peeping its head out... And the oil leak seemed to be eminating from there... And I just had valve cover gasket replaced one month ago. Long story short, my hunches were correct as it was confirmed that my water pump failed and oil leak was caused by valve cover gasket issue.

So, my question is... What could possibly be contributing to such issues? I understand that parts fail, but a water pump failure after exactly one year? And I also understand that it's possible that the mechanic simply didn't seat the valve cover gasket properly or something, but this was really bad...

My thinking is that it's one thing if I had modified my car in a non-planned manner, or in some bad way, but I haven't done that. And when I do eventually plan to start with certain modifications, I've always had a thoroughly researched plan. (I grew up helping restore some pretty cool old cars, and I used to work for a factory-sponsored Porsche race team... But I'm not an engineer...) So, does anyone have any thoughts about things I should look for or check? The dealership told me that everything looks to be in good working order. I had the dealership replace the water pump and valve cover gasket this time because I had water pump replaced by a very reputable BMW specialty shop in Atlanta, and I had the valve cover gasket done by a different but very reputable shop also in Atlanta. But I had the dealership do it this time mainly because this particular dealership has always had great service and because their mechanics are true car guys (and not simply parts replacement persons so to speak), and also because of logistics and time it would take to get my car back over to shop that recently replaced the valve cover gasket... I say that because the shop's owner has been wonderful to me and offered to take fix things at no charge, and even offered to tow my car from the dealership to his shop at no charge and even put me in a rental car at no charge. And I would have done that, but I simply couldn't break away from my new job to even just take the loaner car back to the dealership, and then go over to shop and get another rental, and then break away from work again when the car was ready...

At any rate, my car is completely stock, I've always done more than the recommended maintenance, I've always been proactive re: any maintenance that needed to be done, etc...

So, what I'm concerned about is if there's anything that could be causing these issues... Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there anything I should keep an eye on? Or is there anything I should look into re: these issues?

I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

Thank you.

[Luckystrike24]

I read your post.

The water pump, in the past, used aluminum bolts. BMW has recently updated this to be steel bolts. I imagine if your water pump is actually the culprit, it has a cracked housing. It's possible the top bolt wasn't entirely tight and this puts a lot of stress on the housing itself. Over time it will crack. Another possibility is the aluminum bolt stretched, or it was reused (as the aluminum bolts are one time use) resulting in the same thing. It's also entirely possible the pump is fine and one of the radiator hoses cracked, or the radiator itself has a split in it as well.

The valve cover is self explanatory, it was installed incorrectly.

Best of luck.