N55 water pump dying...tow it to dealer?

[The Wind Breezes]

My 2012 is still under factory warranty and the other day while driving I got the low coolant light. I drove the car a few more miles to my destination at a friend's house and when I got there smelled a terrible odor. When I opened the hood, I could see that water had been sprayed all over the passenger side of the engine bay.

This means the pump is dying, yes? I haven't gotten any overheating warnings and I haven't driven the car any more since I don't want it to overheat, or to be inconveniently stranded. My plan is to tow it to the dealer but I'm not sure if they'll service the car under warranty until the part is totally dead and the car has overheated! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[lowbudgethero]

Something is obviously wrong if you're puking liquid. How far away are you from the dealership?

[The Wind Breezes]

I towed it to the dealer to be safe and the service advisor told me that water pump failure is "very unlikely". I assume that's the usual story they give for any failure, but any other ideas what this could be? The overflow tank / hoses weren't broken or leaking.

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by The Wind Breezes

....When I opened the hood, I could see that water had been sprayed all over the passenger side of the engine bay.

I haven't gotten any overheating warnings

Your car is overheating, don't wait for a light to come on. Have it towed, do not drive it. It will be the pump. Sounds like your SA has not worked at BMW for very long.

[The Wind Breezes]

Originally Posted by MightyMouseTech

Your car is overheating, don't wait for a light to come on. Have it towed, do not drive it. It will be the pump. Sounds like your SA has not worked at BMW for very long.

Yeah, I had it flatbed towed to the dealer. Let's hope they're on the ball and replace the pump.

It's worth noting that the light came on after some very spirited driving with a GT3 RS. That car was really loud and sounded great, makes me want a cutout

[tracer bullet]

Good decision towing it in. It wasn't worth the gamble.

Good luck!

[cbl117]

just curious, any issue with scrapping the bumper getting it on the flatbed?

[mike@x-ph.com]

+1 on towing the car

[The Wind Breezes]

Originally Posted by cbl117

just curious, any issue with scrapping the bumper getting it on the flatbed?

Glad you asked! The bottom of the lip just BARELY touched, but did not scrape. I didn't have my tow hook so they drove it on.

[cbl117]

Originally Posted by The Wind Breezes

Glad you asked! The bottom of the lip just BARELY touched, but did not scrape. I didn't have my tow hook so they drove it on.

Yikes. I've always worried about that situation and figured the angle could be pretty steep. Makes me want to change my pump proactively to avoid the risk altogether. Glad your car got to the dealer safe though.

[BMW135pls]

This is what I don't really understand. I thought the water pump system was mostly used after shutoff as a pseudo turbo-timer to cool the turbos after operation. Why given water pump failure would the car be undrivable?

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by BMW135pls

This is what I don't really understand. I thought the water pump system was mostly used after shutoff as a pseudo turbo-timer to cool the turbos after operation. Why given water pump failure would the car be undrivable?

I might be misunderstanding your question, because... a water pump circulates coolant through the engine at all times while it is running. Kinda helps keep it from overheating, which is bad.

Ours is run electrically, instead of driven by say a belt or gear, so the after shut-off cooling thing is a nice bonus but it's not the main purpose for the pump.

[BMW135pls]

Originally Posted by tracer bullet

I might be misunderstanding your question, because... a water pump circulates coolant through the engine at all times while it is running. Kinda helps keep it from overheating, which is bad.

Ours is run electrically, instead of driven by say a belt or gear, so the after shut-off cooling thing is a nice bonus but it's not the main purpose for the pump.

That pretty much answers it. I thought it was just an OEM turbo-timer system, didn't know it was the engine coolant system as well.

[tracer bullet]

Yep, circulates water through the engine block, head, etc. (and the heater core as well, which a little fan blows air past and provides heat to the cabin). When the thermostat opens up, once it sense that the engine has finally warmed up, it includes the radiator in the loop as well to keep things from getting too hot.

If the pump dies, the flow stops, and everything just sits then boils (the mental image of the steaming radiator). By then the engine has overheated which often leads to warped / cracked components.

[The Wind Breezes]

My service advisor has really let me down. Didn't call me back yesterday or this morning after I left a message. Finally got ahold of him through his cell.

They tell me the "coolant leak" has been fixed but he wasn't able to say what it was that they fixed. My car also has the infamous idle surge after stopping so I had them look at that as well. They drove it earlier but couldn't "replicate" the issue, so now they're taking it on a longer drive. I don't know what to think...their customers must never ask for any details when bringing a car in for repair, or this kind of stuff would not fly.

[The Wind Breezes]

Update: spoke to my service advisor and he "thinks" they replaced the thermostat. WTF?

[rob24ert]

That's pretty BS. Sucks to hear. I had a bad experience with dealer but they ended up pulling through for me.

What is this infamous idle surge?

[The Wind Breezes]

Where idle goes up, sometimes close to 1000 RPM, then comes back down after you stop. There's a tech bulletin on it but of course they couldn't figure out the issue even after driving the car 3 times and I wasn't smart enough to bring the bulletin in. It does it literally every time I come to a stop so I have a hard time believing that they didn't notice it.

They ended up replacing my expansion tank and refilling the coolant...that's it. The service advisor kept telling me it was the thermostat and that a faulty thermostat must have been responsible for my idle issue too....until I looked over the paperwork myself, saw that it stated they only replaced the expansion tank and showed it to him. "Oh, OK, I guess I confused your car with someone else's". That's unbelievably poor service. I'll continue praying that when my water pump does go out, it doesn't leave me stranded. The service advisor had just missed a bunch of time off work, apparently for some health issue, so it wouldn't surprise me if he was high on painkillers or something. Really unbelievable.

[BMW135pls]

Originally Posted by The Wind Breezes

Where idle goes up, sometimes close to 1000 RPM, then comes back down after you stop. There's a tech bulletin on it but of course they couldn't figure out the issue even after driving the car 3 times and I wasn't smart enough to bring the bulletin in. It does it literally every time I come to a stop so I have a hard time believing that they didn't notice it.

They ended up replacing my expansion tank and refilling the coolant...that's it. The service advisor kept telling me it was the thermostat and that a faulty thermostat must have been responsible for my idle issue too....until I looked over the paperwork myself, saw that it stated they only replaced the expansion tank and showed it to him. "Oh, OK, I guess I confused your car with someone else's". That's unbelievably poor service. I'll continue praying that when my water pump does go out, it doesn't leave me stranded.

I'm certainly no expert, but it sounds to me like a valve timing issue.

[The Wind Breezes]

Originally Posted by BMW135pls

I'm certainly no expert, but it sounds to me like a valve timing issue.

Completely incorrect. Here's the TSB in question: http://www.scribd.com/doc/151944423/...ing-TSB#scribd There's a new version SIB 12 15 14 mentioned in that document but I couldn't find it on Google. Surely the dealer can look it up. I'll take the car in to another dealer if I ever have time.