Looks like Water Pump Failure

[mfindigital]

Being a BMW owner has been fun.

Today on my way to work my fans kicked on very loudly, louder than I've heard them, so loud I thought it was the truck next to me. 15 minutes or so later I got an orange warning light, then about 10 seconds later a red warning light. Temp Gauge showed 250 degrees.

From what I gather this suggests a broken water pump. 2011 N55 with 42k miles, I do primarily stop and go driving in traffic, I'm in the market for a new DD and now I wish I had bought one last week, of course (also wish I went with a more comprehensive warranty, I went powertrain and this repair will likely kick have already made it worth going with a platinum plan).

Is this the correct part to order?
https://www.amazon.com/Continental-V.../dp/B00NQFO5U2

I'd like to order the water cooler and tstat today, I have another car to use tomorrow and Monday for work, but need this done by next Tuesday.
Anyone have a link to a tstat part or the part number?

Thanks.

[mfindigital]

Also found this, which looks like the right thing to purchase as it comes with everything, is this what is recommended to buy?:

https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...Lw_wcB#fitment

[Cavpilot2k]

Agree that it's the water pump. 100%.
Can't speak to the fix though - I had mine done at the dealer under warranty. Sorry.

[mfindigital]

I just went to check my coolant level since the car has had 4 hours to cool down. My coolant reservoir is empty. Is losing all coolant from the reservoir also consistent with a bad water pump? Car has no CEL, I left my droid device with mhd on it at home so can't log my temps. Timing last week got as bad as -8.2 on cylinder 5. Temperature on the car never exceeded 245ish degrees, oil temp.Below is the warning light I have, restarted the car an no indication of low coolant from the warning system.

[drwillb]

Get the repair kit: pump (Continental), thermostat, 3 aluminum bolts (torque to spec, I think 10 or 15 ft-lbs but check on that), and the hose that connects pump to thermostat.

It's a 3.5-4 hr job. Sucks, no way around it, so that's why you take care of the other stuff while you're in there.

Watch the video a couple of times before starting. I had difficulty taking off the hard plumbing from the pump. Make sure to lube up that joint on the new pump.

There's a part 2 to that video that you'll need to watch.

GL

[mfindigital]

Just picked up some new coolant from BMW. When I got back to the office oil temp was at 240 degrees. No warning lights. I removed the reservoir cap to see if the coolant level had risen. And it rose, rapidly, pouring out all over the car and street. Capped it back quickly. I had tried to release pressure slowly. I've never had any smoke out of the tail pipe, but have had intermittent rotten egg smell from the exhaust and steam/feint white smoke out of the oil cap when I remove it. Sounds like a blown head gasket, which is actually better for me because I have a powertrain warranty, aside from the inconvenience of dealing with dropping the car off. Could also be that I shouldn't have reservoir removed the cap when the car was at 240 degrees.

[ShocknAwe]

Definitely the water pump.

You need a new pump, get original BMW, and I'd recommend buying from FCPEuro if you're not having it done at a shop with a warranty, they offer lifetime part warranties.

BUT... you don't necessarily need a thermostat. Yours could be fine, mine was. That said, if doing it yourself Id buy one then return it if not needed unless you're putting the car up on jack stands in the garage for a couple weeks. Just make sure you buy from somewhere that won't charge you to ship it back or a restock fee for non-defective parts.

[mfindigital]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Definitely the water pump.

You need a new pump, get original BMW, and I'd recommend buying from FCPEuro if you're not having it done at a shop with a warranty, they offer lifetime part warranties.

BUT... you don't necessarily need a thermostat. Yours could be fine, mine was. That said, if doing it yourself Id buy one then return it if not needed unless you're putting the car up on jack stands in the garage for a couple weeks. Just make sure you buy from somewhere that won't charge you to ship it back or a restock fee for non-defective parts.

I went with FCPEuro earlier today, 2 day shipping so I hope it's here by Saturday. I have my downpipe waiting for me at home, and my plugs come in tomorrow. Kill three birds with one dummy. Pretty sure the coolant exploded because the car was 245 degrees when I removed it, I was such a panicked idiot it didn't even cross my mind until I read my last post.

[mfindigital]

Made it home with the heater on full blast without issue, aside from the drenching sweat. Found my obd ii scan tool and monitored temps on torque, with heater on saw consistent 190 temps for coolant, as soon as I shut it off it jumped to 215, then I'd throw the heater on. So looks like it's definitely the water pump.

[519.E82]

Interesting. When my water pump went on my N52 i couldn't go like 2 km ( 1mile ish) before over heating

[mfindigital]

I purchased all the requisite parts from FCPEuro, and new plugs (the SILZKBR8D8S that were highly recommended on e90post). Just dropped the car off and all of a sudden I got water pump codes (wasn't pulling any on the MHD scanner or my OBDII scanner with Torque app). So it was/is definitely the water pump.

Install price for the pump is $360. All in the repair will costs 830$ dollars (repair kit from fcp is 470, plus 360 install). The shop I took it to is one of the best BMW shops in Los Angeles (A's repair Monterey Park). The owner loves bmw's, has an abarth, mini cooper, f80 and an X5. They wanted 300 for the DP install, so I passed and will be doing that myself this weekend. The water pump is a fairly easy job, not much to it, but since that's actually important and I tend to break things, I am happy to have A's garage do that.

Will report back once I've picked her up (for anyone that stumbles across this in the future when googling weird symptoms). I won't be able to associate the power lose with the water pump or plugs since I'm having both done, but I'm guessing this will resolve that issue as well.

[mfindigital]

Car runs much smoother and no more overheating. Car seems to like the new plugs and starts up quicker. My logs show significantly less timing corrections (was as low as -8.5 on cylinder 5), but I'm still getting corrections of -5.5 on cylinder 6 now. I didn't do coil packs, so that is likely up next. I'm building more boost lower in the rev range now. FCPeuro offers a lifetime warranty with their pump, which is great.

Boost is a bit inconsistent at WOT, peaks at 14.5 sometimes but mostly peaks at 12-13lbs at 100% throttle. Also got a fancy Motul oil change as recommended by A's garage. All in parts and repair for the pump and t-stat was $830.

I'll be installing my DP this weekend and will purchase a charge pipe next, I'm guessing I may have a small leak there that is causing my somewhat inconsistent boost. I've never owned a car that came with 2 parts as low quality as the water pump and charge pipe on this car, pretty disappointing, these were not cheap cars when new. After the Charge pipe, DP and stage 2, I'm done with power adders for a long time, then it's on to bushing inserts, m3 control arms, an aggressive rear diffuser and some federal rsr's. Have a good feeling that this will basically be the perfect sports car for me once that's all wrapped up. I love the 135.