TimGinCentralNJ
02-27-2004, 09:30 AM
...to those of you who chimed-in with thoughts on my "coolant loss" post the other day, as well as to our friend Bruno, who's site (once again) filled in some of the gaps in Mr. Bentley's documentation.
My day yesterday began with a last-minute call "out " from work (The Man has been dragging me down lately anyway), followed by about 1 hour of self-debate over where my coolant was really leaking from. Thought I had it narrowed down to a faulty hose/hose clamp, but then I turned off my ignition, and watched a "pulse" of coolant flow from the water pump's hub, and down onto the crank pulley. Ah ha! Well, I already had all new hoses and belts to install, but I hadn't ordered a new pump (since this was kinda' last-minute), so I bit-the-bullet and popped over to my local stealer. An OEM reman'd pump (w/ CCA discount) was $68, approx $15-20 more than BMA. I've had bad luck with reman'd pumps on my non-BMW cars, I only hope BMW's are solid. The stealer assured me they were (gulp!).
Everything went flawlessley, tho I was concerned to find out my 32mm fan nut was only finger-tight . Anyway, I'm now leak-free, my belts are quiet, and I've realized that not only do I prefer the taste of BMW coolant over the green crap which was in my cooling system, it works very nicely as hair gel. A good 18 mph breeze has got nothin' on my doo!
Many thanks, all....
Tim G.
'91 535iM
'81 528iA
ps: Does BMW blue coolant turn another color when it gets old?
My day yesterday began with a last-minute call "out " from work (The Man has been dragging me down lately anyway), followed by about 1 hour of self-debate over where my coolant was really leaking from. Thought I had it narrowed down to a faulty hose/hose clamp, but then I turned off my ignition, and watched a "pulse" of coolant flow from the water pump's hub, and down onto the crank pulley. Ah ha! Well, I already had all new hoses and belts to install, but I hadn't ordered a new pump (since this was kinda' last-minute), so I bit-the-bullet and popped over to my local stealer. An OEM reman'd pump (w/ CCA discount) was $68, approx $15-20 more than BMA. I've had bad luck with reman'd pumps on my non-BMW cars, I only hope BMW's are solid. The stealer assured me they were (gulp!).
Everything went flawlessley, tho I was concerned to find out my 32mm fan nut was only finger-tight . Anyway, I'm now leak-free, my belts are quiet, and I've realized that not only do I prefer the taste of BMW coolant over the green crap which was in my cooling system, it works very nicely as hair gel. A good 18 mph breeze has got nothin' on my doo!
Many thanks, all....
Tim G.
'91 535iM
'81 528iA
ps: Does BMW blue coolant turn another color when it gets old?