What's going on??? Everything is shutting down!!

[Montreal525]

As I posted this morning, I had to tow my car home du to sudden overheating. After talking to my mechanic, he said I could remove the t-stat and wait for a new one on Monday.

When I got home, I think I had some sort of electrical lock problem because my battery was dead.

I went ahead and remove the t-stat and charged the battery a little a boosted the car.

That's when the dash lit up... Check engine, oil, trans program, lost the rpm... I shut it down, remove the battery and put it on slow charge.

What's going on with it?? I'm at a lost and very angry.

I understand the trans program comes on when the battery is weak, and besides, the tranny was changed 2 weeks ago... so I'm hoping this will resolve itself with a fully charged battery but still...

Will the car run without a t-stat??

Anything else I sould check before using a baseball bat??

Jeff

[632 Regal]

dont run the car without a stat, charge your battery and relax dude! Hopefully it was just coincidence.

[Montreal525]

Your're right... Just had a beer and I cooled off. It's the second time in 3 weeks I got stranded...

Will running without a thermostat for 2 days cause damage to the engine?

I have 153000km, while I'm at it, should I change the water pump?

Jeff

[SharkmanBMW]

what makes you think the tstat is the problem?

who is your mechanic in Montreal?

[Montreal525]

Well, he's my brother-in-law, so I get easy access to him even on week-ends. He's not a BMW specialist but he hasn't failed me yet...

As for the t-stat, I actually wanted to run the car without it to see if it was the problem. If the temp. still redlines after that, then it would the pump. (rad. is good, no leaks in the system)

Last fall, my t-stat failed in the open position, all it did was make the engine run on only 1/4 temp. Ran it like that for a couple of days without any problems until I could change it.

Jeff

[Felixdacat]

Possible headgasket? Fan clutch? I had the same problem with the over heating, and it was a combination of two. Headgasket, and the fan clutch.

[Montreal525]

Well, battery was fully charged and I went for a 10 min. drive around the block. Car did fine, temp. went up normal. After the 10 min., it started to go up slowly and it was because the t-stat housing was leaking. I had put back the t-stat o-ring in the housing but it was missing the thickness of the t-stat itself so I was kind of expecting it to leak under pressure.

Next stop, BMW dealer on Monday for a new t-stat. thanks to everybody for your advices... I'll be updating on Monday...

Jeff

[632 Regal]

you do know those are a bitch to bleed all the air out right???

[Felixdacat]

It took forever to bleed the system. patience was wearing thin, when I had changed the head gasket.

[SharkmanBMW]

go to autolectra near decarie instaed of the dealer, they should have it and save you some $

[Montreal525]

Are they still open? I use to go there to buy bosch spark plugs for my Acura back in 1990....

Jeff

[SharkmanBMW]

they are very much open! call ahead to see if they have it, but they should have anything for a BMW!
ask for Mike - friend of a friend who always takes care of us.

[632 Regal]

try to get an actual BMW brand thermo, it has a little check ball to help with bleeding the system.