Coolant blow up

[Unregistered]

I came home today and I had accidentaly left the car outside running for about 30 minutes w/ the AC on full. Then I get in the car and notice the temp gauge just past 3/4. I decided to drive it down the street to see if that would cool it off..but then smoke starts pouring out and a gigantic puddle of coolant is coming out from under the car. Open the hood and coolant has sprayed everywhere. Seems as if every single bit of coolant has came out. Its going to the shop tomorrow. What should I be expecting?

Before this, there was a leak somewhere in the coolant system where the coolant level warning would pop up about every 2 weeks and I would just put more coolant/water in. Also, Ive had the car for about 10 months now and the temp guage has always been just a tad over the middle but I remember reading that that's fine. Dunno if this has anything to do with what happened today though. I shouldnt have left it running with the AC on full.. g'dammit.

Thanks in advance for any input ya'll have..

Jim

1994 540i

[Brian C.]

....and blew. If the previous owners hadn't replaced it, then you were probably overdue for it to fail. I believe most E34 OE pumps should last +-100k miles. It's something that most of us went through. Mine blew out at around 110k miles, in traffic, in the pouring rain, so consider yourself fortunate that it happened somewhere convenient. If it is the pump, change it, the gasket(duh!), probably the belt and hose and t-stat while your there too.

Oh yeah, your radiator is gonna go soon too! :D Save up now.

Good Luck.

Brian C.
'04 PT Cruiser
'95 525ia...r.i.p.

[Geoff Hoad]

Brian, work has stopped me from lurking for the last few months. What happened to your car!!!!!?

Geoff
Sydney, Australia

PS: Brian is right, they both go close together. Must pine away or something....

[Kamil]

You know summer's in full swing when cooling systems come a popin'. :(

My new radiator and hoses (and misc. stuff) are in the mail from pelicanpart.com :p

[Brian C.]

....and it's been about 2 months or so now, and life has 'stabilized' a bit so my tale of woe is not so gloomy anymore. It was just one of those times when lots of unrelated issues made the upkeep of my car move way down on the priority list. I needed to focus on family and work, and I could see too many $$$ on the horizon in terms of the car. Here's the whole sob story (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?p=13843) , and as I say, things have gotten much easier to handle at present. But you never know....... ;) Thanks for asking though.

And what's your excuse!!?? :p

Brian C.
'04 PT Cruiser 2.4L I4 turbo
'95 525ia...r.i.p.

[ryan roopnarine]

if you specified where the coolant came from, i might have just said that you had the same thing happen to you as happened to me yesterday in the walmart parking lot. as i turned the car off, i noticed that the gauge was at 3/4. look under the car, and decent amounts of coolant are leaking from the tranny area. turns out its the heat core, and i was lucky to have parked at the time i did, lest i had to wait for the coolant temp notice to pop up. as i live in a warm climate, i am just bypassing it for the time being. my waterpump quit on the highway...if i knew that it had the original, i would have changed it retroactively myself.


I came home today and I had accidentaly left the car outside running for about 30 minutes w/ the AC on full. Then I get in the car and notice the temp gauge just past 3/4. I decided to drive it down the street to see if that would cool it off..but then smoke starts pouring out and a gigantic puddle of coolant is coming out from under the car. Open the hood and coolant has sprayed everywhere. Seems as if every single bit of coolant has came out. Its going to the shop tomorrow. What should I be expecting?

Before this, there was a leak somewhere in the coolant system where the coolant level warning would pop up about every 2 weeks and I would just put more coolant/water in. Also, Ive had the car for about 10 months now and the temp guage has always been just a tad over the middle but I remember reading that that's fine. Dunno if this has anything to do with what happened today though. I shouldnt have left it running with the AC on full.. g'dammit.

Thanks in advance for any input ya'll have..

Jim

1994 540i

[Unregistered]

I think I found the problem. After adding about 1 gal of distilled water to the coolant reservoir, I turned on the car and revved it a bit and then jumped out and looked under. The **** poured out like a fountain so I got up and looked around the engine bay. Come to find out that the f*cking hose that feeds into the radiator from the engine popped off completely and was pouring water. The explains why the whole left side of my engine bay was covered in that sweet tasting green stuff. Hope this is the ONLY thing that went wrong because it looks as if its the ORIGINAL hose.

Bout how much is it to get all the hoses changed? whereas the place I go is about $65 per hour. I have no idea what BMW hoses normally go for. Anyone have their hoses changed recently?

Thanks again guys.

Jim


if you specified where the coolant came from, i might have just said that you had the same thing happen to you as happened to me yesterday in the walmart parking lot. as i turned the car off, i noticed that the gauge was at 3/4. look under the car, and decent amounts of coolant are leaking from the tranny area. turns out its the heat core, and i was lucky to have parked at the time i did, lest i had to wait for the coolant temp notice to pop up. as i live in a warm climate, i am just bypassing it for the time being. my waterpump quit on the highway...if i knew that it had the original, i would have changed it retroactively myself.

[Tiger]

Change it yourself! It is fast and easy!

[JR'Z 525]

Take a close look at that radiator too. I've heard of the necks of high mileage rad's breaking (exploding) off where they meet the body of the radiator. I think someone on the board had the same situation of letting the car idle and the neck having age cracks, finally lets go under the pressure.
Hope you come out ok on this
JR