BMW Cooling System Failure Rennsport Kansas City

Sep 24 2012 porschedoc BMW 3 Comments

Had this little BMW Z3 come in on the hook the other day as steam was rolling out the hood! Typical BMW cooling system failure, and this one took out pretty much everything it could! BMW cooling systems are their weak link, and IMHO, they should be gone through every 60-70k miles.

Up and ready to go.

The cause of this issue was a failed water pump bearing. But wait…..it took out more than just the water pump.

New pump installed with a new pulley.

When the water pump bearing started to let go, it will start wobbling violently as the fan runs off the end of the pump. The fan then hits the radiator and shroud and shatters. Here we have a new fan and fan clutch to install.

Fan installed.

The wobble cracked the water pump pulley, the fan hit the radiator shroud breaking the plastic mounting points…..

And the fan got into the radiator rendering it scrap as well.

New pump, hoses, radiator, shroud, fan, pulley, belt, and fan clutch and we were back in business.

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3 Comments

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lin

September 25, 2012 at 6:59 AM

You made that look easy!

Jonathan Lackman

September 25, 2012 at 10:39 PM

are your comments about BMW cooling limited to Z3, or is that a weakness across all BMW models? what about the z4, or z4 M?

    porschedoc

    September 26, 2012 at 8:34 AM

    This applies to all BMW’s since the e36. The Achilles heel has always been the cooling system for BMW’s.

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