Exporter5389
New member
Hey guys, I need some help/advice.
So we picked up a 2016 520d F10 B47 engine (first BMW btw) the other day and immediately noticed a "low coolant" warning on the dash. Mentioned it to the dealer right away.
Anyway, after collecting it, we drove about 500m to fill up fuel and top up the coolant (we just used water since there was no coolant on hand). A few km into the freeway, we got an overheating warning saying to drive moderately. Pulled over, let the car cool for like 40 mins, and the warning disappeared. We then drove it to a safe spot to check things over.
Next morning, we checked the coolant again and the reservoir was completely empty. So there’s clearly a leak somewhere. We hooked up ISTA while driving home and noticed the coolant temps shot up once, threw a warning, and then dropped back down quickly. After that, it ran fine and temps were normal. We're thinking maybe it was air bubbles since the system wasn't properly bled and it was just water.
Diagnostics point to a possible EGR leak (couldn't find any other error codes ISTA), and we’re planning to take it to a mechanic who used to work at BMW and actually has the same engine in his own car. I phoned BMW about it and they said there's no active recall on this car for the EGR, and if it's faulty, they’d only replace the EGR valve, not the whole cooler. But they also mentioned the full EGR system replacement would be around R21k... which is wild. I did get the car for 100k under market value so I do have some wiggle room for repairs.
So here's my question: would it make more sense to just blank the EGR, stop the coolant flow to it, and map it out? That was kind of the plan anyway because I wanted to Stage 1 the car. Just don’t wanna waste money replacing something unnecessarily when a blank and map might fix it long-term.
Has anyone been through this or have advice? Just don't want to run into the EGR fire issue so I've parked it in the garage until I can get it to the mechanic.
So we picked up a 2016 520d F10 B47 engine (first BMW btw) the other day and immediately noticed a "low coolant" warning on the dash. Mentioned it to the dealer right away.
Anyway, after collecting it, we drove about 500m to fill up fuel and top up the coolant (we just used water since there was no coolant on hand). A few km into the freeway, we got an overheating warning saying to drive moderately. Pulled over, let the car cool for like 40 mins, and the warning disappeared. We then drove it to a safe spot to check things over.
Next morning, we checked the coolant again and the reservoir was completely empty. So there’s clearly a leak somewhere. We hooked up ISTA while driving home and noticed the coolant temps shot up once, threw a warning, and then dropped back down quickly. After that, it ran fine and temps were normal. We're thinking maybe it was air bubbles since the system wasn't properly bled and it was just water.
Diagnostics point to a possible EGR leak (couldn't find any other error codes ISTA), and we’re planning to take it to a mechanic who used to work at BMW and actually has the same engine in his own car. I phoned BMW about it and they said there's no active recall on this car for the EGR, and if it's faulty, they’d only replace the EGR valve, not the whole cooler. But they also mentioned the full EGR system replacement would be around R21k... which is wild. I did get the car for 100k under market value so I do have some wiggle room for repairs.
So here's my question: would it make more sense to just blank the EGR, stop the coolant flow to it, and map it out? That was kind of the plan anyway because I wanted to Stage 1 the car. Just don’t wanna waste money replacing something unnecessarily when a blank and map might fix it long-term.
Has anyone been through this or have advice? Just don't want to run into the EGR fire issue so I've parked it in the garage until I can get it to the mechanic.
