Hi gents. I have a problem my e36 316I is using a hell of alot of water. I have to keep filling it up. I have recently put a new radiator in as the old one was cracked. Taking the oil filler cap off I don't see any sludge build up or water in the oil as to say head is cracked. In the front its got a black arm which the radiator hose goes into.upon moving this arm it's sounds like water pressure seeping through but I do not know if this would be enough to cause it. I litteraly can drive 60kms and then the car will have lost a lot of water. Temp gauge only starts going up once water is almost gone. And there's alot of pressure build up. Any ideas?
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Using water rapidly
- Thread starter E36mike
- Start date
When I installed new radiator I put antifreeze and water. After which it has i started car up and bleed it with the screw on top of the radiator until no bubbles showed. I see the arm in front by the belts is leaking water when I apply pressure and jiggle it around. You reckon that could cause alot of water lose?
prado
Active member
A worn water pump just may be one of the problems. One of the symptoms may be noisy pulleys especially on starting. I had this problem with noisy pulleys and water loss (E39 528i), and initially thought that the fan clutch was worn. Upon removing the water pump, we found it was really worn out.
I replaced the pump and touch wood, no more water loss and overheating!
That was my experience. I could not find any trace of leak physically. Hope you have a good mechanic to look at your car.
Good luck!
I replaced the pump and touch wood, no more water loss and overheating!
That was my experience. I could not find any trace of leak physically. Hope you have a good mechanic to look at your car.
Good luck!
Hi thanks for the advice everyone. I have heard some noise on the pulleys or belts like water in the morning when starting. As for the diagram above its number 4 not exactly the same but it is that arm. When I pump the water pump from the radiator to get pressure going i then jiggle this arm around and water is seeping through am going to be looking at this tomorrow. Hope its not a mission to change or fix the arm never taken it off?
Erm, that flange/thermostat housing is not supposed to jiggle around under normal circumstances, so check whether bolts #9 and #10 are tight. Here's the first replacement guide I found on the internet, and I'm sure there's a lot of similar guides out there: Guide. There's more pictures of the housing in this guide. Good luck!
Mike,
Any leak in a coolant system is a bad one - I chased a water leak on my e34, only to find out it was heater pipes from the head to the firewall that were not tight, it would lose water rather rapidly. I only picked the issue up after a drive, and I had the car switched off once it hit operating temperature.
This shouldn't be a difficult thing to check - remove the housing, make sure mating faces are debris free and clean. Make sure you refit new O-rings, and my guess is that these are not your run of the mill O-rings, these you may have to source from BMW, due to odd ball manufacturing sizes....Thanks BMW.
Any leak in a coolant system is a bad one - I chased a water leak on my e34, only to find out it was heater pipes from the head to the firewall that were not tight, it would lose water rather rapidly. I only picked the issue up after a drive, and I had the car switched off once it hit operating temperature.
This shouldn't be a difficult thing to check - remove the housing, make sure mating faces are debris free and clean. Make sure you refit new O-rings, and my guess is that these are not your run of the mill O-rings, these you may have to source from BMW, due to odd ball manufacturing sizes....Thanks BMW.
ok so today I pressure tested the system pulled on the thermostat housing and it pissed water out.
So I removed housing the thermostat is broken off the housing.
I have left it out and refitted the housing.
added coolant and bleed system thru top screw on radiator.
now my car is doing like 10kms then starts overheating.
am thinking do these E36 316i's need this double acting thermostats
before removing it I was able to go a lot further.
do I buy a new housing or strip for head gasket
got a little white smoke coming from exhaust but not excessively it starts fine I run it without radiator cap and I see it starts bubbling seems to be like a lot of pressure build up or air.
gonna try get a block tester.
So I removed housing the thermostat is broken off the housing.
I have left it out and refitted the housing.
added coolant and bleed system thru top screw on radiator.
now my car is doing like 10kms then starts overheating.
am thinking do these E36 316i's need this double acting thermostats
before removing it I was able to go a lot further.
do I buy a new housing or strip for head gasket
got a little white smoke coming from exhaust but not excessively it starts fine I run it without radiator cap and I see it starts bubbling seems to be like a lot of pressure build up or air.
gonna try get a block tester.
I suffered several cracked housings on my E36 until I replaced my faulty thermostat in conjunction and then things settled. Hence my theory above that it was leaking at the thermostat housing. You confirmed my theory when you mentioned that you could jiggle the thermostat housing, since it should not jiggle one little bit! You should be fine in terms of the head, assuming you didn't let it go too far into the red. All the best and I hope you get this sorted quickly!
