Electric water pump alternative

Patrick1964 · Post by **Patrick1964** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:58 pm

With the Si engine using an electric water pump which seems to be troublesome I wonder if anyone has tried using a Davies Craig EWP as an alternative?
It would seem to me to be a great option, as it does away with the original thermostat. https://daviescraig.com.au/electric-water-pumps - that said I don’t know if the original pump can be removed, gutted and refitted with no intervals or if there are any ECU issues that may occur.

In a previous life I worked at Demon Tweeks and we sold a lot of these.

Smartbear · Post by **Smartbear** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:07 pm

Patrick1964 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:58 pm With the Si engine using an electric water pump which seems to be troublesome I wonder if anyone has tried using a Davies Craig EWP as an alternative?
It would seem to me to be a great option, as it does away with the original thermostat. https://daviescraig.com.au/electric-water-pumps - that said I don’t know if the original pump can be removed, gutted and refitted with no intervals or if there are any ECU issues that may occur.

In a previous life I worked at Demon Tweeks and we sold a lot of these.

Hi, how long did these pumps last for? The pierburg pump seems to go for ten years/70k miles or so?
Rob

ph001 · Post by **ph001** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:36 pm

Can’t see how it would be compatible with the bit serial data interface, let alone be mechanically compatible. Sounds like it would be a ton of work with a stock ecu. Perhaps more aimed at the track guys or custom builds.

Patrick1964 · Post by **Patrick1964** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:36 pm

They are well proven, and I don’t recall any coming back under warranty whilst I worked there. That was quite a while ago, though. I just thought the info may be of interest.

rally-chris · Post by **rally-chris** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:44 pm

Why bother? An OEM pump is only a couple of hundred pounds and if replaced now will probably see out the life of most Z4s currently on the road....

Patrick1964 · Post by **Patrick1964** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:57 pm

I thought they were a lot more than that ? As you were, then

Jl-c · Post by **Jl-c** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:59 pm

Patrick1964 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:57 pm I thought they were a lot more than that ? As you were, then

from BMW about £500, from other suppliers (still Pierburg) about £240

Capa · Post by **Capa** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:54 pm

Jl-c wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:59 pm
Patrick1964 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:57 pm I thought they were a lot more than that ? As you were, then
from BMW about £500, from other suppliers (still Pierburg) about £240

This. Whilst I'm all for ingenuity, it does kinda feel like a lot of effort for scant reward.

Zedtastic · Post by **Zedtastic** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:03 pm

I thought they were a lot more expensive too (I think I heard someone say £750 - but maybe that was including fitting at a stealer). I guess at around £240 its not worth considering an alternative.

Just out of curiosity - is this the type of thing people replace before failure - or wait till the old one dies? Mines on the original pump and on 87K miles.

Capa · Post by **Capa** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:11 pm

Mine's on OE at 108k. I would very much like to swap it before it kicks the bucket.

ph001 · Post by **ph001** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:19 pm

Zedtastic wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:03 pm Just out of curiosity - is this the type of thing people replace before failure - or wait till the old one dies? Mines on the original pump and on 87K miles.

I think most people buy RAC membership and wait until they die. Despite the horror warnings of cooked engines, I'm not aware of anybody on here that has it fail on them and subsequently had engine problems. And that includes those that crawled home with the temperature gauge off the scale!

davelo · Post by **davelo** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 3:04 pm

ph001 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 2:19 pm
I think most people buy RAC membership and wait until they die. Despite the horror warnings of cooked engines, I'm not aware of anybody on here that has it fail on them and subsequently had engine problems. And that includes those that crawled home with the temperature gauge off the scale!

The first indication I had with my E90 330i (same N52 engine) was that the cooling fan was running excessively in traffic. I noticed the noise from it. It has no temperature gauge to monitor, and there were no warning lights. When I got home I scanned for fault codes and it had logged a coolant pump speed deviation code. I drove it (carefully!) some distance to have the pump replaced, and everything appeared normal on that trip, so I agree, they certainly don't necessarily just die without warning.

For info, that original coolant pump in the 330i lasted around 13 years / 130 000 km.

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