Bmw Z4 35is 2013 Overheating

[Crater]

Hi everyone, I'd like to start off by saying i'm new to the car this was the first ever car purchase i have made so be easy on me because i made some mistakes along the way.
To try and make a long story short i purchased my car approx. 3 months ago, my father told me to take it in to get serviced asap and with my excitement for my new car and my busy schedule i delayed it. long story short my lovely car overheated while taking me and my gf to the mall and i pulled to side as soon as possible. I didn't leave the car on for anymore than 30 seconds after the overheating symbol popped up and I lost power to the engine. upon inspection there was no coolant leaks down the rode and nothing in the engine bay, on top of that nothing had been in my driveway since i got the vehicle. I let the engine cool down and checked my coolant. i was below the min line but could see some coolant in the reservoir. I filled her up and ran the vehicle cautiously for the next 2 or 3 days. I attempted to take us up to the mall again and i turned the temp readings on for my coolant and during the hour total drive the temps stayed completely normal even on the highway going 80+. this is where the story takes a turn for the worst. one night might drunken sister needed a ride so i got up and left, on the way back my engine was warmed up so i ran the car a little bit to see how it would handle under light load, i put it in manual and ran the rpms up to 3-4k a couple times and then the engine started to become less responsive again so i eased off knowing what was coming. the overheating error popped up again. i immediately stopped the vehicle. i opened the hood to discover some coolant had sprayed into my engine bay from where my coolant reservoir is onto the cover for my engine block. there was a trail of coolant down the rode but upon opening my reservoir it was seemingly near full. i let it cool off as i waited for my dad to pick me up with the trailer and once we were there he decided he wanted me to drive it back to our office. i drove home with the coolant cap off so it didn't build pressure and he followed me home. he said it didn't leak at all on the way back and i got no overheating symbol. If anyone could help me figure out what the issue is it would help my tremendously as im young and dont have the funds to take her in and spend thousands trying to find what's wrong.


as for what i'm doing while i wait. i have a block tester coming in today to test my headgasket and i'm gonna plug my car into my dads computer to see what kind of codes i have.

[Crater]

Hi everyone, I'd like to start off by saying i'm new to the car this was the first ever car purchase i have made so be easy on me because i made some mistakes along the way.
To try and make a long story short i purchased my car approx. 3 months ago, my father told me to take it in to get serviced asap and with my excitement for my new car and my busy schedule i delayed it. long story short my lovely car overheated while taking me and my gf to the mall and i pulled to side as soon as possible. I didn't leave the car on for anymore than 30 seconds after the overheating symbol popped up and I lost power to the engine. upon inspection there was no coolant leaks down the rode and nothing in the engine bay, on top of that nothing had been in my driveway since i got the vehicle. I let the engine cool down and checked my coolant. i was below the min line but could see some coolant in the reservoir. I filled her up and ran the vehicle cautiously for the next 2 or 3 days. I attempted to take us up to the mall again and i turned the temp readings on for my coolant and during the hour total drive the temps stayed completely normal even on the highway going 80+. this is where the story takes a turn for the worst. one night might drunken sister needed a ride so i got up and left, on the way back my engine was warmed up so i ran the car a little bit to see how it would handle under light load, i put it in manual and ran the rpms up to 3-4k a couple times and then the engine started to become less responsive again so i eased off knowing what was coming. the overheating error popped up again. i immediately stopped the vehicle. i opened the hood to discover some coolant had sprayed into my engine bay from where my coolant reservoir is onto the cover for my engine block. there was a trail of coolant down the rode but upon opening my reservoir it was seemingly near full. i let it cool off as i waited for my dad to pick me up with the trailer and once we were there he decided he wanted me to drive it back to our office. i drove home with the coolant cap off so it didn't build pressure and he followed me home. he said it didn't leak at all on the way back and i got no overheating symbol. If anyone could help me figure out what the issue is it would help my tremendously as im young and dont have the funds to take her in and spend thousands trying to find what's wrong.


as for what i'm doing while i wait. i have a block tester coming in today to test my headgasket and i'm gonna plug my car into my dads computer to see what kind of codes i have.

[Chippie]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear you are having problems, first thing to do is scan the vehicle with a code reader, from your description I suspect it’s the electronic water pump that’s failing and when you scan it you will have fault codes relating to that, post back with the scan results and we may be able to give you more help.

[smorris_12]

Start with a code reader. The water pumps are electric and are prone to failure. You've likely got air trapped which is what is pushing out coolant rather than a blown head gasket.

There is a bleed sequence you can initialise to get rid of air and should let you hear if the pump runs at all.

[B21]

Almost certainly either a failed water pump and / or thermostat…

Big jobs find a good Indy

Decent BMW specific fault code reader will show the isdue if used why car is in fault mode..

[matsmith749]

Yeh - very likely either the water pump or thermostat has failed - common on these cars.

It almost doesn't matter which, you replace both at the same time.

Code reader will tell you for sure as the water pump is electronic & will report the failure.

Costs not cheap - pump is around £400 (UK price - maybe $500 in the US), thermostat something like £100 ($150 US). Labour to change them out is something like 6 hours as they are buried right in there!

You are looking at maybe $1200 at an indy, $2000 at a dealer.

If you are short on cash, this might not be the right car for you. Fast car = big bills.

[Crater]

Block tester came back negative so that’s good, as for the obd2 code reader I used. It only read the engine, 0 active and 0 inactive faults. What code reader should I buy to check the rest of the system? Thanks guys for all the replies

[javis20]

Something BMW specific like Foxwell 530 for a hand held or Bimmergeeks ProTool for Android phones. I'm sure others will lots more options.

[matsmith749]

To be fair, the code reader is best used to isolate weird faults, or narrow things down.

Your car overheated & spat it's coolant..... the code reader will probably confirm what you are already sure of.