Acceptable amount of water loss?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Anonymous

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I've noticed my '03 3.0 loses a bit of coolant. I've been measuring the loss & it's around 250ml per 200-250 miles of mainly urban commuting (16 mile round trip). Longer journeys (200+ miles) on motorways don't seem to make much difference. I put a new radiator cap on which didn't make any difference.

Prime suspect is the expansion tank & if I'm doing that I guess I may as well do the thermostat & water pump too + any recommended hoses. The car has only done 66k miles but of course it's now 11 years old. Temp gauge is always dead centre.

I want to change to Evans Waterless Coolant & the zero operating pressure might sort the problem anyway but if it doesn't . . .

Is 250ml per 250 miles acceptable or should I start changing parts? As it stands, I'm only topping up every other week so it's no real hassle.
 
I've no experience of using Evans Waterless Coolant but whilst the promotional blurb is tempting and it's endorsed by the famous Ed China (of Terraclean snake oil fame) it's an expensive way of solving an issue that ought not exist. BMW engines are very satisfactorily cooled by a water based mix all over the world, far safer to track down the loss IMHO.

From the amounts involved I'd say you are on the right track with the usual suspects being the tank or a micro leak in a hose or even the radiator. Tiny stains will be the give-away :thumbsup:
 
No sign of any stains but in the early stages there never are.

I wasn't going to use the Evans to fix the problem but as an upgrade going forward.

BMW cooling systems are not the most robust & the use of plastic on the M52/M54 engines doesn't help. BMW also arranged an unnecessarily high operating pressure for the system - See German Auto Solutions for their take on the matter.

The Evans Waterless Coolant runs at zero pressure (Ed China took the cap off a running car at normal operating temperature without drama) so there's much less strain on components. The lack of oxygen in the coolant reduces the amount of internal corrosion (remember, aluminium 'furs up' ) which helps stop blockages.

Also, when it's done, it's done. No more annual (or bi-annual) coolant changes.
 
Are you talking about E90's or the latest F-series models? So what are they filled with? The latest OAT stuff has a service life of 5 years but the older stuff is 2 years. My old 635's handbook specified every 12 months but I doubt if many got that, especially out of the dealer network.
 
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