coupe water pump

J

jeffreyt

Member
Was looking forward to getting a Z4 coupe but have just been reading about the electric water pump problem.
Evidently you get no warning as the electrics just let go and car undriveable.
Can any of you Z4 gurus who are familiar with this supposedly reliable 3L engine give me some laymans inf on the 'problem' .
I can then make an informed decision on whether it really is a problem .
Thanks
 
Basically a guarantee on the N52 engine which you will get in the Coupe, mine went at about 75k miles, on the motorway cruising along, the temps on the car shot up and wouldnt come back down however a full switch off, reset and restart saw the car be completely fine again meaning I could drive to work then get home again and then drive to the garage without any adverse effects. Cost wise I was about £600 in a BMW specialist.

My understanding is that the standard pump uses plastic impellers which over time wear away and eventually fail. I have owned my Coupe for I think 5 years now (covering about 60k miles) and that's the only thing that has failed although it is religiously serviced and anything that needs done is done.

The engines are generally bullet proof and ultra reliable when looked after well, I use my Zed as a daily and with the exception of that its never failed me. :thumbsup:

Edit: mixed up N52 and N54 :oops:
 
thanks very much,that's what I was hoping to hear.
Sounds like you treat it like a cambelt change, must be done if you can't find evidence of it already done, and £600 is not going to break the bank. Just something to take into account when buying .
 
Flyingfifer said:
Basically a guarantee on the N54 engine which you will get in the Coupe, mine went at about 75k miles, on the motorway cruising along, the temps on the car shot up and wouldnt come back down however a full switch off, reset and restart saw the car be completely fine again meaning I could drive to work then get home again and then drive to the garage without any adverse effects. Cost wise I was about £600 in a BMW specialist.

My understanding is that the standard pump uses plastic impellers which over time wear away and eventually fail. I have owned my Coupe for I think 5 years now (covering about 60k miles) and that's the only thing that has failed although it is religiously serviced and anything that needs done is done.

The engines are generally bullet proof and ultra reliable when looked after well, I use my Zed as a daily and with the exception of that its never failed me. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Hi, coupe uses the n52 engine - the e89 uses the n54 twin turbo :thumbsup:
The electronic pumps usually fail electrically & not mechanically, sometimes you get a warning with the cooling fan revving hard from cold but usually they just fail.
It’s not really a big deal as they’re only just over £200 to buy & last the best part of ten years/80k miles, if the car you buy hasn’t had a replacement just change it as a pre-emptive move, they easy to diy :thumbsup:
Rob
 
They can be bought for £250 on eBay (only buy the Pierburg units) and I was charged £100 labour to fit it. As you say worth treating like a cambelt for peace of mind.
 
Smartbear said:
Hi, coupe uses the n52 engine - the e89 uses the n54 twin turbo :thumbsup:
The electronic pumps usually fail electrically & not mechanically, sometimes you get a warning with the cooling fan revving hard from cold but usually they just fail.
It’s not really a big deal as they’re only just over £200 to buy & last the best part of ten years/80k miles, if the car you buy hasn’t had a replacement just change it as a pre-emptive move, they easy to diy :thumbsup:
Rob
Click to expand...

Doh! Right enough, I mix them up because of the M54 and the N52 :rofl:

My understanding was though that its the wear of the plastic impeller blades that typically cause a failure not any electrical issues, I had the thermostat changed along with my water pump (as well as doing that while doing the pump)
 
Both of mine seem to have failed electrically as there was a fault stored in the OBD on the cars.

First time was in my E86 at 60K miles and 10 years and the other one was in an E91 325i at 135K miles and 12 years - but that may not have been it's first!

Just make sure you don't buy the pump from BMW like my Indy did the first time as they charge over £500 for them, so I got an £800 bill. :o
The second time he bought the pump elsewhere so a slightly more reasonable £540 bill.
 
Autodoc do one for £255 plus postage. Stuff from them is tracked and usually arrives within the week.
https://www.autodoc.co.uk/pierburg/10123765
 
jeffreyt said:
My understanding was though that its the wear of the plastic impeller blades that typically cause a failure not any electrical issues, I had the thermostat changed along with my water pump (as well as doing that while doing the pump)
Click to expand...

Where did you get that understanding from if you don’t mind me asking? Every failed pump I have dissected has been failure of the internal electronics. The mechanics seem well designed.

As others have said, plenty of the oem Pierburg units around for £200 - £250. It’s an easy diy or an hour labour at a garage. Around 22% of users on here reported a failure in a survey of 100 or so responses.

The back top engine (N52K) typically found in 2007 models onwards apparently had a revised design but it’s not clear if the electronics were any different. They do still fail but perhaps not at the same rate.
 
Is there any way to determine if the pump has been replaced?
Any visual indications?

Mine is a 2007 N52 at 125k and I've not changed the pump (yet!)
 
dhobbs said:
Is there any way to determine if the pump has been replaced?
Any visual indications?

Mine is a 2007 N52 at 125k and I've not changed the pump (yet!)
Click to expand...

Don’t think so. I guess you have the N52K?
 
ph001 said:
dhobbs wrote: ↑Tue Dec 08, 2020 11:03 am
Is there any way to determine if the pump has been replaced?
Any visual indications?

Mine is a 2007 N52 at 125k and I've not changed the pump (yet!)

Don’t think so. I guess you have the N52K?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure my 1st 3.0Si was an N52K as it was a "black-top" being built in October 2006, but the pump still died after 60K and 10 years. :o

BMW parts tend to have a date stamp on them, but parts BMW bought in may not have been marked that way!
 
Thanks. Mine has the black cover so assume that makes it a N52k.
Coming up for 8 years ownership and still going strong.
 
dhobbs said:
Is there any way to determine if the pump has been replaced?
Any visual indications?

Mine is a 2007 N52 at 125k and I've not changed the pump (yet!)
Click to expand...

I don't think so, but having seen the one that came off and the new one it is obvious which one was on the car for 90k miles from the state of cleanliness alone! A further 5k miles later and it still looks decidedly 'new' in comparison to the surrounding area. New bolts, too.
 
ph001 said:
jeffreyt said:
My understanding was though that its the wear of the plastic impeller blades that typically cause a failure not any electrical issues, I had the thermostat changed along with my water pump (as well as doing that while doing the pump)
Click to expand...

Where did you get that understanding from if you don’t mind me asking? Every failed pump I have dissected has been failure of the internal electronics. The mechanics seem well designed.
Click to expand...

Just noticed this, for some weird reason the quote of me isnt attributed to me lol :rofl:

Mostly from my own research into the failure, it seemed to all suggest that the plastic impeller fails over time leading to spiking temps :thumbsup:
https://bmwtuning.co/bmw-n52-engine-problems/
https://www.autobahnautomotive.com/blog/what-factors-lead-to-failure-of-electric-water-pump-in-bmw-
https://www.import-car.com/bmw-electric-water-pump-replacement/
 
My water pump also failed during driving at 70 on the outside lane of the m3 ,very little warning but luckily managed to get it onto hard shoulder before any damage occurred , paid about £260 pounds for the new pump was pretty straightforward to fit on the n52 engine , mileage will vary but you’ll get errors popping up when checking fault codes so don’t ignore them , 124k when mine went so lasted a long time , it’s worth doing as a preventative maintenance in my opinion
 
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