Possible Waterpump?

C

coupedan

Member
 West Berkshire
Guys.. I need your help!

Driving up the motorway yesterday morning, went into the outside lane to overtake someone and the temp gauge without warning shot into the red, dash "Bleeped" and the right light on the temp gauge was flashing.

Managed to get across to the hard shoulder, probably about 10 seconds of driving with the temp in the red.

My immediate thought was cracked header tank / loss of coolant as when I looked in the engine bay the top of the header tank (Around the neck) was wet.

Now, managed to get recovered home and let the car cool down.
I have checked the coolant level and the float is just above minimum (Hasn't lost a lot of coolant)

Next thought's were the dreaded water pump...

I ran the car up and let it sit at idle until the temp gauge showed the "normal operating temp" turned on the blower fan and set the heat to maximum.
There wasn't any hot / warm air coming through.

I felt the top hose from the rad and I could push it (System not pressurised) but it was warm to touch.

Next I tried the "coolant vent process" but couldn't hear any signs of the pump activating.

Now does this mean I have a knackered water pump?
Do we know if there is anywhere that will tell me what fuses the pump uses as I would like to check those before going ahead with a pump change.

Also, how difficult is this of a job to do at home? I am fairly competent with spanners but don't have a ramp so it would need to go on axle stands etc.

Any advice would be great as I can't drive my Zed at the mo :(

2006 N52 Coupe 3.0si

Cheers,
Dan
 
with the engine idling and car up to temp is there a stream of coolant coming into the header tank if the cap is off? If not, then its goosed.


its not hard job its easily accessable and the part isnt as earth shattering as it was
 
Sounds like a water pump issue, mine had the same a few months back, cruising along the motorway, car beeped, looked at the dash temp is at max, instantly pulled over as I did the temps dropped, checked coolant levels all appeared ok, started the car again went to normal temp then as I pulled away it went to max again, full shutdown and restart of the engine seemed to clear it but booked it straight in at the local specialist to be checked... £600 for the water pump and thermostat to be fixed :cry:

EDIT: That was at about 75k miles
 
Flyingfifer said:
Sounds like a water pump issue, mine had the same a few months back, cruising along the motorway, car beeped, looked at the dash temp is at max, instantly pulled over as I did the temps dropped, checked coolant levels all appeared ok, started the car again went to normal temp then as I pulled away it went to max again, full shutdown and restart of the engine seemed to clear it but booked it straight in at the local specialist to be checked... £600 for the water pump and thermostat to be fixed :cry:

EDIT: That was at about 75k miles
Click to expand...

That's good to know - definitely sounds water pump related.
I'm currently just under 120k so not too bad (Owned the car since 40k) and no history of ever being done.

Does anyone know if or where fuses are to just double check as I have read online of people replacing pumps for the same thing to happen and it be a fuse? (Albeit not Z4 related)
 
jamie_z4 said:
with the engine idling and car up to temp is there a stream of coolant coming into the header tank if the cap is off? If not, then its goosed.


its not hard job its easily accessable and the part isnt as earth shattering as it was
Click to expand...

Not too sure to be honest, that's one thing I didn't check..

Do you know if there are any aftermarket resellers as the OEM part seems to be at about £500?
 
Sounds like a water pump failure - my first one did it at 60K miles and the temp. gauge shot up in seconds. :(

Mind you if you got 120K out of yours that's pretty good!

I pulled every fuse one at a time in the vain hope that was the solution, but of course it wasn't!

Anyway thanks to the power of the forum you may find this helpful:- http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38888

But I couldn't find a mention of the water pump on it - is there an ancillary fusebox in the engine bay I wonder?

You can find out for sure if you have access to a fault code reader - mine had thrown up a fault when I took it to my local BMW indy.

Hope you get it sorted with minimal hassle and cost. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for all of the replies guys :thumbsup:

Car is off the road for sometime now as I haven't got the time to get it sorted between now and end of September :(
Going to miss driving it for now..
 
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