Tonight, popped out 25 miles to the other side of London in my 1999 E39 528i - bit of traffic, but ran fine. Got to about 300yards from where i was going and noticed the red light on the dash had lit up on the temp gauge and it was in the red. Looked in the mirror and there was steam everywhere. My first response cannot be written on here, but then, i was immediately thinking the headgasket had gone. I drove it that last 300yards (could have been a big mistake?) because there really was nowhere to dump it on the side of the road in south east London. I opened the bonnet and there was coolant spraying out in the region of an electrical connection on the left side of the rad about halfway down (kinda opposite the power steering reservoir). Couldnt see a lot more because it was too dark and the torch was rubbish. Recovery man came (i just asked for a flatbed to get it home) - he seemed annoyed that noone had looked at it first. He insisted on putting water in it and driving it onto the truck - it only took about 2-3pints before the expansion tank was full - it started fine, no white smoke and drove straight onto the flatbed. When i had got it home it looked like all of that water had leaked out again as there was a puddle under the car. Its sat on my drive waiting to be pressure tested when i get the gear off of my neighbour tommorrow!
Does this sound to you guys like i just have a leak and it wasnt the head gasket? - just seems strange the amount of steam that seemed to be behind me when i was stopped (i.e. possibly out of the exhaust)? After i had noticed and whilst the engine was still running, the car wasnt missing a beat at all if that tells us anything. If it has lost this water and the headgasket hasnt gone, is the head gasket now a timebomb waiting to break?
Thanks in advance for any help and thanks even more for any re-assurance this is not going to cost me a fortune! The gutting thing is, i was going to fix a few bits on my land rover, then take the BMW off of the road to overhaul the coolant system and do the VANOS seals because of the posts i'd read on here!
Does this sound to you guys like i just have a leak and it wasnt the head gasket? - just seems strange the amount of steam that seemed to be behind me when i was stopped (i.e. possibly out of the exhaust)? After i had noticed and whilst the engine was still running, the car wasnt missing a beat at all if that tells us anything. If it has lost this water and the headgasket hasnt gone, is the head gasket now a timebomb waiting to break?
Thanks in advance for any help and thanks even more for any re-assurance this is not going to cost me a fortune! The gutting thing is, i was going to fix a few bits on my land rover, then take the BMW off of the road to overhaul the coolant system and do the VANOS seals because of the posts i'd read on here!