94 525i coolant air bleed valve

Ok guys, I'm a littled puzzled. No, I'm a lot puzzled. Added a little coolant (distilled water), & just for grins, I decided to go ahead and bleed the air just in case. I want to state at this point that the car is running very well. The temp gauge is solid on the middle mark and does not ever overheat. However, when I went to bleed it, no air, no water no anything came out of the bleed valve. WTF is going on?

You have no air in to your system. Imagine opening the expansion tank. And then closing it. No added air.

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Originally Posted by Monsignor

You have no air in to your system. Imagine opening the expansion tank. And then closing it. No added air.

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This ^ +1

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Were you adding water all the way to the top? ? Air bubbles and then water MUST come out. There is not enough coolant to full capacity. Turn your cabin heat to high, idle the cold engine until it reaches hot. Then pour water until it comes out of the bleed valve, while the engine is on. Then bleed as per normal.

You may need many litres. Repeat tomorrow. Then repeat 1 week later. Drive in between. If you still need alot of water at the last bled, something is wrong.

Let me add little something. I had the water pump replaced & the system flushed & bled by a very competent BMW technician about 6 mos. ago. The amount of water I added was less than a quart & I followed all the above mentioned procedures just as the Bentley manual indicated. All other vehicles I have ever bled the air from had solid water spewing after all the air was evacuated. It seems to me that the cooling system pressure should push hot water out of the bleed valve even if there is no air in the system. Is it possible the bleed valve is clogged, & will I damage anything if I push a thin wire down the bleed valve orifice to check it?

Thin wire fine to unblock. Do it cold - you don't want a face full of by-products.

I pushed a thin piece of wire thru the orifice and just as I suspected, it was clogged. It is now opened & working correctly.

excellent. thanks for the update, glad you got it working!

where is the bleeder valve located

Originally Posted by padgettba

where is the bleeder valve located

Depends on what engine you have...

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Originally Posted by NAVYMAN

Ok guys, I'm a littled puzzled. No, I'm a lot puzzled. Added a little coolant (distilled water), & just for grins, I decided to go ahead and bleed the air just in case. I want to state at this point that the car is running very well. The temp gauge is solid on the middle mark and does not ever overheat. However, when I went to bleed it, no air, no water no anything came out of the bleed valve. WTF is going on?

For future reference:

That should have been the first red flag for a blocked bleeder.