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Coolant problems or just hot weather?

3K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  fdriller9 
#1 ·
I bought an 08 E70 in Sep 2012 with 30000 miles. Since then I have put on about 23k miles, mostly highway driving.

I have had to top the coolant off 2 times already in the Fall/Winter. Today while driving in stop and go highway traffic the warning came on again, immediately followed by the red warning to shut down the engine. I pulled over, and heard the fan revving up.

After about 30 minutes I opened the coolant tank to see the level just below the Min tab, maybe about 1/4". I judged this by shaking the car a bit to see it sloshing around.

I had my buddy bring me distilled water to get the level back to normal and will go get BMW coolant tomorrow.

I keep the car garaged and have a very clean floor, so I don't suspect leaks. But I'm thinking its not normal to top off coolant that often in the course of 23000 miles of driving. But it's my first X5 so maybe it's normal, and perhaps today's incident was attributed to the excessive heat in the NE and sitting in stop-go traffic.

Thoughts? Other things I should look at under the good?


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#2 · (Edited)
I bought an 08 E70 in Sep 2012 with 30000 miles. Since then I have put on about 23k miles, mostly highway driving.

I have had to top the coolant off 2 times already in the Fall/Winter. Today while driving in stop and go highway traffic the warning came on again, immediately followed by the red warning to shut down the engine. I pulled over, and heard the fan revving up.

After about 30 minutes I opened the coolant tank to see the level just below the Min tab, maybe about 1/4". I judged this by shaking the car a bit to see it sloshing around.

I had my buddy bring me distilled water to get the level back to normal and will go get BMW coolant tomorrow.

I keep the car garaged and have a very clean floor, so I don't suspect leaks. But I'm thinking its not normal to top off coolant that often in the course of 23000 miles of driving. But it's my first X5 so maybe it's normal, and perhaps today's incident was attributed to the excessive heat in the NE and sitting in stop-go traffic.

Thoughts? Other things I should look at under the good?

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Sounds like your electric water pump is failing, this can be checked with a code reader, seems to be a common issue .
 
#3 ·
1. You should NOT be losing coolant like this. I suspect a cracked coolant tank.

2. ADDITIONALLY, the electric water pump may be failing. DO NOT RUN THE MOTOR when you see the temp climb- the $$$ due to the ruined motor will make that $1200 water pump seem very cheap.
 
#4 ·
I dropped it off at a local Indy shop this morning. On the 5 minute drive over to them the fan came on loud as it did yesterday, but the engine never got hot enough to give the overheat warning.

On initial inspection they thought the pump and radiator were leaking, and the codes seemed to confirm it. I had to travel so I took a rental and left it with them so they can call me with a more detailed analysis....

Not optimistic...




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#5 ·
I hate reading these posts about waterpumps on E70s....next month I was planning on taking mine on a 700 mile round trip road trip.....I am at 51,500 miles....I feel better about taking my E53 that has only 31K miles.....I can just picture the check engine light going on and being in limp mode on the jersey turnpike....ruining the whole trip.


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#7 · (Edited)
I hate reading these posts about waterpumps on E70s....next month I was planning on taking mine on a 700 mile round trip road trip.....I am at 51,500 miles....I feel better about taking my E53 that has only 31K miles.....I can just picture the check engine light going on and being in limp mode on the jersey turnpike....ruining the whole trip.

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It's around that mileage when waterpumps break (around 45k-70k miles) especially year model '07-08's. It can't even be inspected since it is electric waterpump. If it breaks it just stops working, no leaks or noise aside from loud fan when it's already not working based from my experience. BMW replaced mine when it was almost 50k under warranty and I am planning of replacing it again as soon as I will hit 100k broken or not. If only this will not leave me stranded then I could wait 'til it breaks before replacing.:(
 
#6 · (Edited)
Well, the shop rendered their verdict. $850 will be the cost to replace the pump, thermostat and also address a small radiator leak.

I'm not usually a gambling man, but last night I decided to see where $200 would go at blackjack at the local casino. Luckily it went far and I've made more than enough to cover the repair bill.....

I wish I had read about these problems before. I wish I had reached out to the community when I had to top off the coolant a few months ago for the second time since buying it in Sept 2012. I don't know that the repair bill would have been much different, but at least the issue would have been behind me now.

bmw_Jeff - for peace of mind, why not go have your pump and coolant system looked at to see if it has any signs of this apparent common problem. If the mechanic gives it a green light, you should be ok...hopefully.

Oh, and one more part of the story....when the car initially crapped out with the red 'stop the car now!" warning, I called BMW assist since I paid the $200 for it when I got the car. They were unable to find me a road side assistance service that could bring me the right kind of coolant. This was on a Thursday around 630pm, in the Brooklyn area of NYC. They could have gladly had me towed though. That's when I opted to have my friend bring me the distilled water to see if it would help (which it did enough to get me where I needed to be and the next morning to the local shop).
 
#8 ·
13 months left on my CPO warranty....it's funny that I'm hoping it fails so that I have it covered......i already had the radiator replaced at 44K.....I'm taking my E53 on the road trip next month


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#10 ·
Water pump failures on these engines are really hit or miss. There is no tell tale signs of an approaching failure either besides scanning your DME for a "deviated flow rate" shadow fault. Even then, that fault doesn't always pop up.

My pump last till 85k and died on the parkway. :/

These electric pumps just fail. The housing cracks and the coolant shorts the circuit board inside. That's why there is little warning. Once the PCB shorts, it's done.
 
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