[Starless]

I finally did my expansion tank today! About time with 80K on the original one. It was easy, easy, easy and took me about 1.5 hours (2hrs with taking pictures). There are very good DIYs on this topic, but I figured you would not be complaining if I post a couple of more pictures. It's not intended as a complete diy guide but to supplement what's already available online.

 

[Rich_Jenkins]

Very nice job...Good clear pictures. :thumbup:

 

[968RACER]

Once again, awesome write up.

 

[Gryphon]

Nice job, it's good to see an engine bay that's not clean enough to eat from. At 80k you got your money out of that expansion tank.:thumbup:

 

[Starless]

Very nice job...Good clear pictures. :thumbup:

Once again, awesome write up.

Thank you!

Nice job, it's good to see an engine bay that's not clean enough to eat from. At 80k you got your money out of that expansion tank.:thumbup:

Believe it or not, the engine bay is actually not as bad as it seems on the pictures. The camera magnifies all the details making it look gross. But overall yeah, I do not get crazy over it
Thank you.

 

[SJBimmer]

Starless,

You do nice work man! This really adds a lot to the existing DIY's The pics give a nice clear perspective. Thanks

 

[Gryphon]

Thank you!

Believe it or not, the engine bay is actually not as bad as it seems on the pictures. The camera magnifies all the details making it look gross. But overall yeah, I do not get crazy over it
Thank you.

LOL, when I did my power steering flush, I had to clean around the area before I even wanted to think about opening the resevoir. My engine bay is filthy, and with road salt coming it's not gonna get any better.

 

[MicahO]

ANOTHER excellent DIY - even mentioned the manual tranny differences.

Nice! Thanks!

 

[Jahosafat]

Thanks so much man. Amazing work.

 

[mujjuman]

sweet. cant wait to tackle it this summer

 

[bshade1]

I followed these instructions and all went well removing the tank. However, I cannot for the life of me get the new tank to seat properly. I can see it needs to go down about a half a centimeter more but it won't budge. Am I missing something?

 

[P_T]

Good job, once again.

 

[Starless]

I followed these instructions and all went well removing the tank. However, I cannot for the life of me get the new tank to seat properly. I can see it needs to go down about a half a centimeter more but it won't budge. Am I missing something?

I'd say no. You need to push on it really hard to get it seated properly. I'm not sure if it's ok to use some lube on the mount (I did not use anything), but it's probably ok...I remember I used my body weight to push the tank into the mount so a considerable amount of force may be needed.

 

[bshade1]

Thanks. Yeah, I slept on it and lo and behold it slid into place this morning with marginal effort. Making sure the system is bled properly now and I should be good. Seems like a lot of fluid is going in in order for it to come out the bleed screw, but hey.....goin' with it.

 

[Starless]

Thanks. Yeah, I slept on it and lo and behold it slid into place this morning with marginal effort. Making sure the system is bled properly now and I should be good. Seems like a lot of fluid is going in in order for it to come out the bleed screw, but hey.....goin' with it.

Glad you figured everything out. In this write up I did not include bleeding instructions so make sure to use any other cooling system diy for correct procedure. It's very easy but ppl get air in the system all the time...Basically with the key in ignition 2 set the temp to max, fan speed to min and fill untill the coolant starts coming out of the bleeder screw hole.

Good luck!

 

[Ozymandias]

You know, those clips don't have to be removed. They just need to be pulled until they won't move anymore.

 

[bernoccoZHP]

Starless, Great DIY!!

I like to gently PRY things so for the final removal of the tank, from under the car I very GENTLY pried the bottom of the tank against adjoining housing members and one small pry (medium blade screwdriver) between the two bottom ports and POP! It came right off in about 30 seconds.

DISCLAIMER: Not responsible for heavy handed bruiser types that don't move slowly and carefully while putting pressure on plastic parts.... they can and will break if not treated with respect. Move slowly and listen carefully for cracking. If you hear cracking noises - STOP and try a different angle or tool.

Thanks again Starless, now I have to get back to figuring out a way to remove my fan clutch so I can change water pump and belts. BTW, my car has 78,500 Mi and the coolant looked like NEW! A good excercise non the less. eric

EDIT: I did a pry technique on the fan clutch as well. By taking a mediium pry bar (pry bars have a bend at the end) and wedging it between one of the bolt heads and the 32mm nut, you can break the clutch nut loose easily. Let me explain, since the nut is reverse thread (clockwise to loosen) put your pry bar on the passenger side (left side while looking at the engine from the front) of the pully between a pully mounting bolt head and the clutch nut itself - that will give you leverage on the pully to the left side. With that leverage you will be able to stabilize the pully as you apply pressue to the clutch nut to loosen it (to the right or clockwise). I simply used a large spread cresent (adjustable) wrench. With very little resistance the nut quickly broke loose. Once it has broken loose and because it is a very quality machine thread, you can remove the pry bar and literally start spinning the fan assembly in the clockwise direction to remove it. The clutch will have enough drag to bring the nut along, again because the machine quality of the thread is so good there is no thread resistance.

I hope this helps. I have not seen a DIY on removing the fan clutch - should I do one for those of us who like to approach things from a backyard mechanic point of view?

eric

 

[bernoccoZHP]

Bump - new info above about FAN CLUTCH REMOVAL

 

[Starless]

Bump - new info above about FAN CLUTCH REMOVAL

Congrats on your successful diy experience! I'm glad you found the info useful. There are plenty of clutch removal diys on the bmw forums and web pages, however it's always a good thing to share your own experience with the project! :thumbup:

 

[rlpete01]

Thanks for the DIY, looks like I am getting ready to do this myself. Bought my 325i with 67,000 and was hoping that it had already been changed, however Thursday night the coolant started leaking. My car now has 95,000 so I guess it is time. I refilled the system and ran it until it was up to temp and looked for leaks but do not see any. I would appreciate any pointers on where and what to look for, if I am going to work on it I might as well take care of any leaks. Thanks.