Has anyone out there had any experience in replacing their waterpump? Mine is just starting to growl a little, so I am assuming that it's about to go BANG!!
From looking at the engine it looks a fairly simple task, the only worry being bleeding the water system after fitment. There appears to be a valve on the expansion tank for connecting an airline to. What is it for??
If it is going to be a pig to bleed the system I would rather let my BMW dealer do the work...So if anyone out there has done theirs can they give me info!!!!
My water pump seized a few weeks back just as I was pulling into the carpark at work. Seized solid, belts slipping, lots of smoke and burning smell, very frightening !
BMW Emergency Service came out and the mechanic was able to replace it in the carpark in about an hour or so. I didn't stay to watch him do it but I can only assume that it can't have been too difficult or required too much in the way of specialised kit given the location and that he managed to do it with the normal kit he carries in the boot of his (rather nice) 530d Touring.
__________________
Ian
94 M5 Touring, 6speed etc
K&N filter, Kelleners front strut brace.
Ian,
I have decided not to mess with the pump myself due to disasterous results if i get it wrong!! Its booked in at my BMW agent, but they can't do it until a week on wed!! so I will have to do without it until then!
They quoted 283 pounds minus 10% discount so about 250 in all
That was for a new water pump a new alternator tensioning bracket and a full system of new water and coolant.
Do you know what the pump would cost on its own with no fitting??
As you already have booked in a the BMW agent this come a little bit too late but I have just recently replaced my waterpump on my M5 -90. No special problem, I had to get a thin wrench to loosen the fan coupling. The pump itself costed about 110 £ in Sweden (but you have to return the old one). I didn't manage to bleed the system completely so any suggestions about that topic would be appreciated.
The waterpump cost me £85.08 (£99.97 including VAT) and the gasket a whole 68p (80p inc VAT).
In total, with antifreeze it cost me £116.74 inclusive, under the Emergency Service scheme I didn't have to pay labour (although interestingly if I'd had the car recovered to a dealer and the work done there I would have been billed).
I'm not sure how long he took to do my car but it only felt like about an hour. Maybe I'm wrong as I was doing other things. I'd have thought it would be even quicker in a delaership so the labour cost seems a little high, but I couldn't be certain.
Hope this helps
__________________
Ian
94 M5 Touring, 6speed etc
K&N filter, Kelleners front strut brace.
Mike K-
To answer your questions about the coolant system and what the little air hose valve is for, there are only two tricks to it when you change/flush the coolant system. The first is that there is a place by the back of the engine near the firewall where you bleed the excess air in the system after a complete drain. This is to elliminate hot spots from air bubbles. For the location of it, refer to your owners manual (yes, it's actually inthere!!!). The other is the valve you mentioned. After you have gotten all the air out of the system, you want to pressurize the system (at cold temp.) to 7psi. This ensures the optimum efficiency of the system (kind of like a pressure cooker). As for the replacement of the water pump itself, it does look straight forward. I haven't done mine (yet!), but I probably will soon as a preventative measure. Hope this helps you out.
Nene
PS: Remember when you do a complete drain to have the heater on full hot temp to open the valve by the firewall. Otherwise you could have old coolant trapped, along with air (read: No good!)
So if you pressurise the system to 7psi, surely every time you open the water expansion tank cap you will need to repressurise the system. I never do that?? Does anyone else repressurise the system after topping up with water?
Thanks for the info though Nene.
Mike K-
Yeah, you are supposed to re-pressurize the system every time you top it off, but really you shouldn't have to add any fluid if the system is not leaking. Have you done a leak down test on your cooling system? You might want to try it. It's especially easy on our cars, as you don't need a special pressure reading radiator cap or anything. Just pressurize the system to about 12-15psi and let it sit for a little bit. Then check it to see if the pressure stays. If it does, good. If not, then you have a problem somewhere. Also, it doesn't hurt to check the pressure every now and then.
water pump
Linear Mode
