Thermostat

[stevetigger]

Is mine broken?

When car warms up, the top rad hose is warm and the bottom one is cold!

[cliffybabe]

Is mine broken?

When car warms up, the top rad hose is warm and the bottom one is cold!

I think thats how mine is mate, and i have just had a new thermostat

[stevetigger]

That sounds good!

[Brianmoooore]

When car warms up, the top rad hose is warm and the bottom one is cold!

Shows the rads doing its job then! What were you expecting?

[stevetigger]

When car warms up, the top rad hose is warm and the bottom one is cold!

Shows the rads doing its job then! What were you expecting?

Silly me, I was expecting all the pipes to be warm

All good then, shows that the little 318i rad does the job well in an M50 engined E30

[Bob_S]

why not upgrade the rad to the 520 or 525 one like in the IS?

[stevieg]

Mine was the same and also running cool,i inspected the thermostat and it had broke,one of the metal arms holding the spring in place had snapped so water was just running through with no restriction,one new thermostat later and the bottom hose was getting hot and temp gauge was spot on,just under halfway.They system can also be a bugger to bleed,i found the best method was to disconnect the top hose from the rad and pour the water straight in from there,it runs past the pump and fills the rad up from the bottom,eventually the water will run out of the top of rad,reconnect the hose and top up the expansion tank,then run the car with the bleed screw (next to the expansion tank cap) unscrewed until all the air hisses out and you get a steady stream of water,job done.

[Brianmoooore]

,i inspected the thermostat and it had broke,one of the metal arms holding the spring in place had snapped

Very common. I would go so far as to say that MOST original BMW thermostats end up this way.