E30 Zone

hey all , my is started overheating to just below the red last week while in traffic , needle falls to halfway under normal driving but while in traffic or at idle it rises again .

After a search on here I decided to treat the car to a new viscous coupling and some new coolant ( new thermostat too while I was at it )

Dropped the car into my local garage this morning , picked it up this evening and it's worse then ever . Now it overheats into the red and hardly comes down at all regardless of whether I'm on the open road or not .

No mayo/gunk anywhere to be seen , I did a quick newspaper test when I got back home and I managed to stop the fan which I presume it shouldn't .

Any ideas on what my problem could be ? water pump ? air lock ? Any help would be greatly appreciated .

Cheers

Are the rad hoses really bloody hot?

Withought seeing it, but given what you've replaced, I'd be tempted to say that it may not be overheating at all. Wether its because theres an airlock, fault with the temp sender or cluster I don't know.

If the viscous fan is working as it should you should not be able to stop it with newspaper when hot, but thats assuming it is hot and the needle isn't misreading the temperature.

The top rad hose was hot to the touch but I was able to wrap my hand around and keep it there so probably not "really bloody hot" it was dark and I'd a toddler chancing an escape to the main road so I didn't investigate further .

I'm supposed to be on the road at 6 tomorrow for a 3 hour drive to a funeral ... should I stay at home or is there any easy checks ( I'm a spanner idiot ) I can do in the morning .

Cheers for the quick response march109

Are you a member of the aa or rac?

No .

Not yet anyway !

Does the heater work?

Brian ,

Heater has been working but not great , either very hot turned up full or tepid at virtually anything less which is why I changed the thermostat .

Had it on full for the drive home this evening (15 mins) and didn't notice any heat although the engine apparantely found the time to overheat !

chances are then it hasn't been bled properly (if at all) by the garage that did the work for you.

which also means its not overheating, but until you sort it I wouldn't go on any long journeys, you;ll be a bit short of light in the morning but it can be done, give me 5mins and I'll find a link for you to another thread with details and tips on bleeding the cooling system.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... ing+system

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... ing+system

First link is better,

March109 , Brian ,

Will try first thing , thanks very much for all the help .

If the heater isn't working, then it's airlocked. If you'd done the work yourself, then I'd recomend you fill the coolant tank right up, pull off the upper heater hose , let the air and a little coolant out, then refit the hose, but since the muppets who did the work are responsible, I'd tread carefully.
They fu**ed it up, so they put it right, and get things in writing, as BMW heads don't take kindly to overheating.
I'd be asking them to finance a hire car for tomorrow, as well.

Brian ,

I will definitely be having words but I can't reach the garage until 9 . If I bleed the system as you suggest and all is well after a 20 minute spin around the block could I assume a lucky escape and at least attempt a journey ?

If the temp gauge behaves itself afterwards there's nothing to be lost by driving it. A can of water in the boot wouldn't be a bad idea, and watch the temp gauge.

March109 , Brian ,

Thanks very much for all your help , car was bled yesterday morning and 350 miles later is still going strong with a heater that's hot and an engine temp that sits below half way no matter what the conditions .

Local garage have apologised profusely and offered a free service but think I'll take her elsewhere next time or better still do it myself .

Thanks again