Issues

[Mitchen]

Firstly during a long drive today, I noticed that my temp gauge had creeped well over the midway point whilst sitting in traffic for a few minutes.. It all cooled once I got moving again and some air got through the kidney grills. When I reached my destination i left the engine running for 5 minutes and it stayed at the midway point. I changed my fan coupling with a new Hella one around 3-4000 miles ago.. So going to kick off if it's stopped working already! Could it be anything else?

Also just changed my rubber boot, had some poor excuses for hose clips between the ICV and the rubber boot, and the other air pipe that comes in at the side of the boot. Looking for ECP replacements, and managed to find a size on real OEM for the ICV clip.. but there's no clip listed at all on the diagram for the other air pipe.. does anyone else have a hose clip there, or has someone just added it on my car at some stage?


It's a 1990 320i for those who dont know.

[DHFiS]

A faulty thermostat?

[Mitchen]

New genuine BMW stat a couple of months back as well

[TPS]

Water Pump

[Mitchen]

Changed at the same time as the stat. For the record it's not over heating whilst driving, only when it was stationary for that 5 odd minutes in queuing traffic.

[TPS]

How hot is the heater?

[Mitchen]

You mean the inside heater? I had it set at about half way, and turned off with no air blowing.

[TPS]

Is it very hot, with the fan running, & it set all the way to hot?

[Mitchen]

When it's set to hot, and turned on. it is very hot! even when it's not turned on, it can still be hot.

But at the time of the overheat, it was set to midway and not turned on,

[Brianmoooore]

If the needle didn't get anywhere near the red sector, then I doubt if there's anything wrong. The temperature has to rise a little for the air coming off of the radiator to be hot enough to lock the viscous coupling.
The M40 engine uses the same coupling as a M20 engine, so the trigger temp. has to be higher than M40 running temp., which means it has to be past the centre.

The trigger relies on air from the centre of the radiator, so a partial blockage in this area, will result in a delay for the fan to switch on.

[zd3bx]

As Brian said, it's probably normal.

This "issue" is explained in the Wiki > http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... Temp_Gauge

If you have changed everything what the guys suggested above, then probably just the radiator left or just drain and renew the coolant?

[BenHar]

The M40 engine uses the same coupling as a M20 engine, so the trigger temp. has to be higher than M40 running temp.,

M40 running temp is higher than the M20.

Ben

[Mitchen]

Thanks all, just caught me off guard because it hadn't creeped above mid way since everything was changed a few months ago. But just went outside and let the engine run for a while and stayed at midway to a tee! Most of been a one off blip!

[jimbom30cab]

It could have just been the stat not fully opening, just a one off.