Water Leak

Post Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:42 pm

Right guys, my 318iS has just started losing a lot of water out of what looks to be the front of the block

Have any of you guys got any ideas what it could be, water pump seals or a gasket of somesort?

Cheers

Post Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:58 pm

Profile gasket?

http://www.mesaperformance.com/faqs/318tcpg.html

Post Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:09 pm

Water pump or thermostat housing.

From your description sounds more like water pump.

Post Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:19 pm

Chris, when you say the housing do you just mean a gasket on the housing?

Ziggy, i am beginning to think that it is the profile gasket, although in that link they said it tends to leak on the passenger side and mine looks more like its coming from the drivers side.

The car had been stood for about 8 weeks during the summer and has just had a coolant flush so i'm thinking one or both of those has had an effect!?!

Post Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:26 pm

Sorry, I know virtually nothing about the iS, having never owned one of them, but I do know that the profile gasket's a relatively common thing to go, and it's a head-off job IIRC

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:28 pm

Cheers for your help mate, thought i'd have the new style gasket on my car but looks like it must be the old dodgy one.

The water is now dripping out quite fast just when i fill the water and it's cold

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:32 pm

chuck some kalimex in there Dave, you know it makes sense

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 4:34 pm

already tried radweld, worked for about a day and now its much worse!

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:21 pm

that's because radweld is shite mate

www.kalimex.co.uk

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:23 pm

E30BeemerLad wrote:chuck some kalimex in there Dave, you know it makes sense

had a small leak after fitting a new water pump a couple weeks ago

chucked in a bottle of kalimex and it stopped in a couple minutes and has not returned

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:29 pm

do these engines have freeze plugs?

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:56 pm

Sod it, i'll make the call and find out who stocks i near me!!

Take it i'll have to fluch the old shite out then?

Think i'll still strip it all down, just this'll hopefully give me more time if it works, cross ya fingers for me

Post Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:03 pm

Still think it sounds more like the water pump. If it's coming out when you top up cold, it's probably coming straight out of the tell-tale.

Personally I wouldn't be pouring any snake-oil into the coolant system!

Post Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:40 pm

Changed the water pump and it's not sorted the water leak

Had it up on some ramps and the water looks to be coming from where the timing case joins the block, my guess now would be the profile gasket! What do you guys reckon, try and find a new engine or or do the garsket on this one along with the timing chain, bearing in mind i'm pretty short on cash at the moment.

Cheers

Post Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:24 pm

I'm doing the profile gasket on the wife's E36 318iS (M42).

Water started leaking out of the bottom of the engine (drivers and pass side) last saturday.

Profile gasket is well shafted

It's a total bitch of a job on the E36, much better access and less emmissions shite to get in the way on the E30.

I've spent about 6 hours today fighting with it and got the head off and cleaned up (the wife runs it on tesco's finest so its all coked up

).

On the E36 the manifold fouls the steering coupling so you can't pull the manifold off the studs

and the inlet has all the wiring going through it including the reverse light switch wire (runs right the way down to the side of the g'box) so you can't remove that either

E36 pile of scrap

Tempted to set fire to the bastard thing

Cheers,

Iain T

Post Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:38 pm

FBF wrote:do these engines have freeze plugs?

core plugs

Post Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:57 am

gcorky wrote:
FBF wrote:do these engines have freeze plugs?

core plugs

That was going to be my suggestion also due to the fact i just changed one today