Coolant issues

[Skinny89]

Hi this is my first post, recently got a 91 320i touring, its got a few issues(that i paln on fixing) but nothing mechanical untill friday when the coolant light came on, when i stoped ther was steam coming from the front grill when i poped the bonet the underside was soaking the steam had died down to, its looseing a lot of water when it gets up to temp but its not overheating, i'm off work the next 3 days and need to get it done [/u]

[Brianmoooore]

It will only overheat after the coolant bottle is completely empty. The light comes on when the level is low, to give advance warning.
Sounds like you have a simple leak somewhere, which can be surprisingly difficult to pinpoint.

[Skinny89]

Thanks for the info, showing how much of a novise i am, any ideas to where the leak may be coming from would be helpfull.

[Brianmoooore]

From something containing coolant! Only you can see the car, so only you can pinpoint the leak.
If steam was coming through the grill, and originating from there, then the radiator must be a suspect.
One possible cause of random leaks is a coolant bottle cap that missed out on the 1997 safety recall. The original caps were found to possibly over pressurise the system as they aged, causing the weakest point of the system to burst. In a system where everything is in good order, this will be the electric heater valve beside the passenger's legs, but an old radiator could fail first.
Most of the replacement caps have a yellow disc on their base, so check yours.

[Skinny89]

Lol a was thinking that, a just wondering if there where any comon faults didnt mean to sound that dumb. Yeah i read about the bottle cap on the wiki, mines hasnt got a yellow ring gony give b.m.w a phone. Cheers.