hello gentlemen

just been reading a post which has got me to thinkin, how would i know if my bimmer had a plastic water pump in it, preferably without any dismantling.

i.e was there a date or model that they changed it on.
You see i bought my bimmer bout 2 or 3 weeks ago. without any service history or anything,
what i do know is the engine is pretty sweet even with 175 miles on it, so it must of been serviced and looked after.
is it likely that it would of been changed when the belts were last done.
and i know this is a daft question, is there anyway to tell when a belt might of been done.
you see i plan on taking my annual drive from the UK to Hungary,
its a good 1200 mile drive,
that might not sound a lot to sum of u boyz state side in that big ass country.
so anyways money being tight and the cost of petrol for the trip alone.
i would like to have as few things done on the car as possible. I'm might even give the last couple of owners a call ( in the UK they have there details on the owner papers that stay wid da car), see if they remember gettin owt done. just been a tight ass git thats all. if i have to do the belts before i go don't think putting in a new pump will be much extras..? :deadhorse::beermugdr:pullover

Make sure you take a small toolkit and spare belts with you if you're not sure / worried. They're easy enough to replace on the side of the road if one goes bad in an E36, and be happy BMW saw fit to use a timing chain instead of a belt.

The water pump is about $50 (whatever that is in gbp, not much). You can replace the belts and the waterpump easily in an afternoon.

If you're not sure if it's been done recently you can inspect the belts for wear/cracks, or just replace them all yourself before the trip. It really is pretty easy to do.

If it's a choice between using your money to go on the trip in a sketchy car, or not going on the trip (or delaying it) and making sure the car is running properly, go with the second option.

Being in the middle of nowhere with a busted car is less fun than skipping a vacation.


ETA: oh, to try to directly answer the question about the water pump, if you pull it off you can obviously tell if it's metal or plastic, but you have to drain and then replace your coolant to do that, not a bad thing to do every so often anyway. If you can get a good look at the pump (small hands, mirror, light) and clean it up, look for the forging mark on it. If the date is '99 or newer, chances are good the pump has been replaced. They stopped using the plastic ones some time in '98 I believe.

Also, I have heard that BMW has replaced some of the metal impellar ones made with some other black material, that appears to be black plastic, but in reality is much stronger. But I read this on the forum and haven't checked it with any reliable resorce.