Just curious when 7 series owners have replaced their water pumps or have experienced failures.

My fan exploded at about 220,000 miles and caused complete destruction of my entire cooling system. The water pump, fan, fan clutch, radiator, and all hoses were replaced.

I replaced mine when it started leaking at 97k, about 2 weeks after I bought it. I don't know if it was the original pump or not.

My pump seized and then my belt snapped and spun around cutting all of my radiator hoses and other belt. I lost power steering, there was steam, and the smell of buring rubber. I thought maybe my engine gave out completely. haha.

Wow some catastophic failures. At what mileage did this happen and was there any warning?

I replaced mine at 140,000. Bearings were shot, you could wiggle the fan on the shaft.

I replaced mine at 60K as a preventive measure. Its easier and cheeper to do it this way than to wait until it fails.

Replaced mine around 69K miles, fan wobbly on shaft throwing rust colored streaks of moisture outward toward the fan blade tips. Timely replacement before it seized. DIY.

jake

I'm still running my stock pump (120k miles) but i'll probably change it and the expansion tank once it warms up a bit here in Indiana :)

I finally replaced mine around 160K, but had problems with the cooling in general well before that. I have finally replaced every aspect of the cooling system, except for the vp gasket and expansion tank.

My car has 111k and there is no sign of the pump failing, no noise, leakage or fan wobble. There doesn't seem to be a particular mileage where the pumps let go. Bavarian motorworks printed a maintenance schedule indicating water pump failures around 80K.

My 01 750 still has original waterpump at 117k no signs of any issue with the pump either. I have replaced the radiator and all hoses becuase i accidentally dropped my flashlight in the fan while i was doing something and forgot that it was their and started the car. My 99 740il got the entire cooling system replaced at 69k covered by CPO. I am not sure what failed at that time will have to check the receipts but i remembers the car almost overheating.

127k water pump leak through the bearings in a '00 E38. Failing pump also caused the thermostat to fail.

109 original miles ........still running

catastrophic failure at 115,000, but no overheat. p.o. had replaced rad, so I just assumed (hoped) water pump was done, too. expensive and inconvenient since I was on the road at the time.

75k on my 99 recently.

Did water pump, radiator, belts.

Mine blew today!

2001 740iL 96,000 miles

Damn whole engine was shaking something mean.

Took it into the steelership because my indie was too booked up and its still under warranty. Tomorrow will tell what the damage really is...

102,000 miles. Coolant leaking steadily from front of engine.
FYI, dealership quoted $720 plus tax to replace on my 98 740i.
Will likely attempt it myself.

I replaced mine a year ago, at 120,000 miles.

The indy who replaced my engine showed me that the bearings were going out, I mean, you could hear them going bad, so I decided to have him replace it preemptively. He only charged me for the part and no extra labor because the original pump was already off.

It's a little tricky to get off, I had to buy an extended 10mm socket, and the remaining gasket is also difficult to remove, but otherwise it's a fairly straight forward job. It's nice because it's right on top and in front.

Here you'll see that there are 7 bolts that need to be removed (well, you see the holes for them anyway).

http://www.bestdesignever.com/osv/manifold/P1010104.jpg

And here you'll see how the gasket remained on the engine. I actually used a wire brush attachment and removed the gasket with a spinning wire brush on the end of a power drill -- that's probably an example of what not to do.

Whatever you do, be as careful as you can that you don't wear down the sides of the ridge on which the water pump is sealed.

http://www.bestdesignever.com/osv/manifold/P1010100.jpg

Yea I had my water pump, and serpentine belts replaced under warranty at 95K. Warranty didn't pay for serp belts, but I got them installed free of labor. Always ask your mechanic if they'll do that, because they might since they have to remove them to reach the WP.

The original WP is still on at 180,000 Klm, i run wiyh electric fans so not as much wear. I doing a freshen up and whille the engine is out i replacing, WP, valley gaskets and reseal engine.
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/3037/dscn0002kl7.th.jpg (http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn0002kl7.jpg)

And here you'll see how the gasket remained on the engine. I actually used a wire brush attachment and removed the gasket with a spinning wire brush on the end of a power drill. You really need to be careful if you do that yourself. Try to get the gasket off as much as you can before hand, then be as careful as you can that you don't wear down the sides of the ridge on which the water pump is sealed.

http://www.bestdesignever.com/osv/manifold/P1010100.jpg

FYI: that doesn't look original. Looks like orange RTV to me. BMW doesn't use any RTV, only a paper gasket. There's no need to put any additional sealant on there.

And anything other than a razor blade to scrape the gasket surface is dangerous. I've heard horror stories of people using sanding wheels, wire wheels, scotch brite pads, etc, then having leaks because they went too deep on the surface. If so, you gotta change the whole front timing cover. Major PITA!

And anything other than a razor blade to scrape the gasket surface is dangerous. I've heard horror stories of people using sanding wheels, wire wheels, scotch brite pads, etc, then having leaks because they went too deep on the surface. If so, you gotta change the whole front timing cover. Major PITA!

The photo is kind of misleading, it actually was the original paper gasket. I mean, the stuff coming off was paper, it was just baked on so tight it was very difficult to get off.

But I think you're right not using the wheel -- I just changed my other post to recommend against following my example.

Son and I replaced the waterpump today. It took us about 5 hours. We didn't rush and had to run out for a wrench to fit the fan nut.
The instructions at e38.org were indespensible. I'm affraid we may not have tightened the belts enough however, there's a nice loud squeal rev'ing from idle. Some additional detail in this area of the instructions would have been helpful.
New hoses, pump, and belts ran a bit over $400. Labor was mostly free. i'll have to buy my son a steak dinner.