Indy recommends against coolant flush

[Yoksel]

Did a number of maintenance services recently on my 2010 328xi that just hit 60K. One of the services on the list was coolant flush. A very reputable indy in Seattle area recommended against it. Their opinion is that changing coolant at this time/mileage may provoke water pump failure. They're saying I should expect water pump to break around 80K and at that time I'll be able to replace it along with thermostat and coolant. What do you guys think? I certainly don't want to provoke a water pump failure but at the same time I think the 80K on average for the last production year of e90 seems very low estimate. I was expecting around 150K. Should I still go ahead and replace coolant?

[rob22sf]

i never heard of that before.

the shop could be trying to saving you some labor cost & headache (for both of you.) Many customers will blame the shop for their WP failing "you guys just flushed may coolant 10k miles ago and my $340 WP failed!!!"

if you flush the coolant now, you will have to do it again when the WP fails in 10 - 20k miles... that is what this shop is saying i believe.

ive seen many cars with water pump 11 51 7 586 925 fail around 70 to 80k miles. I'm not saying your car wont make it past those miles... im just sharing my experience...

the good thing, when it does fail, you will get a "speed deviation fault" which means the pump is no longer flowing coolant at the correct flow & and your car will go into "limp" mode which will hopefully prevent a HG failure.

good luck

[Yoksel]

Thanks Rob! Yes, that's exactly the idea - why change coolant now if the pump is destined to break around 80K anyway.

I honestly was expecting that by the end of production cycle of e90 BMW would have solved such problems. The pump shouldn't be routinely failing around 80K.

My concern with not flushing coolant is what if I get lucky and the water pump goes much longer, say 120K or more. That's another 60K and probably 5-6 years from now for me. By that time I expect quite a bit of coagulation in coolant and I'm thinking I'll likely need to replace the radiator as well as a result of not timely flushing coolant.

Am I wrong?

[rob22sf]

Thanks Rob! Yes, that's exactly the idea - why change coolant now if the pump is destined to break around 80K anyway.

I honestly was expecting that by the end of production cycle of e90 BMW would have solved such problems. The pump shouldn't be routinely failing around 80K.

My concern with not flushing coolant is what if I get lucky and the water pump goes much longer, say 120K or more. That's another 60K and probably 5-6 years from now for me. By that time I expect quite a bit of coagulation in coolant and I'm thinking I'll likely need to replace the radiator as well as a result of not timely flushing coolant.

Am I wrong?

we think alike....

id flush it and keep my fingers crossed