Overheating! w/New Fan, Radiator, waterpump, Tstat & belts.

[refatb]

1997 528i 5-speed

i had overheating problems, the clutch fan was bad, and when i removed the water pump the plastic empellers were completely destroyed and broken into a million peices. i replaced the fan, radiator, waterpump and thermostat, and belts, and bleed the bubbles 4 times. The car ran fine for about 2 hours i drove about 15 miles i knew the coolant was circulating because the whole radiator was warm and i also had heat in the cabin, then it started to overheat after 8 more miles. i removed the thermostat thinking it could be bad but it was good. i ran the car without thermostat, refilled and bleed the airbubbles, car still overheats and no heat in cabin, but this time the Radiator stays Cold!, i am thinking that peices of the broken plastic impellers of the OLD waterpump is blocking coolant passages or is stuck in the New Radiator and blocking Circulation. stupid of me i didnt back flush the engine with a garden hose. what can i do? the car is stuck 15 miles away in street parking i had to take train back home. this car is being a BMW Nightmare

HELP i have No Circulation with new Water pump and new Radiator.

[Cantesanu]

wow, so sorry for your troubles.
Try to get the car to your place (drive it little by little, STOP if the engine wants to overheat, wait.....go again, etc.). Then take the cooling system apart and flush it. Make sure it's all clean then put it all back togheter, make sure you get 11 and a half quarts of fluid.....and use the bosch WP with metal propeller, I did and it's working purrfectly.

Good Luck.

[02Pilot]

Sounds like you figured out the likely cause. Drain the coolant, remove the radiator, water pump, and thermostat and hope you can get whatever is stuck in there to flush out. It stands to reason that it is blocking a small passage, which means you may have to pull some of the smaller heater hoses as well and other components as well. Check the heater valve and secondary electric pump (I'm not sure if the 528i has the latter), as they are obvious points where somethign solid could get lodged. Get a coolant flow diagram and methodically clear every possible path by opening the system at one point only and checking for flow. Don't put it back together until you've got good flow everywhere and have recovered the debris.

[refatb]

Originally Posted by Cantesanu

wow, so sorry for your troubles.
Try to get the car to your place (drive it little by little, STOP if the engine wants to overheat, wait.....go again, etc.). Then take the cooling system apart and flush it. Make sure it's all clean then put it all back togheter, make sure you get 11 and a half quarts of fluid.....and use the bosch WP with metal propeller, I did and it's working purrfectly.

Good Luck.

i had a Geba with cast metal impellers, i read they fail very fast. today i took the train back to my car and changed it with a New pump with plastic impellers and its the same thing, NO Circulation. its not the waterpump, the pump is working properly.

While i was replacing the waterpump, a peice of the old water pump broken blade peice came out, but i still have no circulation through the radiator

Originally Posted by 02Pilot

Sounds like you figured out the likely cause. Drain the coolant, remove the radiator, water pump, and thermostat and hope you can get whatever is stuck in there to flush out. It stands to reason that it is blocking a small passage, which means you may have to pull some of the smaller heater hoses as well and other components as well. Check the heater valve and secondary electric pump (I'm not sure if the 528i has the latter), as they are obvious points where somethign solid could get lodged. Get a coolant flow diagram and methodically clear every possible path by opening the system at one point only and checking for flow. Don't put it back together until you've got good flow everywhere and have recovered the debris.

Yes, the 1997 528i has the Aux Water pump and it connects to 3 hoses leading to the heater core. one of the 3 hoses to the heater core comes from the back of the engine.

This sucks i was just going to Trade this car in today for a 2000 323Ci 5-Speed with M3 Body Conversion

[cnn]

Originally Posted by Cantesanu

wow, so sorry for your troubles.
Try to get the car to your place (drive it little by little, STOP if the engine wants to overheat, wait.....go again, etc.). Then take the cooling system apart and flush it. Make sure it's all clean then put it all back togheter, make sure you get 11 and a half quarts of fluid.....and use the bosch WP with metal propeller, I did and it's working purrfectly.

Good Luck.

1+++

- Absolutely, drive the car 2-3 miles at a time to get home, while watching the temp gauge. If necessary (temp is hot), wait 15-30 min each time (hood up to cool it down).

I wrote this Cooling Overhaul back in 2006 for 1998 528i:
www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/199986

- Remove the WP and back flush with garden hose (See step #11) to flush everything out.
Any broken plastic should be removed by hand.

- The fact that you run the engine W/O the thermostat and the radiator is cold is very starnge, it points to a bad WP, but why it is a new WP.
BTW what brand of WP are you using?

- Then seriously do a Cooling Overhaul as mentioned in the DIY.

PS: refatb, 1997-98 528i has NO Aux Pump!!!

[refatb]

okay thanks, not aux pump..it has the pump connected to the heater valve to push hot coolant to the heater.

[SCoRPioN777]

When mine was overheating, it ended up being the head gasket and a cracked head.
The head was rebuilt at a shop.
I had a mechanic change the following parts all new:
Water Pump (metal), Thermostat & housing, Fan Clutch, Head Gasket set.
The Radiator remained.

Then "burped" the air out of the cooling system. The overheating has stopped and it's been driving for 10K now. A couple extra oil changes.

But now, since it started to get freezing here, the car doesnt start, no crank, no sound from starter.

I was hitting the starter with a tool as someone else was turning the key and it worked like that for another week, then stopped all together.

Replaced the starter. Same problem. Checked the current on the wire coming in from the battery, it's ok, but when the key is turned, the ignition wire shows no current.

So, basically this could be anything from the key being bad, EWS, Ignition Switch, Starter Relay.. you name it, electrical nightmare

All the lights come up, the battery is fine, tried jumping from a 540i via engine to engine, nothing.

I used to have a 98 528i and totaled it 2 years ago. But it saved my life, so I got another one 97 528i. These cars are awesome when they work, but a real pain to fix.

The Fuel Pump went out also, I killed it myself by driving without gas.
Replaced it with a used one, 400 miles ago, but now the car wont start coz of no power to the starter ignition wire.

I really need to know where the starter relay is located!
More like: which one is it? I found some behind the glove box and the passenger side under the hood, which one is it?

Any suggestions are appreciated.