330CIc Broken Fan Blade & Fan Clutch Disaster

Bimmergarage thanks for the tip!

Mango the point you don't understand is that parts can fail reguardless. It could be defect or design flaw. The fact is that you truely don't know when a part will fail that is why they make replacement parts for when they do. In college some of my classmates worked at the local factory that built car autoparts. The would tell me all the time that they built parts for brand X, brand Z, brand G and etc... and put them in diference boxes. It did not matter they all where OEM parts for Big Brand company, as well as off brand. Mango you have failing victim of good marketing. You believe new parts don't fail and that it has to be a certain brand in order to not fail. Keep living my friend, seeing is believing. The car was starting to over heat do to part failure. The dealer milked my warranty and replace all the parts from BMW stock. Mango, you could be right BMW could have replace the parts from another source beside them. However, I have to trust there judgement because they honored the warranty and repaired the car. They gave me a list and put it in there computer system under my vin.

I can agree that e46 are nice but not perfect. Is it my fault that the plastic window switch broke. Oh yeah I should have not use the switch. The driverside door actuator broke , Oh I should not lock the door. The door key cylinder broke off, Oh I should not try to unlock the door with the key. My point is some. Parts fail even when they should be more reliable. All the parts were built for and by BMW. Things happen.

Originally Posted by DRICHFL

Bimmergarage thanks for the tip!

Mango the point you don't understand is that parts can fail reguardless. It could be defect or design flaw. The fact is that you truely don't know when a part will fail that is why they make replacement parts for when they do. In college some of my classmates worked at the local factory that built car autoparts. The would tell me all the time that they built parts for brand X, brand Z, brand G and etc... and put them in diference boxes. It did not matter they all where OEM parts for Big Brand company, as well as off brand. Mango you have failing victim of good marketing. You believe new parts don't fail and that it has to be a certain brand in order to not fail. Keep living my friend, seeing is believing. The car was starting to over heat do to part failure. The dealer milked my warranty and replace all the parts from BMW stock. Mango, you could be right BMW could have replace the parts from another source beside them. However, I have to trust there judgement because they honored the warranty and repaired the car. They gave me a list and put it in there computer system under my vin.

I can agree that e46 are nice but not perfect. Is it my fault that the plastic window switch broke. Oh yeah I should have not use the switch. The driverside door actuator broke , Oh I should not lock the door. The door key cylinder broke off, Oh I should not try to unlock the door with the key. My point is some. Parts fail even when they should be more reliable. All the parts were built for and by BMW. Things happen.

You do not tell me how things work, my son. It's the other way around. Didn't even bother to read any of what you just posted here. Just know this: you are the one with the failed cooling system. Not me. You should be taking advice, not giving it.

Originally Posted by DRICHFL

The car sat idling for about 45 minutes or so. I had the heater on while it sat park idlin since I just replace the coolent. Then all of a sudden an explosion, "BOM-BAM!!! Coolant everywhere open the hood and the Coolant Expansion Tank was blown apart and took my Radiator with it. I was sure I bleed the system and the car was not running hot.

What could have cause this? I have change the coolant several times in this car so I'm not a roockie to this.

So now I have to buy another expansion tank and radiator.

Two mistakes here:

1. You didn't bleed your coolant system properly after you replaced the coolant. I have done this. I thought I bled it right but didn't. You have to really let that coolant bubble out for a long time, and massage that upper hose to get every little bit of air out. and you have to REMOVE the extra from the expansion tank afterwards. Absolutely essential.
2. You weren't sitting in your car monitoring it. If you were, you would have gotten a temp increase above normal, and shut it down before such a catastrophic failure of the system.

EDIT: also for your own personal development I recommend reading this:

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com...eretheyre.html

Originally Posted by Schlag96

Two mistakes here:

1. You didn't bleed your coolant system properly after you replaced the coolant. I have done this. I thought I bled it right but didn't. You have to really let that coolant bubble out for a long time, and massage that upper hose to get every little bit of air out. and you have to REMOVE the extra from the expansion tank afterwards. Absolutely essential.
2. You weren't sitting in your car monitoring it. If you were, you would have gotten a temp increase above normal, and shut it down before such a catastrophic failure of the system.

EDIT: also for your own personal development I recommend reading this:

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com...eretheyre.html

Look at the Schlag manning up stepping up to the plate! I should do a "the truth about schlag" post.

Schlag, LOL!!

I'm using my phones, so forgive my grammer...


I was thinking the samething about bleeding. I have changed the coolant several times in the past and never had any issues. It is very possible that an air pocket devloped. I was outside the car allowing the heater to run while taking a peep at the temp gauge now and then. It was sudden and I shut the engine off and saw the blown tank.

Originally Posted by DRICHFL

Schlag, LOL!!

I'm using my phones, so forgive my grammer...


I was thinking the samething about bleeding. I have changed the coolant several times in the past and never had any issues. It is very possible that an air pocket devloped. I was outside the car allowing the heater to run while taking a peep at the temp gauge now and then. It was sudden and I shut the engine off and saw the blown tank.

how about spelling?

warning:

i had the same problem happen twice. that's right, my fan blew twice. reason was that the first time, i made a huge mistake by not replacing the water pump. the water pump had enough play to cause the fan blades to hit the top of of the engine(fuel rail?), and disintegrate. make sure you change the water pump and thermostat!

Just out of curiosity, are the chances of the fan blades disintegrating less in a manual transmission car with the electric fan? 11 year old 165,000 mile E46 checking in, with original electric fan.

I cannot believe the fawking damage that it caused to OP's car. Especially the skid plate, that thing is solid! Not to mention f'n expensive, like $120 or something. Jesus. what a mess.

the fan blades in an electric fan don't have a solid 10-lb piece of metal driving it. electric fan blades dont break. just not a problem with those. this is just a mechanical belt-driven fan problem

Originally Posted by E46Mango

the fan blades in an electric fan don't have a solid 10-lb piece of metal driving it. electric fan blades dont break. just not a problem with those. this is just a mechanical belt-driven fan problem

Phew.

Originally Posted by DRICHFL

I was outside the car allowing the heater to run while taking a peep at the temp gauge now and then. It was sudden and I shut the engine off and saw the blown tank.

The heater actually helps decrease the coolant temp... it opens the path to the heater core. That's why you are supposed to turn the heater on while you fill the coolant. When my car was having cooling issues I'd have to turn on the heater to keep it from overheating sometimes. so if you were overheating with your heater on, then you had serious issues.

Cobra thanks!

Mango thanks!

Originally Posted by Schlag96

The heater actually helps decrease the coolant temp... it opens the path to the heater core. That's why you are supposed to turn the heater on while you fill the coolant. When my car was having cooling issues I'd have to turn on the heater to keep it from overheating sometimes. so if you were overheating with your heater on, then you had serious issues.

I never seen the engine temp above normal and that is what puzzled me.

Pulled the water pump off and it looked new. The water pump was sturdy and the impeller was not damaged.

Originally Posted by Cobra

warning:
i had the same problem happen twice. that's right, my fan blew twice. reason was that the first time, i made a huge mistake by not replacing the water pump. the water pump had enough play to cause the fan blades to hit the top of of the engine(fuel rail?), and disintegrate. make sure you change the water pump and thermostat!

yep there is often a reason these break and that's because of them hitting something, like the shroud.

Originally Posted by Solidjake

I would also look into having the engine mounts checked out.

and why is that people? because when a motor mount goes bad it makes the engine rock. when the engine with the mech fan connected to it rocks it hits the stationary shroud of the radiator and THEN the fan breaks blades and causes damage. people are way to quick to blame the mech fan when it's something else. like a seized water pump or pulley. even in the cases where it is the mech fan it normally can be heard and somewhat felt and thus replaced. don't keep up on basic inspection and bigger things go out.

Originally Posted by DRICHFL

I'm not sure why this happen. Could it be a weak expansion tank, bad cap or the radiator had a weak spot. Im just not sure.

personally from those photos it looks like the process holding the plastic top section(glue/epoxy) to the e-tank body could have been faulty. i would think the cap would have let out pressure before that top being the weakest link. also when expansion tanks go it's from a fracture over time making the plastic brittle. this is new plastic and that would not have been the case. you can see how the weakest link was the glue on the top. i would certainly check the cap too.

Originally Posted by DRICHFL

Pulled the water pump off and it looked new. The water pump was sturdy and the impeller was not damaged.

that water pump looks pretty good. probably recently replaced

Please see the write up on transmission fluid on the link below (towards bottom of thread by eeskinazi) Essentially
- Esso LT71141 = Mobil LT71141 = BMW 83229407807 = Volkswagen G-052-162-A2
- Pentosin ATF1, BG Universal Synthetic ATF and Castrol Import Multi-Vehicle ATF are compatible
- Valvoline and Mobil 1 are no longer marked as compatible

http://www.bmwcca.org/forum/index.ph...77/#post-46284

How would improperly bleeding the cooling system cause an expansion tank to fail? Isn't the cap supposed to vent at approximately 14psi?

Also...

What exactly are people doing in their cars when the fans explode?

Is the fan clutch engaged? What RPM's?

I find it hard to believe these things just let go and cause this kind of damage.

Man that sucks.