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2001 330xi Overheating Issue

5K views 59 replies 10 participants last post by  armenh7 
#1 ·
Hello,

I've got a 01 330xi (M54) that is running hot. I have an OBDII Scanner and OBD Fusion application. I just installed a brand new radiator and Upper and Lower hoses (Gates) and have probably used 10 gallons of antifreeze trying to keep it cooled down enough so I don't ruin the engine. It has 183,000 miles on it and I am very pro preventative maintenance. I use Mobil One 0/40 and Mann filters and change the oil every 6,000 miles. Normally the coolant temperature runs at 200 degrees but overheats when I'm stopped at lights and will spike from anywhere from 210-220 degrees but when I am driving 70mph the temperature drops back down to 200 degrees which is normal. I had a mechanic run a pressure test on it and we don't appear to have any leaks. I'm pretty sure it's not the water pump. I did buy a new radiator cap today as the rubber seals were worn out on the old one and I am losing fluid from somewhere! I'm starting to think it may be the thermostat at this point and I just ordered one that will be here in a few days but I wanted to put it out here on the forum and see what helpful advice I can get. Right now I'm just keeping it topped off and I've never had the needle go over into the red since we put the new radiator in however it's costing me a lot of $$$ in antifreeze while I am trying to get a resolution to the issue. Thanks! :banghead:
 
#7 ·
Are you referring to the sensor that sits on the bottom of the expansion tank? Here's the thing I haven't mentioned yet, I had a guy who is a mobile mechanic swap out the radiator and I asked him what the spring was that fell on the ground when he was taking the old out. This is why I keep coming back to the thermostat. I'm not a mechanic but rather a network engineer so I'm trying to apply common sense principles to this issue. I'm just going to ask at this point if there's anybody either in West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale or Miami who'd be willing to take a look at this for me. I'm based in Ft. Lauderdale but I work in all of these cities and I'm working in each one of them at least once a week so it's no problem for me to take it almost anywhere in South Florida. I'm just not going to take it to a BMW dealer because they'll charge me more then the car is worth!
 
#8 ·
Nope. that sensor at the bottom of the expansion tank is for the fluid level. The sensor I'm referring to goes into the lower radiator hose.

When he took off the radiator and a spring fell off, I doubt that was the thermostat spring. Maybe it was the auto transmission cooler thermostat which isn't a big deal. If you have a picture of it that would be great
 
#9 ·
You make a really good point here. He told me he didn't think that spring was a big deal either. What I'm strongly starting to believe is that it's the lower coolant hose is where I'm losing all the fluid. I haven't had this car up on a lift yet because I haven't had access to one but that much fluid has to be coming from there and maybe the lower hose wasn't put on correctly? I wasn't there when that was supposedly done so it's possible it wasn't changed out at all.
 
#11 ·
Let’s start with some questions:
1. Have you scanned the engine computer (DME) for codes?
2. Has the cooling system been overhauled?
3. Are you properly bleeding the cooling system?
4. What brands of parts are you putting the cooling system?
5. How old is the water pump?
6. Have you checked the thermally activated clutch on the fan on the water pump (I’m assuming the car has an automatic transmission)?
7. Have the block’s cooling channels been flushed in the direction opposite to the normal flow?

The fact that the temperature goes up while the car is being driven at 70mph tells me there’s a coolant flow problem. Why? It takes 4x the energy when doubling the speed. That is, ignoring aerodynamics, driving at 70mph requires 4x as much energy as driving at 35mph. Heat is a form of energy.
 
#12 ·
Let’s start with some questions:
1. Have you scanned the engine computer (DME) for codes?
2. Has the cooling system been overhauled?
3. Are you properly bleeding the cooling system?
4. What brands of parts are you putting the cooling system?
5. How old is the water pump?
6. Have you checked the thermally activated clutch on the fan on the water pump (I’m assuming the car has an automatic transmission)?
7. Have the block’s cooling channels been flushed in the direction opposite to the normal flow?

The fact that the temperature goes up while the car is being driven at 70mph tells me there’s a coolant flow problem. Why? It takes 4x the energy when doubling the speed. That is, ignoring aerodynamics, driving at 70mph requires 4x as much energy as driving at 35mph. Heat is a form of energy.
The temperature goes up when stopped and back to normal when driving
 
#16 ·
In answer to markusmarkus questions:

Originally Posted by markusmarkus View Post
Let’s start with some questions:
1. Have you scanned the engine computer (DME) for codes? (Yes, no codes returned)
2. Has the cooling system been overhauled? (Do not know that) It has a new radiator!
3. Are you properly bleeding the cooling system? (Yes)
4. What brands of parts are you putting the cooling system? (Gates)
5. How old is the water pump? (Don't know that)
6. Have you checked the thermally activated clutch on the fan on the water pump (I’m assuming the car has an automatic transmission)? (Yes it's an automatic and I don't even know how to do that)
7. Have the block’s cooling channels been flushed in the direction opposite to the normal flow? (Don't know how to do that)

I'll ask again, are any of you in South Florida? Is anybody who has read this thread live in South Florida)

Thanks!
 
#21 ·
It sounds like your fan isn't working properly if it's overheating at idle. Either that or something is stopping the coolant flow whenever you stop the vehicle. This may or may not be related to the loss of coolant but it seems like a separate issue entirely based off your description.

Pardon me if this has been addressed already but when you walk out to your car can you see coolant on the ground? The coolant has to be going somewhere so if the pressure test yielded nothing and the coolant is simply disappearing it's very possible it is being consumed by the engine; you might have a warped head
 
#22 ·
Well last night I finally got fed up and took it to a Firestone dealer who specializes in radiators. He told me there was a metal hose that had a crack in it that runs up to the exhaust manifold and the lower hose wasn’t the problem. Unfortunately our call got cut off and I haven’t been able to reach him back yet. Anybody know what exactly he’s talking about?


Sent from my iPhone using E46Fanatics
 
#26 ·
The leak I'm told is coming from a heater hose which is supposedly is a metal line that runs to the intake manifold. There is a crack in that line so ANY fluids that put in are going to go right back out through the bottom. As I've already mentioned the temp would hold fine at 200 degrees as long as the car was in motion at 60-70 miles an hour and I'd just add coolant when I stopped. It's when I was sitting at idle or in traffic that the overheating began (Temp jumps to 220-230) then I'd have to stop and loosen the cap to let some of the pressure off, wait a few minutes then add more fluid then I could continue on. I've taken one trip that was over 1000 miles each way and many, many trips down to Miami to work. As long as you kept putting in the antifreeze in and the car could keep running a constant 70-80 MPH there were no overheating issues and the temp would run at a constant 200 degrees.
 
#53 ·
Crankcase Vent Valve



If your're referring to the crankcase vent valve (There were 5 plastic hoses in a kit that ran up under/around the engine, we replaced those a few months back along with a DISA valve because the engine was running so rough. That fixed the problem!
 
#32 ·
Well there's a little more to the story. Put in a new lower hose and it "supposedly" leaked through the coolant temperature sensor so I get a Gates lower hose then they tell me that now the leak is coming from the water pump! Something about a seal gone bad. So far I've replaced a radiator, thermostat, Gates upper and lower hoses, a coolant temperature sensor, a belt tensioner , AND a water pump! Guy that was working on it used a impact tool and turned the fan clutch nut the wrong way and then claimed it was seized up and he couldn't get it off. Even the manager at the auto parts store told me you could not and absolutely should not use an impact tool on a BMW Period! Finally I went and got somebody who had a fan clutch kit come over and take it off. How the hell the problem goes from a lower coolant hose to a water pump is beyond me! I've never seen so many misdiagnoses in all of my life! Now I'm supposedly guaranteed that once I replace the water pump and the tensioner pulley on Monday 8/20/28 everything will be normal again. What I've pretty much done is replace the entire cooling system. I've got roughly $1100 total tied up in the whole project now. About the only other component I haven't replaced yet is the alternator. A fuel pump was replaced 2 months ago. As far as being a bettin man, well I just got the **** beat out of me and I'm not out of the woods yet!
 
#33 ·
How the hell the problem goes from a lower coolant hose to a water pump is beyond me! I've never seen so many misdiagnoses in all of my life!
This is the reason why many of us are DIY; I don't want to let turkeys working on my cars -- costs more money and more headache. The turkey used and impact and torqued the fan nut in the CCW wrong direction and this probably stripped the WP male threads and so a new WP was needed. Ask them to pay for the WP by showing them the stripped threads.
 
#34 ·
"Guy that was working on it used a impact tool and turned the fan clutch nut the wrong way and then claimed it was seized up and he couldn't get it off."

But wait a second; how could someone use an impact tool on this nut? There is no way to place a socket on the nut but only an open wrench!!!
 
#39 ·
Well the verdict is now in. I went to pick up the car, owner already left for the day so I went ahead and took the vehicle which was in the parking lot because I had the master key and they had been left with the Valet key. I take it down the street to a auto parts store and find out it's 2 quarts low on oil and low on antifreeze. I add the 2 quarts of oil and bleed out the system and took it to my mechanic up in West Palm Beach who verified that the fan clutch had been destroyed and in an earlier conversation with the owner before I went to pick up the car he stated that the tensioner pulley I brought him was the wrong part (Gates 38201) so they just put the old one back on. I found both the old water pump and the tensioner pulley (minus the box) so I couldn't return the part that was later verified to be the right tensioner! Here's where the story gets interesting however, 2 days ago we agreed to $400 total for the entire job including installing the new water pump and tensioner but I haven't paid him anything yet and I don't want to screw over the guy even though he obviously tried to do that to me! I told him I had been in the forum trying to diagnose the problem and his comment was "I don't sit around and talk to a bunch of computer wizards I fix cars! The car is now in my possession and it's not ever going back to that shop! My upbringing tells me that the thing to do is subtract the cost of the fan clutch and labor as well as the money for the tensioner since I don't have the box they most likely threw away. I want my key back and my guess is that it's going to be close to $400 to get everything fixed correctly. I was able to finally locate the "pin prick" hole in the lower radiator hose and that's what the problem has been all along. When I told him that all he wanted to do is start piling on more problems. When I brought him the parts he said he needed then he said it was something else! I've been raked over the coals, lied to, mislead, but here's one thing that's an absolute for sure! I watched that so called mechanic take a impact chisel to that fan nut and force it the wrong way and then listened to him tell me that it was seized and he couldn't get it off! Really the only question that remains is what would you do if you were me? If I had paid this guy today I'd be on my way to small claims court tomorrow! Social Media (Yelp and Google) would have a field day with this! Just trying to figure out how to handle this at this point? "
 
#52 ·
Here's what hasn't been mentioned yet. The Firestone guy called me at 11am this morning and I relayed to him what had been discovered overnight and that I took the car down the street and found it to be 2 quarts low on oil (I took him 8 quarts of Mobil One 0/40) I don't think they even put a new oil filter in it and it was low on antifreeze so I replaced the 2 quarts of oil and topped off the antifreeze. I told him that his mechanic had destroyed the fan clutch with an impact chisel and I stood there and watched him do it because he tried to force the fan nut the WRONG WAY and returned a uninstalled Gates tensioner (he said it was the wrong part so he put the old one back on) Upon a cross check with the O'Reilly people they told me it was absolutely the right tensioner! I found the box for the water pump and the new tensioner (without a box) so I couldn't return it. He claims he went out and got the box out of the trash! Then he started another lie that he had the water pump and whoever had it before stripped the threads then I just told him Bull **** I've got the water pump in my possession and there are no stripped threads on the water pump or inside of the fan nut so there's just another lie you told me. I said "Here's what I'm going to do, once I replace the fan clutch and deduct the cost of the tensioner that you threw away the box on and now I can't get my money back on I'll pay you what the difference is" He then started running his mouth about theft of services and I told him hell I'll take care of that one for you, I can go down and file lawsuit in Small Claims Court you won't have to do a thing and we'll let the judge decide! This was his reply -- "You know what, **** YOU I hope you run that ****ing car into a tree and DIE!" Then he hung up. The only reason that this guy is still in business is that he has the word FIRESTONE written on his building! He still has the valet key to this car and I probably won't get that back but there's a couple of things I haven't done yet that I could well do including reviews on both Yelp and Google about his wonderful business practices, Writing a letter to Firestone itself and detailing how one of their dealers cheats and treats their customers. Maybe a link back to this thread would be plenty or I really wanted to be an asshole about it I could just drag his ass into court and let the judge tell him to give me the key back.
 
#40 ·
Hopefully you***8217;ve learned that you need to DIY. Being a network engineer you constantly have to research and learn about tech: routers, switches, NICs, load balancers, proxies, storage, etc. Right? So, do the same with your car. Start with Mango***8217;s cooling system guide here.
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=914109

Then work your way through the rest of the major threads.
https://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=1130405

You can***8217;t pay someone to work on your car these days, too expensive and risky.
 
#41 ·
Well today was another great day NOT! Last night I tried sticking a piece of cardboard in the fan and sure enough it stopped dead which tells me that the fan clutch needed to be replaced. I spent a good part of the day getting the car 50 miles north and taking out the fan and shroud. What I found was that in fact it was the original fan clutch (Beher) and after I was able to successfully install the new fan clutch and saw that it passed the cardboard test, I then bled out the system and left the shop. Watching my OBD Fusion closely I saw that it was running between 200-215 degrees seeming to spike more at stop lights then when moving. The good news was that the coolant light nor the check engine light came on during the 15 minute 5 mile drive to where I was staying tonight. The question now is am I fixed or not? I think I bled it properly because I ran the heater full blast and no bubbles were coming out when I closed it up. I'm still not totally convinced the problem is completely solved but it's a start.
 
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