Water Pump

So I'm driving home from my kick-off meeting with Hilton Grand Vacations (a $15K project), and all of a sudden, I hear this WHACK! and all this steam starts gushing out! I pull over quickly (before the temp gauge goes red), pop the hood and see if I can determine the malfunction. Well, it's night time, so I can see squat and I end up calling AAA to tow it back to the house (approx. 10mi).

The next morning, I fill it back up with water ('cause it obviously boiled all out), and water is spewing from the pump. So I go online to find a clue on replacing this busted part, and I found this. 完全さ! (Perfection!) A pump is only about $70 from NAPA, and I need a 32mm open-end wrench $15, and of course some anti-freeze (I'm from the North, so I still call it anti-freeze) $20 for two gallons.

Getting to the water pump wasn't too difficult. Really surprised me for a BMW. I only had to take out the fan & shroud, coolant resovoir, pull off some tubes, and the fan clutch & pulley. And the belly pan across the bottom.


Here's the holes in the engine after taking out the thermostat and pump:


Here's the suspect pump:

So after getting most of it back together, I ran into my 1^st obsticle - fan belts. Not having any prior experience w/ changing belts, I finally realized (after much leveraging with a big screwdriver,) I could loosen the tensioner so the belt would fit around all the pulleys.

Next issue, getting those damn hoses back on. Now these aren't yer typical hoses, they snap on, and then you push the pin back in. The one that connects to the theromstat housing was a jiffy, but the ones underneath were a real pain. On the bottom the resovoir, there are two of them. I ended up getting fustrated after an hour and smashing the fan shroud with a hammer (some zip-ties fixed that boo-boo).

After all that ruckus, it only took about two-thirds of the anti-freeze jug when its suppost to take 11.1 liters. Hmm... maybe its already full of water? I decided to start it up and see if it at least leaks, let alone overheat. I let the beast run for about twenty minutes, all was good. So I went to the bank and post office. Alas on the way back, it started overheating. Great, I probably broke the thermostat while taking it out or putting in back in. But lo, I did not bleed the system! When I got home, the bleeding process took about an hour, and another gallon and a ½ of coolant / water (50/50). I think that did it!

So all in all, it took a total of three days (had to order wrench & pump), and I learned some more about the 5-2-8 and saved myself another couple hundred dollars. YEA!