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      05-23-2016, 09:34 PM   #221
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Just replaced mine. 2009 328i xDrive w/ 120k miles.

I removed the belly pan, stiffening plate, fan and passenger side wheel/wheel liner. Overall it took me about 3-4 hours of actual work, as was said a few times here, its really not a hard project, just time consuming and involves a lot of patience.

A few things about mine were different from what i have seen on other videos/instructions, maybe because of the year, or because of the xDrive.

1. power steering hose was attached at 3 points using a large plate. i removed all three then unbolted the plate (10mm ratcheting wrench is key here) and then slid the plate out of the way, never actually got it out from behind the sway bar

2. I didnt have to remove the swaybar until I was unbolting the water pump. Even then, I only removed the passenger side mount, it moved enough to get a socket extension under it from there.

3. I found it much easier to remove the t-stat before the water pump.

4. The hardest part for me was removing the hose coming off of the water pump (not the one going to the thermostat). It took some careful prying and moving it slowly off from a few angles.
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      06-23-2016, 03:01 PM   #222
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124,500 miles here. In the process of replacing it! PITA but honestly isn't more than a 2 hr job...
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      06-28-2016, 02:04 PM   #223
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I received an overheating warning on my dash so 10 mins into driving in the morning and suspect the coolant isn't running. I got to work and read up on here how to vent the coolant to hear the water pump running and proceed to give it a try. I didn't hear any jet like sound but instead I heard a noise that sounds like a frog lol. I'm guessing my WP just croaked and choke T_T
Anyways has anyone had this sound coming out of the WP before? Here's a video: https://youtu.be/oAAtrvrcdGU

Update: I've just replace the WP/Tstat on my 335xi. The hardest part was removing those plates holding the power steering lines to get the sway bars down lol. It was harder to place them back and I kept on dropping the damn screw into the subframe which I had to fish for with the magnetic tool! I didn't need any special angle or long extension tools. As long as you drop the sway bar, remove fan, passenger wheel and guard it will be enough to do the job.

Last edited by Bory E90; 06-30-2016 at 08:43 AM..
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      07-17-2016, 09:42 AM   #224
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Another victim here with a 98k mile 2007 335xi. We got 3 miles from home when the yellow warning indicator quickly followed by the red indicator and the engine going into safe mode less than 30 seconds later. The engine was already warm from ~100 miles of driving an hour earlier in the day. I quickly pulled over and there was just the beginning of some coolant that forced its way out of the expansion tank.

After a flatbed ride home I let the car cool off for a few hours and confirmed there was still sufficient fluid in the expansion tank. I then ran the self-bleed routine and the pump sounds like a bull frog and no coolant is circulating. Joy.

Anything else I should replace while under there?


water pump + 3 bolts
thermostat housing
water pump to thermostat hose
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      07-18-2016, 02:18 PM   #225
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Parts on their way from BavAuto which was ~$100 less than the local dealer.
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      08-15-2016, 07:34 AM   #226
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2011 E92 xDrive

I put the car on ramps, removed the plastic bits and basically said "Oh shit. This looks nothing like the videos online."

I'm trying to decide whether I gave up too easily (and to make another try myself) or need to just take it to a shop. At this point I have a communications error and low power faults (2E83 and 2E85) and am replacing the pump and thermostat on my terms instead of waiting for an all out failure. I am an experienced DIY mechanic, having pulled engines and done other major work. Granted, it was on cars from the 1960s, but it is not my first rodeo.

The main problem is that I cannot see the back of the pump at all. It is hidden under various structure (i.e., the sub frame) that is specific to the xDrive models. I can see all the bolts - can I get the pump out without access to the back hose? How about the thermostat - what's hidden on that and how do I get to those?

Lacking a lift, I do not want to get myself into a situation where I have the car half apart and then find I have to do something I'm not equipped for. And I live 50 miles from the nearest shop I would trust with a BMW,

I have no problem removing the fan. I would be very nervous removing a front wheel with the car on ramps as it sounds dangerous. Is it necessary and, if so, should I use jack stands instead?

Any other specifics for the xDrive would be appreciated.

Al
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      08-15-2016, 08:03 AM   #227
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My '07 xDrive was a pain in the neck, much more complicated than the videos, but doable with a lot of patience. I got at the rear hoses primarily through the front passenger side wheel well after removing the wheel and fender liner. I also removed the radiator fan to get some more front to back clearance which made removing the pump slightly easier.

On mine the hardest thing to get at where the two 10mm bolts on top of the subframe cross member that hold the power steering line brackets on. With those brackets in place the sway bar will not rotate down and out of the way. The two 10mm bolts (one per bracket) were made easier with a short ratcheting 10mm wrench as I couldn't even see the bolts and was doing it all by feel.
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      08-16-2016, 06:56 PM   #228
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Thanks for the info. I'll definitely use jack stands in that case.

How long did it take you?

Al
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      08-28-2016, 08:50 AM   #229
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Well, I did it.

Backed the car onto a pair of ramps and then jacked the front up and supported it on jack stands, Gave me a lot more clearance. Didn't need to remove the fender well, just remove the wheel.

The difficult bits were:
1. The rear hose for the pump. Not the one that loops back to the thermostat but what I assume is the outlet. Took me nearly an hour of different angles and plans e, f, and g (cut the hose clamp off) to figure out that the clamp was clocked in a way I could access the screw from a specific blind angle. A large collection of 1/4 drive extensions (which I had accumulated from numerous sets that had lost important parts over the years) is really handy here.

2. Remember the order of the sway bar and power steering hose. You can't get the bolt on for the PS bracket with the sway bar attached, but it must go above the bracket. I actually bent the bracket down to create a little more clearance for my hands and bent it back into shape when I was done.

3. The sway bar was difficult to bolt back on as the wheels must have sagged while it was disconnected. Vice grips closed the gap for the lower bolts, but, oddly, when I went to remove the jack stands, the car stayed up in the air after I removed right one and I then could not jack the left side up high enough to remove the remaining stand. Jacking from the center on the sub frame solved that problem.

4. This job is really hard for an overweight 62 year old guy mostly lying on the floor. A lift would make it much easier - and cleaner.

5. The plastic parts are still off the bottom. Since I took them off 3 weeks ago I could not remember where they all went and I didn't feel like going to my office to look it up given the state of filth of my clothes and body.

Took me about 6 hours.

Al
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      12-31-2016, 11:12 AM   #230
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Quote:
Originally Posted by al kazaz View Post
I put the car on ramps, removed the plastic bits and basically said "Oh shit. This looks nothing like the videos online."
Glad I'm not the only one!

2006 E91 325xi with 160k miles, and I had the exact same reaction when I got the underbelly tray off.

The victim:



The growing parts pile:



"There's so much room for activities!"



Freaking Xdrive...



While I was removing the radiator, I broke the upper passenger-side mounting ear. (Fortunately I ordered a new radiator as a while-I'm-in-there part!)



What's strange is, there was also a piece of metal on the floor which the screw was clearly mounted into, and I'm not sure how it's supposed to go on or what purpose it serves. There's a notch in it, but I can't tell if it broke off something, or if the notch is supposed to rest into something:



Can anyone tell me what this metal thingy is, and what I do with it upon reinstall?

Like others, apparently I've had an oil leak down the front of the engine for quite some time. Everything I touch is disgusting. I'm taking a break, then I'll pull the passenger-side wheel and the liner and have a good hard look at the thermostat and pump.

Edit: Things really open up with the wheel well liner removed!


Last edited by chrispitude; 12-31-2016 at 06:01 PM.. Reason: show wheel well liner pic
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      01-09-2017, 05:04 AM   #231
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That oil leak could be coming from a faulty turbo oil feed line. Had mine replaced last week under warranty. It was a small leak over the years, not a huge leak. Its PITA to get to though to fix the line.
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      01-12-2017, 02:17 PM   #232
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Got sidetracked on some other stuff (we have a spare vehicle), just got back to working on my car the other night.

The old thermostat and water pump are out! The biggest PITA by far was getting the old coolant hoses off. For the quick-connects, I sprayed with a tiny bit of Gibbs and kept working at them, and eventually they popped off. For the screw-clamped hoses, they were on there good and flathead screwdrivers weren't doing it. I finally broke down and ordered these (yay for Amazon Prime!):

Lisle 80380 Hose Remover Set - 5 Piece



Holy crap, these things are frigging MAGIC! I gave a small squirt of Gibbs at the hose end, ran one of these tools around the hose end to break the seal and let the Gibbs in, then popped the hose right off with a pull. The ends of these tools have a machined taper-in to avoid damaging the hose. In every case, I had the perfect length/orientation tool to easily break the hose seal. With the angled ends, I was able to run the tool further around the hose perimeter than I could see or reach otherwise. These made hose removal stupidly easy.

I also threw these into the order, which were great for getting to various clamps and bolts:

Neiko 00239A 2-Piece Flexible Extension Bar Set | 1/4" and 3/8" Drive



Unfortunately in my zeal, I ended up removing the bottom E12 alternator bolt instead of the top E12 water pump bolt. It is also a torque-to-yield bolt. Did I just screw myself into ordering a $$$ set of alternator bolts too? Has anyone reused alternator bolts on these cars? Yes yes I know, to own these cars, you gotta pay to play...

but it's only one of the four and if I was sure I wouldn't snap it, I'd reuse it

Edit: Fortunately they're available individually, and they're only a few bucks each. I'll go get one tomorrow and do it the right way.

Last edited by chrispitude; 01-12-2017 at 06:59 PM..
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      01-22-2017, 10:02 AM   #233
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I decided to start putting the shiny new parts in today, but I didn't get very far. (I am glad this is not my only daily driver!)

How do you get this blasted water pump electrical connector to latch?? I've tried silicone spray, I've tried dielectric grease. I've cleaned both sides with electrical contact cleaner, re-lubed, and tried again. No dice.

Maybe the connector on the new water pump isn't quite right. So I try the old water pump. It won't latch onto that either. I don't know if it's getting hung up on the ridged seal at the bottom, or the latch part isn't working, or what. The latch is on the blind inside with <1cm clearance to the pump body, so I can't even get a look at where the tab is relative to the latch.

I used a pipe cleaner to work the silicone grease down along into the ridged seal too, again no dice (on either pump).

WTF?

Edit: I see what's going on - it's a swollen seal. Thanks to the oil leak above, this whole connector/plug assembly was one huge blob of solidified oil-dirt when I started the job.

Part of the ridged yellow seal at the base of the wire harness female plug is pinching and preventing it from fully seating into the water pump male connector. (I can even see a slightly sliced part of it at one point.) I'll buy a pick set at Harbor Freight tomorrow and try to work the pinched part back in inside the female plug. I'll also file a more prominent bevel along the inside edge of the male connector to receive the seal. It looks like brute strength was not the answer here.

I'll try to get a picture inside the wire harness plug tomorrow. It's happening on the side of the harness connector where the male connector is round but the female plug is squared, and so the seal is free to bulge outward into the corners.

Last edited by chrispitude; 01-22-2017 at 06:13 PM..
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      02-22-2017, 01:25 PM   #234
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Yep, the ridged yellow seal was boogered up. It's hard to see here:



but easier to see once the seal is removed:



Some of the damage was from pulling the seal out, but I was putting little yellow bits out right from the beginning, so it was definitely boogered up enough to prevent the connector from seating.

The terminals looked removable, and I found another source for the connector:

https://www.simtekuk.co.uk/product.p...:130544:%27A=0

but it was about $35 shipped from the U.K., and I could not find ANY other source for this connector.

So I ended up test-fitting various neoprene O-rings to fit in the recess where the yellow seal went. I ended up installing two O-rings with the following specs:

Quote:
9/16" ID
3/4" OD
3/32" body diameter
It's a bit of a pain to get them past the initial lip of the inner terminal block. I found it best to push it past the rounded end first, then the lip acts as a retainer to stretch the other end of the O-ring onto the squared end. You can see one of the O-rings here (the second is below it, hidden by the outer connector shell):



With the O-rings installed and silicone-greased up, the connector seated firmly and perfectly onto the water pump with a satisfying *snick*.

I ran into some weirdness installing the radiator:

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1355566

but nothing that keeps me from driving it.

Some tips of my own for others:
  • Just remove everything. Fan, radiator, expansion tank, airbox, wheel well liner, stiffening plate. On my xDrive car, I needed every degree of freedom I could get.
  • Remember to move the metal wire harness clip from the old pump to the new pump. It's harder to do this once the pump is installed.

After removing the old pump/thermostat, I installed the pump/thermostat as follows:
  1. Hand-fasten thermostat loosely to pump with hex bolts, hose clamps not tight either.
  2. Stuff that assembly into place.
  3. Hand-thread the bottom two aluminum water pump Torx bolts.
  4. Remove the two hex thermostat bolts and shove the thermostat a bit out of the way (the hose will allow this).
  5. Hand-thread the top aluminum water pump Torx bolt.
  6. Tighten all three Torx bolts to spec.
  7. Again with thermostat moved up, tighten the other water pump hose clamp (i.e., not the one that shunts to the thermostat). I used an extension through where the thermostat went to get at it from the front.
  8. Tighten thermostat-to-pump hex bolts.
  9. Tighten pump-to-thermostat hose clamps using your creativity and imagination.

I figured out what that metal scrap that fell off the original radiator was. My car was in a front-end accident several years ago. Apparently the A/C condenser was racked, and the radiator didn't mount up to it properly. The metal scrap was the body shop's fix to hold the radiator in place. I ended up prying the condenser back into square a bit, enough to mount the new radiator properly.

The car filled and bled with no issues. I drove it with the undertray off around town for a few days to look for leaks, but everything was good. She's all buttoned up and back in service!
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      04-19-2017, 05:09 PM   #235
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Awesome job

I will be using this for when I do mine
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      09-04-2017, 03:01 PM   #236
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Testing water pump

OK, just swapped out my pump and thermostat, possibly without need.
2007 E93 convertible, N51sulev.
I replaced the oil filter housing seal, then went to refill and bleed the cooling system. Could not seem to get the system to engage for bleeding. Tried many times. Finally removed plug to WP and check voltages, sure enough, the power did come on when the throttle was pressed for the 10 seconds, but the pump made no noise or vibration when I plugged it back in. FINE!
So i replaced the pump and t-stat.
Go to bleed it and the same thing - no noise, no visible flow, nothing!
From everything I read it was supposed to sound like a washing machine, and a flow should be visible in the expansion tank. Neither was the case.
I finally hooked up the old pump to the wiring harness with some jumpers, and again, it turned on when it was supposed to... very quiet though.

FWIW - pin 1 is always (should be) hot, unless you have a blown fuse.
pin 4 is ground, right to the block with a short length of wire.
Pins 2 and 3 seem to control the operation, but I found the diagram in the Bentley diagram vague, one wire appears to go to the electronic control module, the other to the thermostat circuit, I think. I'll attach the relevant photo of the diagram, if anyone can explain it better, that would be great. Pin 2 has an arrow pointing to nowhere, and a very light connection to the thermostat circuit. Pin 3 goes to the DME, but without any internal circuitry.
One of the colors isn't defined in the legend, either.

When checking the plug, normally pin 1 is 12v and 4 is ground. When the circuit turns on, pin 2 was now 12v and pin three was around 7 volts.

Anyways, I found that supplying 12v to pin 2 will cause the pump to run after a moment. If you apply voltage to pin 2 and then switch to pin three the pump will keep running, but it won't start with pin 3. The speed of the pump seemed to be the same no matter what.

What I think may have happened was that since I had the car jacked up in the front only, the block and head may have bled themselves during filling. I also didn't do anything to drain the heater hoses. The car wasn't overheating before all this, and it seems fine now. I expected the pump to turn a lot faster and louder than it did.

Things I learned. The E93 has additional support struts underneath, and in front of the motor. I don't think the other versions have them, but I'm not sure. I removed the radiator fan, what I think is the smog pump inlet filter, an expansion tank for more clearance. I also dropped the splash shield, swaybar frame mounts, and the PS hose/mount. I was able to wiggle the thermostat out from the front of the motor, and work the pump out the bottom of the car, working around the swaybar, cross member, etc. You have to turn it facing up, and the outlet needs to face the PS wheel, if I remember correctly.

I would try to unlock & remove the hoses with the quick connectors before unbolting anything, so thermostat doesn't move.
I found that all the clamps can be positioned for easy access from either above with a long extension or from below. However, from the factory some of the clamps are facing in really bad directions. You can unbolt the pump and t-stat to wiggle them around to make access easier for removal.

I replaced the hose to the cylinder head, and it leaked at the head. I finally removed the o-ring and realized the casting flash was causing the o-ring not to fully seat in the groove, causing the leak. A few minutes with sandpaper and all is good now. (Rein brand) When I removed the oem hose the flange came apart in pieces, so maybe have a replacement handy.

I replaced the rubber portion of the hose to the side of the block, eeuroparts had a kit, so I didn't have to unbolt the metal pipe from the motor, didn't feel like opening another can of worms with it. U shaped hose came with the pump kit ($400 eeuroparts for pump, t-stat, U hose, clamps, and bolts) Pump is the Pierburg model, which I think is OEM.

Make sure to use the correct coolant for refilling. Napa had the Zerex brand, and eeuro had the oem stuff. I used to work at Honda, and they had problems with automotive type coolant chewing up the water pump seals on the motorcycles due to excessive silica... I also added some water wetter to help improve cooling efficiency a bit, it helps with the wetting and thermal transfer in the radiator.

Hope the above is useful to someone, sorry if I have repeated anything.
Thanks,
Bryanbdp

Last edited by bryanbdp; 09-28-2017 at 04:32 PM..
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      09-28-2017, 04:33 PM   #237
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Been a few weeks, everything working fine. No overheating...
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      11-28-2017, 12:46 PM   #238
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Which pump do you guys get from Rock Auto, there are quite a few choices.?
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      02-10-2018, 09:40 AM   #239
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Hey,

Im suspecting i have a waterpump failure and wanna order all the necessary stuff and tools for fix ASAP!

I already have the pump itself + new thermostat and its gasket on the shopping cart. What else do i need? New bolts and some special tool? Im sorry if this is answered somehwere in the thread, tried to look but didnt catch my eye...

I live in finland, so any european shop preferred, takes too long to arrive from america and i need my car back and running asap!
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      03-02-2018, 03:52 AM   #240
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Got the pump fixed, car drives now okay. Soon after i got my car back, the car asked for 1L more oil, oil change was done just 3600kms before!

So i added 1L more oil. Now i have driven about 300 kilometres, and half of it is gone again, so 1L per 600-700km oil usage....

Could the overheat have broken something? the car feels just fine, its not smoking excessively to me, and its not white smoke as long as the car have been driven, i think its a little whitey when i start it and let it idle...

im starting to really hate this car..
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      04-11-2018, 06:05 PM   #241
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Reviving this thread.

I need to get my water pump, thermostat, coolant repaired. Do I need to get the vanos solenoid repaired too?

Also, after you repair these parts, what kind of codes do you need to clear? Just looking for what the process is after installation of new parts.
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      02-11-2019, 02:11 PM   #242
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I took my apart to see why it failed, didnt seem from coolant leak rather than electrical failure inside. Here is video

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