Overheating

[souljahslim]

My 318 overheated about 3 weeks ago, i immideiatley took it to the garage who changed the thermostat.

After driving it for 3 weeks it appeared to be ok until I went on a long journey. It overheated again the tempreature gauge was on full. I had it towed back to home.

When I am driving it is ok, when in heavy traffic - when i am stoping and starting or moving slowly then it appears to overheat. No hot air come through the heaters in the car any more. I am driving it short distances at the moment and the tempreature seems fine.

I have tested the big fan in the engine with a piece of paper and can stop the fan - should this happen? I also checked the coolant level, I only toped this up a few days ago and more than half of the coolant had gone.

Has any one got any ideas what the problem could be? I am annoyed with the garage as I thouht they fixed the problem but obviously this is not the case.

I dont know much about card so any help would be gratefull.

thanks

[Antiburn]

If your talking about the fan thats bolted to the engine then your going to need a new fan clutch. Quite expensive, around 250$ from a dealer.

If theres no heat through your vents its possible that you heater valve has gone bad or when the t-stat was replaced the garage didnt properly bleed the system and now theres a very low amount of coolant.
If you open the hood, with the engine cold, theres a black plastic cap on the plastic shrowd that surrounds teh fan that doesnt work. Open that up and if you dont see any coolant take it back to the garage and get them to bleed and top off the coolant system.

[jcjdavis1]

Hi. If you have a viscous fan and you can stop it with a newspaper then you need a new one.Long drives cool air, short drives overheating.In the UK we can get a fan for about £40. You may need to bleed the air from your engine this is how I did mine on a 320i -
Engine running
Heater controls set to hot
Header cap off
Keep squeezing all water pipes watching for air bubbles
Top up coolant as required
When satisfied no air put header cap back on
Release bleed valve on thermostat housing and check that no air and only coolant is coming out .

[souljahslim]

Thanks for the advice ordered a new viscious fan today- was about £40 quid, will also bleed the car, will the hot air vent sort them self out

[jcjdavis1]

Hi If you bleed it properly you should have heat from your vents.When changing the fan coupling it has a reverse thread which means to unlock hit it clockwise,use a 32mm spanner before you take any belts off.