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E46General discussion and technical help for 1999-2004 3 series cars.
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Your Ride: 325xi
325xi suddenly overheated
Driving back up the mountain today my 325xi coolant light came on. Its done that before only being 8 oz of coolant short so I didn't pay much attention to it. Then the temp gauge starting climbing fast. In the end I limped home, having to stop every mile or two to let it cool down and add water.
I bought this ride about 18 months ago at 98K and it has 112K on it now.
My friend thinks it is the thermostat as once the car started to cool down it would start "burping" when coolant was added. The pressure release gizmo on the thermostat assembly was spewing steam. Am I on the right track? Electric fan was operating.
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Your Ride: 325xi
So far I've replaced the thermostate, upper hose, coolant reservoir and the thing is still messed up. Think I'm going to have it towed to an repair shop.
has you check to see if you have air in the system after getting things done it sounds like you had a leak and a pretty bad one at that if you were adding fluid every few miles and if you thermostate failed it would keep cool not over heat its a failsafe with modern thermostats they fail open not closed well in most cases that is also how is the water pump with over 100k the think could have just died those things don't last forever and that would give you a good reason for the loss of fluid and over heating as well
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Your Ride: 325xi
Ok, after replacing the thermostat, upper radiator hose, water pump, reservoir tank and purging the air per the man** who runs German Auto Repair in Boulder the car is running great. I did manage to biff the belt tightener so bad that net time the belts get replaced it'll have to be replaced too.
**Park the car on a hill with nose up. Remove plastic screw and slowly fill with coolant until it come out the plastic screw hole. Set heater to the highest temp and turn car on. Let it come to temp. Replace plastic screw and reservoir lid. Let car completely cool down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
08-31-2010, 10:27 PM
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