Materials to Maintain Your ZHP IIIII Hand Protection IIIII Tools to Maintain Your ZHP
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    Behind The Orange Curtain
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    75

    Yet another cooling system refresh, but with a kicker.

    I haven't been around in a long time; sorry 'bout that. Too much stuff and not enough me.

    Anyway, on Monday I was out running some errands. Totally uneventful. Pulled into my driveway, shut down and cart my errand stuff inside. Wife comes home about 5 minutes later and said that there is a huge flood emanating from under my car. Go check it and sure as hell, there was a pale blue stream heading down the driveway. Popped the hood and the overflow tank had about an 8 inch split. I set up a big fan to cool off the engine and went off to FCP Euro for a boatload of refresh parts. Started the install today, should finish up tomorrow.

    The kicker? Previous owner had done a refresh EXACTLY 75,000 miles ago.

    How about them apples?!

    Ken...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Location
    Austin TX
    Posts
    7,606
    Good story. Glad this happened on your driveway and not in the middle of nowhere. Hope you ordered the water pump as well. When I had my first e46 (1999 323i), I asked my Indy to refresh the cooling system. Fast forward some months, I decided to sell the car.

    A guy from Houston (2.5 hours away) bought the car. He called me a couple of hours later, the car overheated outside of the city limits. He was cool about it (no pun intended). Just wanted to know if that happened to me before.

    The culprit ? WP ... You guessed right. I looked at my invoice, that part was not replaced by my Indy.
    2005 IR / black / 6MT
    157,000 miles

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    3,130
    Gotta love these BMW cooling time bombs. I had something similar happen in my old e36.

    I was driving home one afternoon and rolled over 200k miles and was just so damn proud of that car for being so solid to me for all those miles. Pulled her into the garage, and said "good car" just as steam billowed out from the hood


    FYI it's also a good idea to throw on a 1.4 bar expansion tank cap to avoid this happening again. It'll [hopefully] release the pressure before the expansion tank cracks.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2016
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    Behind The Orange Curtain
    Posts
    75
    Quote Originally Posted by fredo
    Hope you ordered the water pump as well.
    Ordered the "Mango" kit plus an alternator belt tensioner. And a gallon of coolant.

    Quote Originally Posted by ZHPizza
    FYI it's also a good idea to throw on a 1.4 bar expansion tank cap to avoid this happening again. It'll [hopefully] release the pressure before the expansion tank cracks.
    I had the G.A.S. 1.2 bar cap on there when it blew. Those tanks really are a disaster looking for a place to happen. I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea to keep a tank and water pump "in stock".

    Ken...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Charlotte, NC
    Posts
    3,130
    Quote Originally Posted by kbcons View Post
    I had the G.A.S. 1.2 bar cap on there when it blew.
    Oh snap

  6. #6
    Was it an OE or aftermarket expansion tank?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


    2006 Coupe | Black Sapphire Metallic | Natural Brown | Gruppe M Intake | Corsa TSE3 | Michelin PSS on Apex ARC-8 | Koni Yellows |

  7. #7
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    May 2016
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    Behind The Orange Curtain
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    Quote Originally Posted by san View Post
    Was it an OE or aftermarket expansion tank?
    Previous owner was an ECS Tuning fan, so probably OE or OEM.

    Ken...

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
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    22841
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    9,921
    Quote Originally Posted by kbcons View Post
    Previous owner was an ECS Tuning fan, so probably OE or OEM.

    Ken...
    If the cooling system was replaced as a kit from ECS tuning, it was an aftermarket tank.

    Previous owner of my car had installed on of their kits and it lasted roughly the same mileage.

    His - 2004 Imola Red / Alcantara 330i | 6MT | ZHP |

    Her's - 2005 Black Sapphire Metallic / Black Leather 330i | 6MT | ZHP |

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Martinez, CA
    Posts
    365
    ECS also has BMW kits with BMW bits. I bought one the last time. Had a REALLY tough time with the prior cooling system refresh with aftermarket parts. Also, the ‘upgraded’ metal impeller WP self destructed on me.

    Evidence:



    A balled up piece of metal just inside the cooling passages on the block the wife found.


    Went back to OEM


    Also replaced the radiator with BMW.

    Good luck OP!
    2004 Imola Red over Black Leather. 6-MT, Navigation, Cold Weather Pkg (the wife loves them seat warmers!), 3.46 Diff, UUC Short-Shift Kit, Tranny Mounts, CDV Delete and iPod mount.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Location
    Behind The Orange Curtain
    Posts
    75
    Autozone.com
    I have no way of knowing if the previous owner used an ECS kit or bought parts piecemeal. The water pump looked to be in good condition, but it got replaced regardless. I'll dig the old tank out of the trash later and see if there is a manufacturer's stamp.

    Edit. The failed tank was made by Vaico. Can't really fault it. The thing lasted 75,000 miles, 70,000 of which was with a 2 bar cap.

    That's one fine looking corpse of a water pump you got there. Get all the pieces out of the engine?

    The "Mango kit" from FCP Euro is all OE/OEM or BMW parts, so I should be okay. Old radiator is a Behr. New one is Nissens.

    Ken...
    Last edited by kbcons; 04-18-2019 at 05:02 PM. Reason: Answer question

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