My car blew up

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,232
For the first time my car actually properly broke down and required towing to a garage :(

Drove in in the morning without issue, went to start the car in the afternoon, thought hmmm I'll just reply to this text, but it was really hot inside so I switched the engine on for a bit of climate control. Noticed immediatly an odd vibration through the cabin, so shut the engine off and opened the bonnet...


.... to be confronted with what looked like some sort of major explosion. Brownish fluid EVERYWHERE, the viscous fan was jammed at an odd angle and there were loose bits of metal all over the engine undertray. Uh oh, this looks serious and not what I need 2 weeks before I go away for 6 weeks :p

After I'd calmed down from the shock of my first potential enormous bill moment with the car for absolutely ages, (I knew it was too good to be true ;)) I reckoned it was probably the waterpump. The header tank was empty, the E39 cooling system is made of cheese anyway and the waterpump was the only remaining original part of the system I'd not already replaced.

RAC guy comes out and confirms my diagnosis. Tows me to the local BMW Specialist who staggeringly manages to get the whole job done for 130 quid by lunchtime today :cool:

Shame its just taken the best part of an hour to clean the engine bay. Still very confused as to when it failed - it was perfect on the way in without any hint of a problem.

So I thought you might all want to laugh at my misfortune, mind you, its part and parcel of the world of owning a BMW :p It had done pretty well, this is the first 3 figure bill in months and the first fault which disabled the car :p

rac.jpg


The annoying thing was, when I had the cooling system replaced a couple of years ago I mentioned to the waterpump and asked if it was prudent to replace it as a preventative measure. Nope, of course not, they said. Are you sure? Yes, quite sure, waste of money. Don't bother. Figuring they wouldnt pass up an opportunity for more work without good reason, I took their word for it. Should have gone with my instincts :p
 
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Congrats!

From the first bit of your post I was assuming there was no oil in the engine and the pistons exploded out of the block! Now THAT would have been pricey! :p
 
for some reason i'm really disappointed that it wasn't anything serious :/

i guess it's good, but i was hoping for something much more extreme :(
 
peterattheboro said:
Congrats!

From the first bit of your post I was assuming there was no oil in the engine and the pistons exploded out of the block! Now THAT would have been pricey! :p
Click to expand...

Hey what do you think my first thought was when the engine bay was covered in brown goo, there were bits of broken metal all over the tray and the viscous fan was bent! Not a good moment :p
 
I would laugh, but history dictates that everytime I laugh at someones misfortune one of my cars break down.

Luckily it didn't turn out too expensive for you in the end but I bet you thought it was much more serious when you opened the bonnet. That's old cars for you eh ;)
 
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Gutted, although £130 for a super quick fix sounds like a bargain! Ive not had anything engine wise that was spectacular. I have had some impressive damage done when my clutch cable snapped. Managed to get a tow home, arrived at a junction, stopped, tow car pulled away along with my front bumper & grill :D leaving me stranded at the junction. Mind you it was a diesel 306.
 
Sounds like a lucky escape. What would have happened if the pump had failed at 80mph? Any change of overheating and engine damage?

Surprised you hadn't changed the pump already TBH. Its one of those parts that people don't replace up to 100k but is likely to fail beyond that.

Good thing about these engines (M54?) is that the pump isn't driven by the cambelt, so if the pump goes, it doesn't take the engine with it.
 
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I'd probably have noticed the second the guage started to move as I'm pretty attentive to things like that, but yea, it could have been lots worse. Stupid plastic impellors.

It's an M54 yes, its chain driven. The waterpump is driven off the Auxillery drive belt.
 
[TW]Fox;14230282 said:
The annoying thing was, when I had the cooling system replaced a couple of years ago I mentioned to the waterpump and asked if it was prudent to replace it as a preventative measure. Nope, of course not, they said. Are you sure? Yes, quite sure, waste of money. Don't bother. Figuring they wouldnt pass up an opportunity for more work without good reason, I took their word for it. Should have gone with my instincts :p
Click to expand...

Indeed you should.

Dads e39 has never suffered this because its a known issue and he's had it (the waterpump) changed twice @ 100k & 200k , both times he insisted it was done at extra cost and was told himself that its "pointless".

A friend of mine who works at a BMW specialist diagnosed your problem without reading the thread! :D


Nice end result. :)

Having thought about it I wonder if I should - quickly - get a new one for my M52 engined e36! :eek:
 
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When i read the thread title i was expecting to read how there were massive flames coming out of the bonnet impeeding your vision and you having to do a barrel roll out of the door as the car plowed into a forest and burning it down.... how i was dissapointed :-P

On a serious note, glad it didn't end up being serious and caused you too much hastle to get fixed. At least you can relax knowing its been fixed now.
 
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