I have a 2001 325i m/t ~115k miles. Recently put in a new clutch/pressure plate, and have somewhat of an emotional attachment to it.
The story:
A couple weeks ago, my pulley (for reasons yet obscure) decided it didn't want to be attached to the car any longer and committed suicide -took out the drive and secondary belts along with it. I replaced the parts on the side of the road, ate some lunch and life was good. However, on the way home, the car started to overheat. I killed the A.C., blasting the heat and nursed it back home, shitting the car off when it got close to red (took all night, in retrospect I probably just should have called a tow). 115K is about normal for the cooling components to start going, so I replaced the water pump and the thermostat. I drove it to work the next day, overheated in the last mile of my drive and was leaking coolant. The following weekend, I replaced the expansion tank, upper radiator hose, and the hose that comes off the expansion tank mounting bracket (I noticed the o-ring was busted and later found a pinhole on the bottom side of this hose). I drove it around the block a few times and it overheated again. This time I noticed a leak in the plastic siding of the radiator, so I replaced the radiator -drive it around the block, overheated again.
At this point, Iv'e replaced all the mechanical components of the cooling system, all that's left are electronics (or possibly a bad head gasket). The system isn't leaking anywhere and I've bled per instructions on other forms (each time I worked on it). However, there seems to be excess pressure in the system and feared that cylinder head was leaking combustion gases. So, I took it to a mechanic. He replaces the heat sensor in the lower radiator hose and does a dye test to check the head gasket. The head gasket is fine, the sensor didn't fix the problem, and he thinks the fan is working fine also... but still overheating. He ran diagnostics on the computer and said everything seems to be working as expected, and ruled out electronics. So: It's not mechanical, it's not electronic, whats left? His working theory is that the pistons are running hot, the lubricant or something melted during one of the overheats. He gave me my keys back and suggested that the next step is to "buy a new engine".
The point:
I have a brand new cooling system, it's properly bled, my head gasket is fine, the electronics appear to be fine. Any ideas as to why my car is overheating -or is the mechanic right? Anyone run into this?
Surprised your cooling fan or shroud wasn't damaged.
Does your model have an electric or pulley driven fan?
If pulley driven-replace fan clutch:https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...em-11527505302
I'd say I lucked out, but here I sit with a car that I am told is "unfixable". Even worse, I'm shopping for a Kia because I dumped the last of my money into trying to get this car back on the road.Surprised your cooling fan or shroud wasn't damaged.
Manual transmission E46s only have an auxiliary fan -the clutch fans are only in the automatics.Does your model have an electric or pulley driven fan?
huh? Junglenut, please explain how reprogramming the cluster will solve this.
Charlie
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to add value to these threads, either by pictures or by descriptions, so the next person with the same or similar problem stands on your shoulders.
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