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Thread: E39 coolant bleed

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    E39 coolant bleed

    Hey guys I need help with my 528it. I just picked up this car for 800 smackaroos amd Drove it an hour home and it ran perfectly... until now. I opened the coolant expansion tank to be greeted by a thick foam. I'm quite certain it is stop leak. Yay (distant voice). So I'm in the middle of flushing the system by drain g it and running it on 100% distilled water. I plan on flushing it again with running it like this till it gets to operating temp but I can't bleed the system which the water. I've never worked on coolant system with this whole bleed system until now. In the many videos I have seen they used the aux pump on the radiator to help bleed the system but when I turn the car to the second position and turn the heat up I get no circulation. The pump is Not running. The only noise I get is under the intake manifold. There aren't any clogs that j know of on the top of the rad. Can someone help me diagnose why the pump won't go on and how to bleed the system. Much appreciated.

  2. #2
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  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Find an aux pump in a local junkyard, located bottom drivers side of the radiator attached to hose and confirm yours is bad.

  4. #4
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    There's an assload of info out there on bleeding tricks for the I6. I'm not the I6 guy but I know there's tons of stuff out there. I seem to remember there's trick sometimes to get the Aux pump to run (or more like some tricky issue that keeps it from running?) but can't recall it of the top of. You don't HAVE to use the Aux pump, its just very convenient.

    Bigger picture, doesn't sound good but at this point I endorse the plan - flush and run water for a couple days (since we're past freezing weather time) and what the hell see what happens.

    I'd be prepared for the worst, also known as "so that's why this car was only $800".
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  5. #5
    Join Date
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    sounds like your aux pump is bad since you're describing how to get it started correctly. When the pump is working, its pretty much the simplest bleed procedure of any car I've owned (or maybe I'm just saying this b/c my last car was a Fiero):

    With car cold, turn on key to position 2 (but do not start the car). Set HVAC system to 90 degrees and set fan to low. Aux pump should start running and you should see/hear this.
    remove coolant pressure cap on expansion tank and the bleeder screws from thermostat cover and expansion tank
    pour coolant into expansion tank keeping level near top of tank until air free coolant flows from the thermostat cover bleeder hole.
    replace thermostat cover bleeder screw and continue to fill expansion tank until air free coolant flows from the bleeder screw on the expansion tank.
    (you will need to keep the expansion tank filled to top to complete this step).
    when no more bubbles, then install and close the bleeder screw.
    fill explosion err.. expansion tank to its normal cold spot
    take the car for a drive until it is fully warmed up (at least a 10 min drive)
    let it cool down to ambient then check level in tank. If empty, rinse/repeat (this generally never happens on an I6 unless you have other problems though)
    Last edited by sleuth255; 04-27-2018 at 08:48 AM.

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