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Thread: 525i Broke Down Again

  1. #1
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    525i Broke Down Again

    Heres the general run down to keep it easy to read:
    -I left my house.
    -The car began to heat up way to quickly so I stopped somewhere on the side of the road.
    -My aunt pulled up and we just ran it to her house while it was running hot.
    -We pulled up and the bimmer stalled out/overheated.

    I'm assuming all I have to replace will be the thermostat and the expansion tank, in order to fix the heating issue.
    Any other things it might be?

  2. #2
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    Bad news if you said it stalled and overheated. You need more than the thermostat and the expansion tank. Find out first what caused it to overheat. Could be a lot of factors such as hose/s lost coolant dig deeper.

  3. #3
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    How far & how long was it driven from when you pulled over to Aunt's house ?

  4. #4
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    Sounds like you cooked the motor if you ran it in the red till it shut down. RIP 525i.
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  5. #5
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    Dude. You already have a thread going. Pick one.

    Repost of what I just said over there:

    Quote Originally Posted by LearnersPermit View Post
    You are spot on about that, it overheated when I tried to head to my aunts and stalled out. Assuming its the thermostat at this point and the expansion tank so those are gonna be fixed soon.
    1. Thermostat? Expansion tank? Sounds like you are just firing random shots into the woods hoping you hit something.
    2. The information you're providing is erratic and incomplete.

    We can't really help you unless you provide more of the whole picture.

    Expansion tank is common failure for these cars.
    But if that's the problem, you'd be running out of coolant and having to top it off constantly.
    A bad exp. tank won't make the car overheat in any way except leaking coolant until there is not enough.
    Are you constantly having to top off the coolant?
    Do you get a low coolant error and just keep driving?
    Do you see leaking coolant tracks around the expansion tank, or are you just guessing its that because of stuff you read on immberweb?
    If the car is consuming coolant but there's no tracks anywhere around the exp tank its a stretch to guess thats the problem.
    Or does the coolant not go down?

    Thermostat failure frozen-shut is not common... physically possible, but certainly far from the first thing you think of on these motors for an overheating problem.
    Far more often they go bad on the cold side so the car never heats up to op temp.

    Now you say "overheat and stalled out". OK. That is not good.
    And obviously the water pump was replaced to cure an overheating condition...
    So this car been overheated at least twice, but I'm going to guess maybe its been happenin' a bunch more than that too based on....

    Quote Originally Posted by LearnersPermit View Post
    car is no longer overheating after running for any time at all.
    When it has overheated (both pre and post water pump), do you:

    A. shut the engine down the minute you see a warning or the temp needle going towards the red?
    or
    B. say "huh. car is overheating... well I really need to go to my aunt's today, so I guess I'll just drive over. "

    If the answer is ever B, then you made a real mistake and very high chance you have a blown headgasket.

    The poor running symptoms indeed could be caused by, as guys have said, vac leaks, or bad ignition parts, etc. etc. etc.

    However I'm suspecting there's more to this tale of woe than you've given us and that probably you cooked that motor by overheating it repeatedly and driving/running it until it stalls out. And a head gasket can kind of look like a 'self healing' situation sometimes when its in the early stages. Overheats, busts a small leak in the HG... but then the car sits and cools down, and on re-running the HG kinda sorta holds up for a little while, or at least the leak is teeny, and the motor seems to run OK... but sooner or later it starts to open up and get worse and worse and worse...

    - - - Updated - - -

    OK here I see the answer is B. I'm guessing the answer was B several times before if this car has been overheating again and again.

    For sale: 2001 E39 525, blown headgasket. Has new wheel speed sensor and water pump.
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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  6. #6
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    Apologies for my late reply, and thank you for your detailed reply.

    We assumed it was the expansion tank because it was steaming whenever the car began to run at a normal temperature or if it began to overheat at all. I assume that is because I overfilled the antifreeze and not the root of the issue as you have stated. The reason I assumed it was the expansion tank was also because the antifreeze-steam would steam all over the engine bay.

    I won't lie this is my first car and I have treated it as you have said. I saw it hit red as I was driving, stopped, and after 20 minutes to 30 began to drive again, assuming that would be good enough. I've only run it to full stall twice as you have said, when we pushed it to get to my aunts house for sure and when the water pump died.

    You were 100% correct that I was shooting in the dark as even replacing the thermostat didn't really help.

    Thank you for your help, I'll most likely just sell it and move away from BMW until I learn how to not screw up on my car.
    Last edited by JimLev; 02-17-2019 at 02:04 PM. Reason: I am a retard! Yup you are, watch the profanity too.

  7. #7
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    LOL. Full credits for being straight up.

    These are all aluminum motors and it is critical at the very first instant you see signs of overheat that you stop and shut them off. Always and always and always.
    Its not alike some old vintage iron-block American engine where you can blow the headgasket and then drive it around town for 1/2 an hour with it running crappy and then just replace the headgasket and all is fine.

    Your motor is pretty much guaranteed cooked. Unfortunately that leaves you with a car with very little value, so, selling isn't gonna get you much.

    Basically with the repeated incidents, and, running until it stalls ​twice (ugggh!!!) the head is virtually certainly warped beyond use. A light warp maybe you can machine flat, but this one is likly to be pretty bad therefore you'd try and find a used head. The block itself is also in decent danger of having been cooked, which, with a 'light head gasket' wouldn't be the case. If the block has warped (and that's not unheard of for these motors in extreme cases like this) it is economically completely not justifiable to machine/fix the block vs sourcing another one. On top of that, the head bolts are tricky (soft aluminum) and the best way to do a head gasket job on them is to do a whole process to line the threads with steel inserts, or else find out that the threads pull out as you're doing the job. Those are not free either.

    For those reasons, the best solution here is certainly to swap a used motor into it. You might actually consider this, although if you bail its understandable too.

    If you want to fix it, you could try and find a "parts-car" that's been in an accident but has a good motor for cheap. That would potentially give you some extras that would be helpful for the rest of the car (interior parts or whatever) and you could also sell parts out of it to help offset costs. Or, you could just source a used motor - they are not hard to find.

    An E46 M54 motor will work but require a few things swapped from your old one (oil pan). And you could upgrade to a 530/330 3.0L motor at the same time although then you want to get the motor "fully dressed" with all the extra parts on it (intake, injectors, etc.) and not just a bare block. All your wiring harness will work fine with the 3.0L though. Either of the M54's (2.5L/3.0L) are relatively easy to find. The E46's are more plentiful but keep in mind there'll be a couple little things to swap over.
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
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    Former:

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  8. #8
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    Engine swap? Man, he couldn’t even keep from overheating the old one, repeatedly, an engine swap is way over his helmet <<<< Spaceballs!
    Set the controls for the heart of the sun

  9. #9
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    As the rank noob on this board, I just want to extend compliments to Mr. Geargrinder. Sir, your posts are always full of helpful information and advice. I know how much time can be consumed posting on boards, and I'd just like to say thanks for all the good information I've gained from reading your posts, and this board.

    Your advice about the new engine is exactly right. Although far from my first car, I recently bought my first BMW, a project with a "slightly blown HG." The PO swore that the very second it went into the red, the wife pulled off the highway and parked it. Sound familiar? As you stated, the head and block were warped far beyond the reparable limits. She warped the bejesus out of it. You said that good, used, engines are easy to find, and you're correct. Now that the car is a couple days away from being roadworthy, I wish I'd have read your post earlier. :-) I kinda regret not swapping in a 3.0.

    Thanks for your sage advice.

  10. #10
    geargrinder's Avatar
    geargrinder is offline Having No Trouble Here BMW CCA Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by E39 Newbie View Post
    As the rank noob on this board, I just want to extend complaints to Mr. Geargrinder. Sir, your posts are always full of hateful insinuations and anger..
    Couple spelling mistakes there, probably auto correct. I FTFY.

    Quote Originally Posted by E39 Newbie View Post
    The PO swore that the very second it went into the red, the wife pulled off the highway at her normal exit 7 miles down the line, then drove another 4 miles to their house, stopping for a gallon of milk at the convenience store on the way, and parked it.
    And I FTF the PO of your car.
    2003 M3CicM6 TiAg
    2002 540iT Sport Vortech S/C 6MT LSD TiAg
    2008 Audi A3 2.0T DSG (the daily beater)
    2014 BMW X1 xDrive28i (wifemobile)

    Former:

    1985 MB Euro graymarket 300SL
    1995.5 Audi S6 Avant (utility/winter billetturbobattlewagen)


  11. #11
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    Thumbs up The truth Teller!

    GG your corrections are right once again. Man you're batting 1,000! The FNG is just sucking up as he will need some coding expertise in a few days.....
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