BMW X5 Engine Overheating

[Raywesepp]

I have a 2013 BMW X5 with 74,000 miles on it. I was driving down the road, had gone about 1 mile going 35 mph and all of a sudden my engine hot warning pops up. I immediately pull off the road and call a tow truck. My vehicle arrives at the shop, they say the water pump is bad so I get it replaced. They then call me to tell me that they are still getting bubbles in the coolant and that I need a new engine. WTH??? Has anyone has issues like this? I did not drive the car hot and pulled over immediately. The message I got did not say to not drive the car it actually said to drive moderately but I know how expensive repairs are so I played it safe and immediately pulled over and shut the car off. Any advice is really appreciated.

[MarcoZandrini]

The first thing to do is to find a reputable indie shop that specializes in bimmers. Try www.bimrs.org. BMW cooling systems are notoriously tricky to properly bleed. That bubbling could have been trapped air exiting in the cooling system. The indie shop will be able to properly diagnose the issue.
What brand of water pump did the shop install? The installation of aftermarket cooling system parts is strictly verboten! These engines do not tolerate overheating.

[White94RX]

What kind of shop is it? I have never, not one single time, seen an N52, 54, or 55 get damaged from a single overheat event. These engines have a failsafe, and will turn the engine off before any damage is done.

Not saying they are wrong, but that it is highly unlikely and I've never seen it.

[jclausen]

And is the engine still over heating even with the so called bubbles? And what is there concern with the bubbles any way and as mentioned above I have never seen an electric water pump engine damaged by over heating.

[MIKYZZ4]

Find another shop, hopefully one that specializes in BMWs,
and they should be able to perform cylinder leak down tests to verify engine damage.

[bmwdirtracer]

+1.

It would seem to me that the vehicle is likely not at a BMW specialist....so they probably don't know how to bleed the cooling system. There is a special procedure necessary for this engine, which a generic shop won't know.

[White94RX]

It would be really nice if the original poster returned to update the thread. I hate it when they do that. Seems to happen a lot!

[shadowpuck]

agreed - it's almost rare when we get a follow up closing out a thread.....