Newb here. First BMW and first post here. Really appreciate any feedback. nice to meet you all!!
I have searched this but did not find anything.
Just bought a 2006 E61 185,000 kilometers. We just finished replacing oil cooler seal that was leaking and was left to make a terrible mess (like enough grime to top a big birthday cake) and of course the serpentine belt because it failed due to the oily mess. Thankfully none of it ended up in the crank or damaging the seal. While cleaning using engine several cans of de greaser and brake cleaner I notice the water pump mount bushings were squishing out and felt very soft. My first thought was that the brake cleaner had attacked them but having searched around a bit I noticed a pelican parts water pump replacement article that shows them squished out just the way mine were but it makes no mention of this or any need to replace them. Here's a link to the article. https://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/tec...eplacement.htm
See figure 6
My water pump is fine. Is there any reason to replace these mounting bushings? They are very soft.
You say there was a ton of oil on the front of your engine. The oil likely destroyed:
- the rubber water hoses
- the O rings inside the rubber hoses
- the tensioner pulley bearing
- the alternator pulley bearing
- seeped into the water pump electronics
- vanos harness connections
- valve sensor harness connections
The front of that engine always needs to be spotless.
^oil doesn't affect EPDM water hoses. Coolant hose o-rings are nitrile. Tensioner bearing has a grease seal that's oil compatible.
Alternator bearing doesn't care if extra oil gets on it, but the alternator innards don't like being stuffed with oil crud as it can cause overheating (it's air cooled).
Rubber bushings will get soft with oil/time, and I doubt you can get them as separate replacement parts. If the pump is still firmly mounted to the engine leave it alone.
Now, bear in mind an electric water pump of unknown age is a ticking time bomb, it's not a bad idea to replace it and the thermostat as a preventive measure.
Sorry for the delayed response. New account wasn’t receiving notice of reply's. OK I understand all the potential issues with oil leaks and aged components. Replaced the idler arm and pulley. Cleaned out the alternator. The entire front of the engine is now bone dry and clean as factory. I aim to keep it that way. I paid 2-3K under market for this and willing to spend the money to get it back up to par. PS 2-3K was the quote the prior owner had to fix the “leaks” which I found out to only be the oil cooler to filter seal that you could actually see the oil flowing out of it, like measured in drips per minute! I could understand how that could be misdiagnosed as several leaks including the rear main seal as it literally to 3 hours over 2 days under there to continually clean and get rid of residual that was running all the way back to the rear main seal area and every seal and component in between. The rest of the car is immaculate and I feel worthy of a little extra love. I have ordered pretty much all the cooling hoses. Any recommendations on the water pump, here’s a couple options I have come across. I am not convinced price is synonymous with quality but sometimes an indicator. I noticed only The Beck/Arnley kit mentioned replacement bolts, not sure about the other TBD. I don’t recall those bolts being marked with blue as requiring replacement (ie torque to yield bolts). Any comments on that are welcome.
STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS Price in CAD Dollars $368.55
DAYCO DP1892 $351.65 CAD
ULTRA-POWER 41526E CAD$343.21
REIN WPR0046 CAD$465.97
BECK/ARNLEY 1312486 With Bolt Kit CAD$479.76
AIRTEX AW6680 Includes Gasket CAD$769.91 !!!!`
Definitely agree. If you have any amount of oil leak getting onto that belt. Fix that asap. We just fixed the oil cooler to filter leak and decided to road test before we replaced the belt. To see if we could sus out any other leaks. Bad decision... I guess all the oil leak and then cleaners etc. pushed that belt over the edge "literally" because 3 blocks down the road off it went!!! anyway like I said we got off lucky with no belt sucked/ squished into the front crank seal. Have it all back together and going to jump on those other recommendations asap.
Last edited by OKbimmerguy; 05-18-2020 at 04:04 PM. Reason: Added quote
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