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I own a manual 2000 328ci, M52tu engine. I did the OG E46 cooling overhaul and all that at 163,000 miles, bled it out right and its been great since except for a weird issue recurring issue. I am now at close to 224,000 miles. For the past few months it has been getting air pockets in the cooling system causing it to overheat and I cannot figure out the source. If I sit in the car after driving, I can hear a "gurgling" sound from behind the dash in the heater core area and a little under the hood. Theres no oil mixing in coolant, no coolant leaks, and its maintaining the proper level. This issue only used to occur when I use AC or heat, but is now a everyday issue as of today. Ive inspected everything except my heater core because I simply dont have time to remove it and take a look.
When I bleed out the system, air pockets and obviously steam will come out so I took a combustion gas tester to it and it did not show any signs indicating gasses. That leads me to believe it is not a head gasket issue but part of me still believes it is related. A pressure test showed nothing out of the ordinary.
Have any of you had this issue before? Everyone express some opinions, this one has me on my last nerve
Member
Under what conditions does it overheat? What brands of cooling system parts did you install? The installation of aftermarket cooling system parts is strictly verboten.
Does the car have an automatic transmission? If it does you need to check the thermally activated fan clutch. Get the engine up to temperature and use a rolled up newspaper to attempt to stop the fan blades. If you can stop it the fan clutch needs to be replaced. Be advised that the fan clutch uses a left hand thread where it screws onto the water pump.
Other potential causes of overheating are:
- bad water pump
- blocked radiator (is the radiator original)
- thermostat (it’s design to fail in the open position).
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