Hey Team,
My fiancé and I were supposed to get married in two weeks, but since COVID has decided to mess up our plans, we will be spending time at home and I still have a week off of work! So, I'm doing a cooling system refresh and a brake bleed on my M3 but there are a few parts I'm on the fence about for the cooling system side.
For reference, my car is a 9/96 build date ('97) with about 135k on it. I've owned the car just over two years now.
- Water pump pulley - Is this worth replacing if it's not giving me issues already?
- Coolant Res - Mine isn't leaking, sensor is working.
- All hoses - I'm doing upper and lower rad because they were available and why not. Should I do the rest? I haven't noticed any cracking or leaks.
- Block drain plug - It's a bolt; but it's also very cheap. Thoughts?
Things I have on order:
- Tstat
- aluminum tstat housing with gasket
- crusher washer for the block drain plug
- Genuine BMW water pump with gasket
- New radiator drain plug
- both belts
- upper and lower rad hoses
Should be a fun week!
Pulley - No reason to replace the pulley unless it's somehow damaged or you want to go to underdrive pulleys. There's a couple other pulleys you might check and replace if necessary though, I believe the idler/tensioner pulleys. They can squeak when they get old.
Expansion tank/sensor - This is optional, but it isn't expensive or difficult to do while you have it all drained. I'd recommend just replacing both, or at least the coolant level sensor.
Hoses - May as well do all of them that aren't a PITA to get to like the long one from the engine block to the expansion tank. I ordered that but didn't bother replacing it when I did mine, but go for it if you want to. I think I just did the upper, lower, and the skinny hose that runs from the radiator to the expansion tank.
Drain plug - sure if you want to, though I can't imagine there's anything wrong with the one you have
Your parts list looks good. Just make sure you use the correct gasket for your aluminum tstat housing. There's another thread here on that. Do you know what water pump you have? That's the only other thing that comes to mind that you might replace, aside from the radiator itself. Lots of people including myself like the Stewart pump.
1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...H_ImU5yx4/edit
Click the tab at the bottom appropriate to your year.
You should really consider a full cooling system refresh that includes pulling the intake manifold. But that’s just my way.
I typically replace the radiator, fan blade, and viscous coupling at the same time.
All great feedback, thank you. I do have plans to upgrade the pulleys with UUC stuff later, I'll make sure to do tensioners then as well. I ordered the Tstat housing from understeer so I'm sure he'll get me the right thing. I'll probably grab a sensor.
As far as the pump, Understeer made it easy to get the BMW one with the package I bought from him. No plans to track the car quite yet so I figure it should be good for my needs for now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
- - - Updated - - -
M50 manifold is on the list so I'll be pulling that hopefully before winter. So I may have to do a re-do on some of the work here, but ah well. This is a great sheet. Thank you! I'll probably add a few things from that.
Last edited by UsernaM3; 08-28-2020 at 03:32 PM.
I replaced my entire (and I mean entire) cooling system recently. You can take a look at my thread if you want a list of part numbers: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...5#post30473055
If you haven't replaced the radiator yet I would. Those plastic end tanks are known to crack. And definitely replace the expansion tank, they aren't expensive.
Also while it's not a bad idea to replace the engine block drain plug do note that the current suggested part number is actually from newer BMWs and is a bit longer than the original E36 one. This means you'll have to remove an O2 sensor to install or remove it. Not really a big deal if you have the right tool but FYI.
Last edited by sirhodjibob; 08-29-2020 at 03:36 PM.
great notes, thank you! I probably will add a radiator after yours and these other posts. Big help. Thanks for the tip on the drain plug as well.
I noticed you are using a quickjack — that was my first purchase after this car and man that thing saves a ton of headache haha.
Also, I work in the tech industry and personally I almost always shy away from third party parts. In my experience the OEM parts always fit perfectly, hold up the best, and yield the best result. With that said, I have noticed yourself and others recommend a few third party parts — are there any brands while I’m shopping on FCP or ECS that you would recommend I steer away from?
thanks again!
Last edited by UsernaM3; 08-29-2020 at 04:53 PM.
You don't always need to buy the "Genuine BMW" part. If you do a little research here or elsewhere (realoem, etc...) you can find out who the actual OEM suppliers were to BMW for various parts. Most were supplied by various German or European OEM's and not made in-house by BMW. Names like Lemforder, Febi, ATE, Bosch, Behr, Bremi, etc... You can often save a substantial amount of money and get the exact same part by buying from the original OEM brand instead of the same thing with BMW's name on it. Although like I said, it depends on what parts you're after and some parts you may not have much choice. And definitely stay away from the really cheap non-European brands.
1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy
The stock plastic t-stat cover is fine. You don't need an aluminum one. People seem to have far more issues with aluminum cover fitment than with the stock one.
I second the Stewart water pump. If you are spending some extra money, it is a good place to do so.
Yeah good point about the aluminum housing. They can work, but understand that depending on the quality of the aluminum casting it may take some cleanup sanding and whatnot to get a clean fit (in addition to gasket fitment/selection as already mentioned). The plastic OEM housings are plug and play with no hassle or extra steps, and should still easily last 10+ years. They might not look as fancy though if you're about aesthetics.
1999 M3/2/5 - Titanium Silver - Track/Weekend Toy
That’s definitely something I’ve read about these. It’s already in the mail so I’ll just give it a good look-over — hopefully it won’t require any sanding, but understeer is indeed including the orange gasket instead of the black one that comes with it. Should be ok. If it leaks, it leaks — I’ll just yank it apart again haha
Last edited by Braymond141; 08-30-2020 at 03:33 PM.
Sorry to drag you guys back in here; for the Coolant Level sensor do you always recommend Genuine BMW for that one? The bit of googling I've done doesn't have many results. I did see VEMO and Febi are both available on ECS; both German companies but I believe VEMO is built in Italy.
Definitely
Replace
The
Expansion
Tank
DRTET. NOTED! lol.
Also, found this. Sounds like BMW is the way to go.
Last edited by UsernaM3; 08-31-2020 at 03:11 PM.
Alright, I’ve gotten everything off and to my surprise absolutely everything on this car is original, it’s pretty impressive it has lasted this long, but the thermostat housing has been leaking and possibly the water pump, so I’m glad I got to this now.
as I was draining the coolant from the block yesterday I had a washer fall out and I thought nothing of it — figured it was for the coolant drain plug, but upon inspection it doesn’t actually fit around the threads of the drain plug. Does anyone recognize where this may be from?
https://imgur.com/a/JVWgsgZ
Last edited by UsernaM3; 09-11-2020 at 01:02 PM.
Last edited by das borgen; 09-11-2020 at 04:32 PM.
-Rich-
so far it looks like it should fit but I’ll let you know if I have any issues.
currently taking the opportunity to clean the engine bay and front of the block since I have access, so this is taking a bit more time than planned, but I’m going to be happy with the end result I think.
Your list is fairly complete now. I replaced everything including the small hoses when i did my manual swap.
I have no idea where that washer is from, does not look familiar.
The Z3 M radiator has a thicker core but is plug and play. Nice addition! Photobucket removed most of my pics, but the radiator pics on the first page are still there.
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...peed+swap+pics
I figured out the washer! It’s from the radiator drain plug. But I don’t need it anyway
Before I fill this bad boy up, any thoughts on this mating surface? Clean enough or should I use something more abrasive to clean it a bit more?
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