Hi All,
Long time lurker and infrequent poster. Thought I would share a bit of a story about my Cooling System nightmare. Maybe it will help someone along the way. And no, I have not overheated my car even though I've had so many problems with this stupid cooling system. :D
First off, thank you to ECS Tuning for having awesome kits and support. Also a big thanks to Mango for the guides. And... here's the story.
I've had this 2004 Facelift 330Ci for the past 11 years. Never really had any issues until I decided to do a cooling system refresh as many have done. Once I did, back in 2010 and 100k mi, I kept having a small amount of coolant coming from the expansion tank area and the thermostat housing. The original design on this is crap! The connector hole builds up coolant crust over time. I've had to replace this stupid thing 3 times already.
Attachment 658442
For the past 7 or so years, I have just been filling up once every 2 months or so never really figuring out where the problem was since such a small amount of fluid was coming out.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I found that my coolant was spewing out so fast that I couldn't drive more than a few hundred miles without having to refill. Time for another refresh. Updated part from ECS. Finally!!
Attachment 658450
After installing everything... I still had a major leak from the expansion tank cap. Ran it for about 100 mi with refills and I finally found it. There was a leak in the stupid plastic radiator end cap. If you can't pinpoint the problem quickly, consider the radiator. It's only like 200 bucks and a couple hours of your time.
Installed the new radiator... still a leak. Turns out the new Behr Meyle radiator connection is smaller than the old radiator and it stretched out the upper radiator hose rubber seal. Called ECS and they sent me a new upper radiator hose for free since I just spent a buncha money with them and one of their parts "failed." Awesome customer service and would definitely recommend dealing with them. :thumbsup:
Attachment 658458
Again, a big thanks to Mango for the guides and anyone else who contributes to this forum. It has been a huge help troubleshooting annoying things with this car over the years.
My car now has over 192k mi and running fairly strong. Probably have to do piston rings since it started to eat oil recently. :tsk::censor: I can easily see why these cars run past 300k mi on the same engine.
:eeps::eeps:
TL;DR Check the plastic radiator end caps for pinhole leaks if your car is spewing coolant.
Now, on to the next garage project...
Attachment 658466
Long time lurker and infrequent poster. Thought I would share a bit of a story about my Cooling System nightmare. Maybe it will help someone along the way. And no, I have not overheated my car even though I've had so many problems with this stupid cooling system. :D
First off, thank you to ECS Tuning for having awesome kits and support. Also a big thanks to Mango for the guides. And... here's the story.
I've had this 2004 Facelift 330Ci for the past 11 years. Never really had any issues until I decided to do a cooling system refresh as many have done. Once I did, back in 2010 and 100k mi, I kept having a small amount of coolant coming from the expansion tank area and the thermostat housing. The original design on this is crap! The connector hole builds up coolant crust over time. I've had to replace this stupid thing 3 times already.
Attachment 658442
For the past 7 or so years, I have just been filling up once every 2 months or so never really figuring out where the problem was since such a small amount of fluid was coming out.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I found that my coolant was spewing out so fast that I couldn't drive more than a few hundred miles without having to refill. Time for another refresh. Updated part from ECS. Finally!!
Attachment 658450
After installing everything... I still had a major leak from the expansion tank cap. Ran it for about 100 mi with refills and I finally found it. There was a leak in the stupid plastic radiator end cap. If you can't pinpoint the problem quickly, consider the radiator. It's only like 200 bucks and a couple hours of your time.
Installed the new radiator... still a leak. Turns out the new Behr Meyle radiator connection is smaller than the old radiator and it stretched out the upper radiator hose rubber seal. Called ECS and they sent me a new upper radiator hose for free since I just spent a buncha money with them and one of their parts "failed." Awesome customer service and would definitely recommend dealing with them. :thumbsup:
Attachment 658458
Again, a big thanks to Mango for the guides and anyone else who contributes to this forum. It has been a huge help troubleshooting annoying things with this car over the years.
My car now has over 192k mi and running fairly strong. Probably have to do piston rings since it started to eat oil recently. :tsk::censor: I can easily see why these cars run past 300k mi on the same engine.
:eeps::eeps:
TL;DR Check the plastic radiator end caps for pinhole leaks if your car is spewing coolant.
Now, on to the next garage project...
Attachment 658466
Cooling System Saga
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