Water Pump Advice...

[bigrich]

Hi all,

I'm normally on the 5exi forum pages but thought I'd post an advisory notice on here for all you BMW engined sporsters.

I have an E36 320i BMW (1996 vintage with 122K on the clock...just run in!)

Yesterday while driving along I noticed the heater stopped heating in the car and started to blow out cold air...this was accompanied shortly afterwards by the temp gauge hitting the red. After letting it cool down I tried again....same result.

Anyway....after limping home & a bit of thinking I reckoned the water pump had failed. Bought replacement today and changed said pump...all now OK.

Basically the plastic pump impeller used on the early M50 / M52 6 cyl engines is prone to degrading over time and eventually just falls off the shaft...effectively rendering the pump useless.

....the moral of the story......if your using a straight 6 BMW engine in your sportser change the water pump when you recon the engine.

Rich

P.S. Even after overheating slightly on 122K the head gasket still seems OK....good 'ol BMW reliability.

[Patrick]

Thanks for the tip, I've just swapped the pump on a M52B28 in my brothers car - the original plastic still looked fine but feel much better with the metal one in there now!

[Rich]

The guy that sold me the above described engine said that he had a 2L m52, when he swapped his water pump it was missing part of one of the plastic blades!