Tin top has developed a coolant leak thats getting worse
BMW E46 316

Its coming from the block/head area stuffed right up against the bulkhead

I stuck my hand to where the plastic takeoff pipe is (as suggested by a guy at work- as they are apparently a bit prone to splitting etc)
I can feel where it is and the two bolts holding it on - its deffo got coolant on the outside round there so ordered the plastic takeoff part (£6!) and some coolant

Tried to get a mechaninc to fit it today but time ran out so I was forced to top up the coolant and made the short journey home - its not a big leak (yet) and made it home before the low coolant light lit up

I /may/ have a go at the job tomorrow on the driveway (weather permitting)

Anyone one here had to go through this (without engine / head removal!)
Its it as big a drama to do by the sense of touch alone as the guy at work suggested? (who had the head off in the end)

I have tools here that will /hopefully/ cover whatever is holding this on and the pipes to it....assuming I can make them fit into the limited space available!! (have spanners and the usual socket sets and torks bits etc)

haynes manuals I have doesn't even mention it let alone a picture , though have found refernce to the fact that the bit in front of the bulkhead that is in the way big time - may actually be partially removable..which would help access

I'm guessing as its a plastic fitting with an O ring for seal I'm best putting some grease on it and being chuffing gentle when putting the fasteners in (not that there looks to be enough room for my 1/4" torque wrench anyway)
a smear of blue locktite on the fasteners recomended?

Advice, hints, tips and offers of morale support are most welcomed


Regards
Rob

Hi Rob, sell the bloody german crap, and buy a decent car like mine, Cheers Ray

Which one?...LOL

It's not even my car, but it IS warmer than my only other alternative modes of transport
(besides the thing would only become uber unreliable if she was the only one using it - it would otherwise only move 5 miles a week...if that)

Have a bad feeling I'm going to end up with shredded fingers, high blood pressure and Mrs Cog's car in many bits tomorrow

Reagrds
Rob

Which engine is it?

I had to fix a 328 e36 ages ago.

There was a pipe that was split behind the block.

I had to take all the intake manifold out to fix it. BMW wanted £380 and the part was £10.


I need to rad the posts properly.
316



[Edited on 11/12/10 by l0rd]

2001 316i se
Not sure what the engine code is ...but its only a 4 pot (1.8 or 1.9?) (N42?)

I'm guessing the 6 pots would leave even less room to work on!

I'm hoping that the air intake bits infront of the bulkhead come off to reveal enough room to get a pair of hands in at least

Worried I'm going to round off (through a bad call on guessing what type of head it has) or snap one of the fasteners thats holding the plastic pipe in place in attempting to remove it if its been leaking (ally head with steel fastener at a guess)

Regards
Rob

Only advice from doing a similar part (water outlet spigot(?)) on my Golf was not to clean up the head too much!

I cleaned the 'face' of the head and taking away the calcium/corroded material left the 'good' metal face of the head so pitted that the 'O' ring of the new plastic water spigot couldn't make a proper seal!

Had to make up an additional gasket from Hermetite Orange to that it didn't leak!



HTH,
James

Get it warm before you start. I fitted an aircon compressor yesterday and despite it being almost tropical (4°c) my fingers were numb from touching cold metal.

Well I'm over half way through..

Managed to get the bulkhead parts off which helped a little

Got the part off and it was pretty obvious why it was leaking (will attach photo's)
Things went from bad to worse as although I got the part off....some of it stayed behind in the head ...oops

Bit of inginuity and much contortion has saved my bacon

New part fitted
filled with plain old water and got it up to temp and got a bit of pressure and with the aid of a mirror a torch and some tissue have declared it water tight and a raging sucess

Just come in to have a well deserved brew let the car cool down and will have to drain flush and refill with coolant
(I had been topping up with red stuff, but it turns out I should have been using blue according to GSF)

I have a feeling I'm not going to enjoy taking the engine lower cover off to get to the drain screws on rad and expansion tank...esp now the ground is soaked

Pics to follow of the unfolding horror story...

Regards
Rob

And all done...

Bulkhead parts came away giving just that little bit more room to work in...



New V old parts....I thankfully managed to fish out the missings bits piece by piece and gave the inner face a quick once over with some fine paper wrapped round a suitably sized socket...just to make sure I didn't tear or nip the O ring on the new one
Smear of grease has it bone dry under pressure according to some paper towel and a mirror on a stick





Not quite as hateful a job as I was expecting but I have to admit I shouted something really quite rude when I noticed that I hadn't got the complete old unit out and that it wasn't going to be a straight forward swap out job

Regards
Rob



[Edited on 11/12/10 by robocog]