Cooling Fun!

[phrekus]

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

I just cleaned out the mess of hoses under the intake and when I tried to bleed the radiator afterwards all I got was steam and it never let any liquid out. Also I didn't get any heat from the air vents and eventually had to shut the car off when it got near overheating. I suspected the thermostat so I removed it and tested it next to a new one in some boiling water and they both opened and closed correctly. I am almost certain that I have no circulation and the car is sitting with the radiator out (last owner barely mounted it so I decided to take it out and mount it right). I have done some reading and from what I can tell the possible causes are one of the sensors failing, air lock, water pump. I have the new thermostat but I am currently waiting for a new housing gasket and o-ring to come in the mail. I am trying to get the car running again before this weekend (e30 meet) does anyone have any suggestions for how to troubleshoot this further? I made sure the heat was on and the front of the car was jacked up. I even tried to prime the water pump by pouring coolant into the top hose of the radiator before trying to bleed the system. The car had problems cold starting before I did thie recent work but the car would run well once warmed up and the temp never went above the center line, I did the hose mod/o2 sensor/fuel filter/air filter/plugs/gaskets. Now that the car is all back together it is running much better and the cold starting issues and check engine light are gone.

HALP...

[dude8383]

may be a failed water pump.

there could also still be a lot of air in the system...i remember it once took me 45min to bleed my m42!

[phrekus]

Hopefully I will have the parts I need soon so I can put everything back together. I am a bit worried about it being my water pump. Does anyone know some troubleshooting tips? If not then I will just put everything back together asap and see if it made any difference.

[tehwickerman]

Yeah the M42 is a complete bitch to bleed. Give it a few tries while the engine is cold.... jack it up/put it on a hill take the radiator cap and bleed screw out, rev to 3k and wait for coolant to spurt out. Make sure your heat is on while doing this.. defroster seemed to work better for me. It took me doing this on 3 seperate occasions to get everything right... now my fan clutch is gone so I'm still getting overheating issues....

[phrekus]

Well I put everything back together without the thermostat to try to narrow things down and I got the same results (car temp goes up and steam only comes out of the bleeder valve till the car gets so hot that I have to turn it off, all while no heat comes out of the air vents). I tried pushing torn cardboard into the fan and I was able to stop it from spinning. I would assume that means the fan clutch is gone but I was wondering if a bad sensor could cause the fan clutch not to engage while causing the circulation issue. The thermostat gasket housing and o-ring won't be in till thursday so I had to use the old ones to test with. I was also thinking that air could be getting in through the old gasket of the thermostat housing preventing circulation.

[monty23psk]

The fan clutch works on heating of the oil inside of it, no sensor. You should be able to stop it, just should take some resistance, not much. But until the oil is not heated, the clutch won't kick in. If you have steam only, then you have air in it and-or the water pump is seized. Does top hose going to the radiator on the passenger side get hot?

[phrekus]

The hose on the passenger side that leads from the radiator to the thermostat housing does not get warm and neither does the radiator. I can squeeze the hose on the passenger side and see the steam rush from it out of the bleeder valve. I am guessing this points toward the water pump?

[monty23psk]

Yup, looks like water pump or thermostat, but if you dont have it in there, then water pump or a clog somewhere.

[romeomike]

Well I put everything back together without the thermostat to try to narrow things down and I got the same results (car temp goes up and steam only comes out of the bleeder valve till the car gets so hot that I have to turn it off, all while no heat comes out of the air vents). I tried pushing torn cardboard into the fan and I was able to stop it from spinning. I would assume that means the fan clutch is gone but I was wondering if a bad sensor could cause the fan clutch not to engage while causing the circulation issue. The thermostat gasket housing and o-ring won't be in till thursday so I had to use the old ones to test with. I was also thinking that air could be getting in through the old gasket of the thermostat housing preventing circulation.

Sounds like you've narrowed it to the coolant pump. It will be interesting to see how it looks when you remove it.

[phrekus]

Well I found a pump at a local auto parts store and I will be picking it up today with aspirations of getting it installed over the next two days (thermostat gasket and o-ring arrive tomorrow). I was trying to figure out the cars story and thought about a couple odd clues that lead me to believe that the car was owned by the elderly till it sat for awhile and the guy I bought it from decided to get it going again but got lazy.

1.) Fuel filter I replaced was from 1996
2.) New radiator that was barely mounted
3.) Themostat housing missing a bolt
4.) Missing AC Belt
5.) Rest of the car looks like it was well maintained and driven lightly till it sat.

The owner mentioned that it does get warm which leads me to believe that he got the car after it had sat for a while and saw that it was getting hot and tried to toss in a radiator and new thermostat (barely mounting the radiator and leaving a bolt out of the thermostat housing). He probably noticed that it didn't help and never bothered to check the sensors/water pump/fan clutch.

Now after what I described from last night do you think I should do all the sensors, fan clutch, and water pump just to be safe? I will also be doing the thermostat. I don't mind spending the money, I plan on spending money on this thing till I either run out of money or things to do.:D

[dude8383]

which sensors are you talking about?

you need to first diagnose the problem before you end up wasting your money. it sounds very much like you have a shitload of air in the system OR a failed waterpump OR possibly a clog somewhere.

you mentioned that you wait until steam comes out but in order for the system to be completely air free coolant needs to come out slowly. what you should do is open that bleeder screw and take the cap of keep the coolant topped off.

FIRST TRY BLEEDING IT COMPLETELY BEFORE YOU GO BUY PARTS.

[delfin]

Did you bleed the thermostat?

[phrekus]

I had steam coming out for several minutes and no sign of circulation. I checked the radiator (which is somewhat new) and water flowed through it fine so the clog would have to be somewhere else. I pulled the trigger on the parts order before reading your post but in all honesty I don't have any problem replacing good parts with new parts. I got a pretty good deal on overnight shipping on the parts below and will also be doing the thermostat with an new housing gasket and o-ring. I look forward to the peace of mind knowing that all the major components of my cooling system are in good shape.

11-14-1-439-570-M104 Kit PEL-WPSKE30-02N: Crankshaft Seal
11-23-1-469-235-M21 Kit PEL-WPSKE30-02N: Belt, Alternator
11-51-0-393-338-M59 Water Pump and Gasket
11-52-1-466-000-M38 Kit PEL-WPSKE30-02N: Fan Clutch
12-62-1-710-512-M323 Temperature Sending Unit (for temp gauge)
13-62-1-709-966-M323 Temperature Sensor, 2-prong, 20 Degrees Cel
17-11-1-178-412-M200 Kit PEL-WPSKE30-02N: Rubber Insulator for Lower Radiator Mount
17-11-1-712-788-M230 Bleeder Screw for Expansion Tank (Brass, includes one O-Ring)
61-31-1-378-073-M85 Temperature Switch in Radiator

[dude8383]

keep us posted

[phrekus]

Well getting TO the water pump was pretty simple but I spent two hours

trying to get the damn thing out with no luck. I tried using the top and bottom threaded

wholes like in the instructions but the end result is a broken bolt in the top one and I

broke off a piece of the water pump flange on the bottom. Tonight I will be taking the

hood off to get a better angle, I might have to build a tool to get this out.