1995 e34 540i/6 *m60b44* - Return to Some Kind of Glory

[Jb325is]

Have you verified temps using an infrared sensor? E34 clusters can go haywire for sure, I would verify your cluster is working properly, before going much farther. They don't have the odo gears, so that's an improvement over the e30 but everything else is just as bad/worse

And I was asking about coolant smell because heater valves will leak directly onto manifolds and burn off, making the leak really hard to track down.

[marshallnoise]

Have you verified temps using an infrared sensor? E34 clusters can go haywire for sure, I would verify your cluster is working properly, before going much farther. They don't have the odo gears, so that's an improvement over the e30 but everything else is just as bad/worse

And I was asking about coolant smell because heater valves will leak directly onto manifolds and burn off, making the leak really hard to track down.

I have not verified with an infrared sensor. Maybe Harbor Freight has a cheap one. I really want to get an auxiliary coolant gauge and mount it somewhere in the car because yeah, BMW clusters are awkward.

Yeah, every once in a while I would get a coolant smell, but it was from the expansion in the tank and it overflowing past the de-oringed cap. I have since put on the brand new 2 Bar cap and I haven't had that issue.

After I did the bleeding, the coolant level did not change from last night to my commute to work today. Also it was all highway and the gauge never moved off center.

Did you see the bleeding video up there?

[marshallnoise]

I didn't do a whole lot to the car over the past week or two. But I did tinker with the auxiliary water pump.

I applied the 9V battery to it and never got a noise so I decided I would take it apart and see what's what.

20151228_152817_zpsfbbqsoy3 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Those are the parts. Essentially the motor is supposed to be isolated from the coolant and the impeller pump by a membrane. These membranes tend to fail and mine failed. The membrane I am talking about is in the top of the picture. The motor is turned on and the magnet attached to the impeller begins to spin. It's a cool design really. But heat cycling will take it's toll on these parts eventually.

I don't know exactly what caused it to stop, but here is proof that the motor works fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmKmZtkV5p0

What my buddy Mike and I wound up doing was taking that cap and using epoxy to re-coat the membrane. We tested it under pressure and it held just fine. I am pretty sure it will handle the heat cycling too.

Here is a close up of the membrane with a picture I snagged from google.


The other thing that was obviously wrong with the impeller was that it was no longer really attached to the magnet. We epoxied it to the impeller along with the washers. We also epoxied the shaft into it's mounting place. Once we put it all back together, we tested it by running water through it at a low flow rate and powered it up. It pumped and sounded fine. I will get to installing it later.

When I went out to test the auxiliary water pump and see if I had power at the plug, I turned the car to the run position and heard a crazy arsed noise!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEFkhdPlxi0

[marshallnoise]

Well, I finally go out to the car and installed the heater valves and the aux water pump. Both of them began working perfectly and I have heat again.

Except that during the test, the auxiliary water pump membrane gave way and it evacuated coolant at an alarming rate. So my fix with epoxy and plastic bag didn't work on recreating the membrane. Need to source a new one. Hoping to avoid a new auxiliary water pump.

Got into the glovebox that was stuck shut. Was hoping for a pound of coke or a gun or something...it was empty. Boo.

Here is the crap I am dealing with: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...ry-Pump-Repirs

[marshallnoise]

When I get some more dinero, I will be buying this: Bosch 0392020024.

This is a Bosch unit designed for VW/Audis. I have no idea if it is better or not, but it is brand new and half the cost of a BMW Hella part. For the connector, I will just solder the old pump's pigtail to the terminals and then fill it with epoxy. Maybe hot glue makes more sense if I use spade terminals. That way if this one dies, I can just dig out the glue and reuse the spade terminals.

[marshallnoise]

Alright! Got the new auxiliary water pump installed two days ago and it works like a charm.

Here is the old one after our "repair."
20160122_144157_zpsleihotxv by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160122_144144_zpsxsztfokc by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

And here is the new Bosch VW unit. I trimmed off the end of the connector housing, cut off the old pump's harness connection and soldered the new pump to the old harness. Then I filled it with epoxy.
20160122_143124_zpsihgfq2dg by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160122_143129_zps8kl6ryjy by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160122_143713_zpsmwiwgoir by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160122_143724_zpsmvlyiose by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

The body of the new pump is smaller around than the old one so the original strap that held it to the solenoid valve assembly wouldn't work. We just cut a strip off an old license plate and effectively made the pump thicker. It worked a treat.
20160122_145245_zpszqmgfpgv by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Once installed, we fired everything up and it was just fine. Much cheaper option with a newer design.

I still wasn't happy with how long it was taking for the car to heat up. It was taking 25 minutes at idle for the thermostat to open properly. I went out yesterday morning and put in a brand new e32 750i thermostat in as it is an 85c model. In less than 45 minutes it was good to go. This time, the car took 10 minutes for the thermostat to open. Yayzors!

I also decided to mess around with the paint. I was really kind of hoping a good clay bar job would bring out the best of the paint.

This is the trunk lid with two passes of clay bar. You can still see the oxidization.
20160123_134241_zpsdd4hikmz by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

I searched around the garage and found something that might do the job. It was Mothers' Carnauba Wax Cleaner. It said it would remove the oxidization and sure as shit, it did. The front fenders and the hood had two passes with clay bar and then the Carnauba Wax Cleaner was used.
20160123_154244_zpsbix6uxue by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160123_154253_zpswx4mejsu by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160123_155750_zpsc6yizo2p by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160123_155804_zpstndzuge7 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

Now, I think previous owners left a ton of sap or bird crap on the paint because I have these pits everywhere on the car. I don't mind so much. But its a slight bummer.
20160123_154847_zpsq8cf7mvl by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160123_154853_zpsg28b6xea by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

20160123_154858_zpswq0ifuj3 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

I really think this car will clean up well though. Pretty amped about getting rid of the oxidization.

[marshallnoise]

More cooling system nightmares. I am going to do a leak down test and a compression test and see if there is something else going on.

After a perfectly normal morning driving to work, the needle didn't move a millimeter from center. Then on the way back from work, it gets hot. I pulled over at a gas station and the reservoir was full. Then I walk back to the car after 10 minutes and the reservoir is empty and I have this:
20160125_165406_zpsm92lcfl6 by Paul Abbott, on Flickr

So I have a few issues I need to work out:

• Is it a head gasket leak?
• Is it another valley pan leak?
• Is it a coolant cross-over pipe leak?
• Is it a coolant manifold leak?
• Is it the leak that happens between the transmission and engine? On the back of the block?

I am going to pressurize the system again and see what shakes down. Get some mirrors, etc.

[marshallnoise]

I just tested my Duralast 95c Thermostat that I replaced on Saturday and it opened at 93 degrees or so. So I don't have a faulty thermostat issue.

[unrulygrace]

Great work so far, love the attention to detail. I too have to tackle the rear window regulators, but I do not want to at all haha.

If you come across another Volvo fan and relay at the yard, please pick it up. I'm local and will gladly pay a finder's fee.

Good luck figuring out your cooling system issues!

[marshallnoise]

Have you verified temps using an infrared sensor? E34 clusters can go haywire for sure, I would verify your cluster is working properly, before going much farther. They don't have the odo gears, so that's an improvement over the e30 but everything else is just as bad/worse

And I was asking about coolant smell because heater valves will leak directly onto manifolds and burn off, making the leak really hard to track down.

Bump cause you probably nailed it.

Great work so far, love the attention to detail. I too have to tackle the rear window regulators, but I do not want to at all haha.

If you come across another Volvo fan and relay at the yard, please pick it up. I'm local and will gladly pay a finder's fee.

Good luck figuring out your cooling system issues!

I may have to make a run to the yard this weekend. A fella wants some AC brackets for an m30b35 and will pay me for them. I believe I have another Volvo Fan relay set up already. I know I have a Ford Taurus fan, but it doesn't fit nearly as nice as this Volvo fan setup. I will try and find one for you.

And I have, like 99% sure of this, figured out the cooling system issues. I grabbed an infrared temperature thermometer thing from Horror Freight and tested it in various spots. With the gauge just doing all sorts of crazy ass stuff, I got out there and sure as poop, the car is running just fine temperature-wise, even with the needle in the red.

I believe I have a coolant temperature sensor problem. It is feeding bad info to the cluster. The cluster test checked out 100% functionality about a month ago so I doubt it's the gauge itself.

This would also explain why my compression numbers are stellar and the car ran like a top even with the gauge doing stupid stuff. As far as the loss of coolant, I think that had to do with me over-filling the reservoir because I was so unsure if the system was full or not.

I still have more verification to do, but I am pretty sure this is what is going on.

From my bimmerforums.com thread:
I got out there and was able to do a pressure test on the cooling system again, inspect all the hoses and stuff and run wet/dry compression tests. I have a ton of pictures that I will upload of the compression test readings.

Without any oil in the chambers (except some in the rear two cylinders, 210 no matter what), everything ranged from a low of 187 to 210. Then I added a squirt of oil to each of the cylinders prior to the test and every value was between 210 and 220. So I think my motor is tight. I don't have any issues there.

I also took a picture of the spark plugs and they look fine. They have about 800 miles on them. All of them are uniform in color and none are perfectly clean (head gasket leak).

The pressure test did reveal some leaks. The first leak was from the auxiliary water pump to the heater valve circuit. I tightened that up a bit and retested. Then I found another leak going from the bottom of the expansion tank to the manifold.

Even with those leaks, I only lost 2 lbs from 30 lbs pressure over 45 minutes.

[TimeMachinE30]

I need mounts for an M30B35 PS. Lmk.

[marshallnoise]

I need mounts for an M30B35 PS. Lmk.

PM me which mounts you need.

[FireFight]

WOW man i remember seeing the first post when you started awhile back and thinking it was rough, but you are really bring it around!
totally doing it justice. keep it up!

[marshallnoise]

WOW man i remember seeing the first post when you started awhile back and thinking it was rough, but you are really bring it around!
totally doing it justice. keep it up!

Thanks for the encouragement! Slowly, but surely, it will be a really nice daily driver.

[unrulygrace]

Bump cause you probably nailed it.



I may have to make a run to the yard this weekend. A fella wants some AC brackets for an m30b35 and will pay me for them. I believe I have another Volvo Fan relay set up already. I know I have a Ford Taurus fan, but it doesn't fit nearly as nice as this Volvo fan setup. I will try and find one for you.

And I have, like 99% sure of this, figured out the cooling system issues. I grabbed an infrared temperature thermometer thing from Horror Freight and tested it in various spots. With the gauge just doing all sorts of crazy ass stuff, I got out there and sure as poop, the car is running just fine temperature-wise, even with the needle in the red.

I believe I have a coolant temperature sensor problem. It is feeding bad info to the cluster. The cluster test checked out 100% functionality about a month ago so I doubt it's the gauge itself.

This would also explain why my compression numbers are stellar and the car ran like a top even with the gauge doing stupid stuff. As far as the loss of coolant, I think that had to do with me over-filling the reservoir because I was so unsure if the system was full or not.

I still have more verification to do, but I am pretty sure this is what is going on.

From my bimmerforums.com thread:
I got out there and was able to do a pressure test on the cooling system again, inspect all the hoses and stuff and run wet/dry compression tests. I have a ton of pictures that I will upload of the compression test readings.

Without any oil in the chambers (except some in the rear two cylinders, 210 no matter what), everything ranged from a low of 187 to 210. Then I added a squirt of oil to each of the cylinders prior to the test and every value was between 210 and 220. So I think my motor is tight. I don't have any issues there.

I also took a picture of the spark plugs and they look fine. They have about 800 miles on them. All of them are uniform in color and none are perfectly clean (head gasket leak).

The pressure test did reveal some leaks. The first leak was from the auxiliary water pump to the heater valve circuit. I tightened that up a bit and retested. Then I found another leak going from the bottom of the expansion tank to the manifold.

Even with those leaks, I only lost 2 lbs from 30 lbs pressure over 45 minutes.

Glad you're almost there! Let me know if you find another Volvo fan, I'd be stoked.