Cooling system after action report
 

First, thanks to all of you here for the collective knowledge and expertise.

I hope this won't run too long but I want to help others who may have similar issues.

Background- Got 99 323 vert about a year and a half ago. Everything has been normal meaning I only needed to routine stuff like front suspension. I have the normal power steering drip and a slight coolant drip as well along with the standard "Check Coolant Level" or whatever it says.

The car runs and drives very smoothly and the coolant temp never moves out of dead in the middle once the car warms up.

A couple days ago just when I left on a trip out of town my wife had a massive coolant leak with steam and fluid everywhere. This was still with the temp dead in the middle. She parked it--GOOD wife;)

I got home the next day and decided to just break it all down cause I couldn't see anything obvious. The belts and hoses were all overdue anyway and thermostats are cheap.

After taking it all apart I still couldn't find anything and the oil showed no signs of a head gasket problem. It was a sudden release of coolant anyway so I wasn't too worried about that.

Well, I ordered all the parts from Pelican yesterday and the Fedex man (I'm one also but I drive a 727 instead of a truck) came about 10am. I started putting it all back together not knowing what caused the problem but hoping it was a bad radiator cap or something similar.

I was just about to give the over flow tank a nice cleaning before putting in the new coolant level sensor when I saw the CRACK. DANG IT--I didn't see it before and that was the only thing I didn't order. Back to the Pelican website.

Well, so far except for some minor hassles and delays the job is going well. The new belts and thermostat are in along with the radiator. The coolant tank will be here tomorrow AM and I'll hook up the hoses and button it up.

Here are some additions/clarifications to "The BOOK" that may be helpful.

1. The clips that hold the radiator are tricky. I ordered new ones just in case. After looking at the new ones though I discovered that they are easily opened by pressing down with a very small screwdriver just in front of the arrow.

2. You may not need to disconnect auto trans lines to pull radiator. My tranny cooler attached to the radiator with four screws. The top two are in plain sight and the bottom two may be accessible underneath. I'm not 100% because it wasn't jacked up and I couldn't get enough room to find'em but I'm pretty sure I could have got the cooler loose from the radiator not needed to disconnect the linesif i had jacked it up and had a helper to maneuver things for me. 13mm deep well on a swivel worked for removing the lines which i plugged ASAP with some foam earplugs. Hope I didn't lose too much tranny fluid--that's another project.

3. 19mm with about 18 inches of extensions and a swivel worked good on the engine block drain.

4. The Fan Nut- 32mm is close enough to 1-1/4 inches. AZ didn't have the right tools for rent so i figured I'd buy the 1-1/4 and make the tool to hold the waterpump. Got a perfect piece of scrap steel laying around for it. I put the wrench on the fan to see if it would fit (it did) and gave just a little pull. The fan came loose immediately without holding the WP at all???

5. Belt tensioners--the "book" says 8mm allen wrench but mine was a T-50 torx on both. Also there is a raised hex (16mm I think) on the Alt belt tensioner you can use.

Got the overflow/expansion tank and finished her up today. no runs, no drips, and hopefully no errors:D. temp is still dead in the middle and there are no apparent tranny problems from the smallish amount of lost fluid.

the coolant tank from pelican came with a level sensor even though prod. description says it doesn't. got r/a to send extra one back along with radiator mount brackets.

there was nothing technically challenging in this project, just a couple of tight squeezes getting to a couple connections/clamps/hoses.

Well done!
SmileWavy
Jon

Expect that you will find that you have no more "Coolant Level Low" message.

If you cut open the old reservoir, you will likely find that the tube that runs from the bleed screw to the bottom of the tank is cracked. When that happens, water starts squirting around in there and drives the float down, setting the low coolant code.

With two e36s, my experience is that 8 years is the life expectancy of a plastic radiator and 12 years is the life expectancy of the reservoir. If yours is older than that, may as well order one so you have it on hand.

You are correct that the tranny cooler can be left in the car. That is the way I do it. It is a bit tedious getting the screws out, but lots neater than breaking the oil lines. You need some ramps.

Still got the low coolant light even tho its full and has a new tank and float switch.. IDC, i know its full. I've got ramps, jacks, jackstands but was too lazy to pull em out. i started poking around with it on the floor and next thing i knew half the parts were on the floor:D

i definitely recommend NOT following my example on the ramps/jackstands. i did jack it up on day 2 when i was finishing up.


Additional note--moving the MAF out of the way temporarily will make access to the block end of the overflow hose much easier

If you are still getting a low coolant level message, it may be that there is still some air in the system and the water level in the reservoir is surging up and down with engine RPM.

You may need to pull the bleed screw and fill the reservoir clear up again to bleed it again.

the only time the coolant message shows up (both before and after repairs) is when either turning key on or off. never when car is running or moving. as soon as i press the "check control" button it goes away until the next time the ignition is switched on/off.

I have had every kind of coolant, overheat, radiator, fan, blade water pump problem in the book with my BMWs.
Never had an automatic tranny, and I don't think any of mine had a OBC that monitored the coolant level, the rest sounds like a textbook E36 first encounter with the coolant system.
Is the car overheating now, or are you just getting a coolant level message?

No, the car has never overheated in the 15 months i've had it. After it warms up the temp has never moved from dead nuts in the middle. Not even when the overflow tank let go because it was already shut off or shut off immediately after

( i wasn't there but it let go just as (or after) it was pulled into a parking spot)

12 yr old daughter told mom it was smokin/leakin

she's traumatized from when a heater hose let go on my mustang a few years ago and she thought it was on fire:D

the coolant low message i accept as it being an 11 yr old car with expected quirks