what kind of water pump do i have

[TNell]

recently acquired 1999 323ic (E36)

i'm trying to determine if this car came from the factory with a plastic impeller or metal. most resources seem to indicate plastic (or possibly resin) but one source i can't find again said starting in 1997 they came with metal impellers from the factory. anyone got some solid info on this?

thanks


edit: found it again


"The water pump issue is due to the fact that BMW originally used water pumps with a plastic impeller on the e36 6 cylinder engines. After a while the plastic would get brittle and eventually the impeller would disintegrate. BMW eventually identified the problem and started using updated pumps with aluminum impellers in 1997, so any car built after '97 or any car that has had the water pump replaced after '97 should be ok. If in doubt, the pump isn't very expensive so it's no big deal to go ahead and replace it if you can do the work yourself. Although if you have a shop do it for you, it will cost you a bit in labor."

So if the above is true my 99 "should" have a metal impeller. If so can I expect any future failures to be "normal" type water pump failures, i.e. seals beginning to drip/leak vs. catastrophic failure of a plastic impeller?

[Manolito]

All I can say with certainty is that my two '97s came with metal impellers.

[TNell]

OK, that makes twice from independent sources.

I hope my car has a metal impeller because the previous owner just changed the radiator and hoses and the aluminum t-stat housing is in there also so i assume a new t-stat as well. The fan clutch seems to be working well and I'll change both belts soon. Hopefully all the cooling bases will be covered before any trouble arises. All is well for now and temp runs right in the middle during city driving in Memphis (95-100 deg. all this last week).

[Manolito]

Do you know of the PO changed all the heater hoses as well? The week after I changed the radiator in one of my '97s, the heater hose under the intake manifold sprung a leak so I replaced all the heater hoses. They are buggers to get at.

[TNell]

i would guess they didn't change the heater hoses but i will take a look and see if they look new(ish). only problem is the engine compartment of this 10 year old car looks as if it could be new on the lot right now. they did a VERY good job keeping it clean under the hood. thanks again for the tip.

[Jeron]

Bad plastic impellers are in the 93-96 range. They still use plastic, even today, but they are not like the bad batch from the mid 90's.

[Jeron]

Originally Posted by Manolito

Do you know of the PO changed all the heater hoses as well? The week after I changed the radiator in one of my '97s, the heater hose under the intake manifold sprung a leak so I replaced all the heater hoses. They are buggers to get at.

Exactly the same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. I replaced the radiator, expansion tank and upper and lower hoses. I had the heater hoses in hand but not enough time to get them done before a track event that weekend.

At the track a heater core hose blew on a cooldown lap at about midday. Thankfully I was running straight water but it still put me off the track. I would say it is likely that replacing the other parts took some of the softness out of the cooling system and exposed the weakest hose.

12+ years is not too bad for a set of hoses though. Especially considering all the track time my car sees.

[TNell]

i appreciate the help as i learn more about the bimmer world.

here is what i have planned to keep this nice running car running nice.

1. new belts and inspect pulleys while belts are off
2. change tranny fluid /filter (green tag on tranny)
3. inspect heater hoses
4. bleed flush brakes
5. turn front rotors--they pulse just a little during braking, all else OK
6. replace rear rotors/pads--rotors are deeply grooved, too cheap for new ones to try saving old ones
7. new radiator, hoses, tstat housing, lower control arms already done by me or previous owner