Coolant Issues - Newley purchased e53.

[Golfknar]

I just purchased an E53 and found out the coolant is empty today. Noticed some fluid on ground and checked. Don’t want to waste coolant to figure out if and where is the leak. Can I use water and replace? If no leak how would I replace?

[ahlem]

Use water.
Be sure the mix is correct before you do any driving up to temperature.
You can get dye to put in with the coolant from any parts store and a $10 UV flashlight at Lowes to help diagnose the problem. Check the radiator expansion tank. Maybe get the Harbor Freight cooling system pressure test kit.

[ahlem]

If you have a leak, most of the water will be leaking out.
You can get a coolant tester that looks like a big eye dropper with plastic balls in it. You can pull out coolant from the expansion tank with a turkey baster or a drill powered pump and check the mix and add some straight coolant to get to a 50/50 mix point.

[andrewwynn]

Distilled water

[cn90]

In a pinch, tap water is fine, as long as you flush it out later.

Distilled H2O is better.

The #1 reason people get rid of this car is cooling issue. Make sure you don't have a blown head gasket. Do NOT drive the car now.

What year/model/trans/mileage?

If you have < 120K miles, do a Partial Cooling Ovehaul.
If > 160K, do a complete cooling overhaul.

Info for partial overhaul is below:

DIY: 2006 BMW X5 3.0i PARTIAL Cooling Overhaul @ 116K miles

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...16k-miles.html

[tmat1977]

transfer pipe might be bad i have one i can sell you its a collaspable one save you 1000$$$

i thought mine was bad turned out to be valley pan and my water pump