Radiator busted, now misfires on cylinders 5 & 4

[x5Alpine]

Yea, you should have called a tow truck immediately. I don't understand why people try to limp home a car with an aluminum engine while it's overheating, no way it'll survive.

[Fifty150hs]

Originally Posted by x5Alpine

Yea, you should have called a tow truck immediately. I don't understand why people try to limp home a car with an aluminum engine while it's overheating, no way it'll survive.

Usually results in a warped head or a cracked block. As soon as it overheats, shut it down and park it. Especially with our idiot temp gauge. As soon as it shows you are over heating. you're already overheated. Call for a tow. It's much cheaper and far less hassle than fixing the above.

[workingonit]

Originally Posted by Fifty150hs

...Especially with our idiot temp gauge. As soon as it shows you are over heating. you're already overheated....

One of the first things I did when I got my '01 X5 in May '21, was to replace the mechanical fan with a 3000 cfm aftermarket electric fan, which I configured to automatically switch on at a specified temperature, using a thermostatic switch. It worked great like that, but I wanted more control (always), so I installed a motor speed controller that allows me full control (the thermostatic switch is still in effect, or I can go full manual, via another switch. I tend to turn the fan off at highway speeds, limit its' speed to 75 or 90% in cold weather or at stoplights (reducing the noise).

But, knowing how fragile aluminum engines are (I'm from the days of robust, all-cast iron Chevy V8's), I didn't want to trust a thermostatic switch to turn on the fan, or the weird in-dash temperature gauge that BMW uses, to tell me when to do so, if the T-switch failed. So, I use a dash-mounted 8" Android tablet to run the Torque Pro app, so I can see the ACTUAL coolant temperature (and other parameters, of my choice) at all times. I could've used an Android radio and a Resler adapter to do the same, but I couldn't see buying a new radio and adapter, when my radio was also new, and I had a spare tablet.

The previous owner refreshed the cooling system about 1000 miles before I got the X5, and I've only put another 2k miles on it since, so I'm pretty sure that it's good for awhile. But, I'm constantly underhood checking on things, so I'm keeping an eye on it, too.