Find water pump age?

[Russianblue]

I just bought a 2nd e53 with low miles (71k) and am intent on addressing the cooling system. However, it very well may have been done by the previous owner.

So here is my question. You know how BMW always has the little date codes on all its parts? do you know WHERE the date code typically is on the water pump? If the pump was manufactured in, say, 2012, and this is a 2005, and assuming it lasted, say, 50k miles, i think it'd be reasonable to believe that the pump on the car is fairly new. i mean, the car had a Genuine BMW air filter when I bought it, which leads me to believe that it was dealer serviced (that and the pristine condition of everything else).

it'll suck if i get the whole thing apart and figure out the water pump was manufactured a year ago, at which point the car had DOCUMENTED mileage of only 65k miles. The owner before me drove almost exactly 5k miles per year and got the car inspected within the same 2 week window for freaking 13 years according to the Carfax.

[Qsilver7]

Sometimes the build date code may or may not be present...depending on who manufactured the part.


In the pic below...you can see the mfg date identified on a BEHR radiator on an e38...BEHR mfg'd the radiator for BMW...and instead of the round emblem with the nbrs 0-9 and an arrow pointing at the last digit of the year...and the number of the month split between each side of the arrow...the mfg date is written out European style:

[Russianblue]

yeah i know it is a bit of a crapshoot. I am sorta stuck either paying very close attention to it or just spending the $500 of parts and swapping it all out. i suppose if i swap it all out and pull everything and figure out it's a year old, i can always swap it back in when the next 70k miles passes!

[wpoll]

Parts are sometimes marked with a number like "3405" or "2112" - which usually means 34th week of 2005 or 21st week of 2012.

Sometime you'll also see UNC date format - YYYYMMDD - 20030227 would be Feb. 27th 2003.

It's like trying to figure out a puzzle from MYST...

[oldskewel]

Mine is a 2001 3.0i.

Back in 2005 at 61k miles, the PO paid the dealer $561 to replace the water pump with a remanufactured unit, per the dealer receipt. FYI, yes ridiculous and WTF - why not a new one, and why the 1500% markup?

Anyway, I recently rebuilt a bunch of stuff, and figured I'd replace this WP, which was still working fine at 186k miles (125k miles since installed). I put in a new Saleri 11-51-7-509-985. Perfect match, fit, cost $39. Easy decision.

I still have the old one here. Looking at it, I can see BMW roundels and INA (the OE) on it in a few places. The only thing that looks like a date code is on the front lower part of the casting. This would be behind the pulley of course. Along the bottom edge of the ~rectangular flange (one bolt at each corner) is a ~1" diameter cylinder. The weep hole is in that at about 10 o'clock. In between that cylinder and the lower left bolt hole (left when looking at the pump in your hand, but starboard, passenger side when it is installed in the car) is a little casting mark that looks like a date code. Mine has a "4" in there, and it looks like dots in the first 4 marks around the circle (like a clock, so I assume it means the 4th month). I assume this was made in April 2004, which fits the receipt (installed in 2005 as "rebuilt").

So there you go. Hopefully yours is the same.

But you may find that it is really pretty easy to access if yours were ever to fail. So even if yours is new, at your low low mileage, it might not be something to worry about.

Actually, I know (having had it happen to my car) that cooling system failure leading to overheating leading to head problems is a major concern for these great cars. But I've also seen how WELL many things have lasted on my car, now at 186k miles. So if you want to be cautious and pro-active regarding preventing this sort of failure, rather than (or in addition to) replacing everything in sight, the single most important thing I would recommend is to get your coolant temp gauge fixed so it shows a meaningful temperature. Then make sure anyone who drives it knows exactly the consequences of letting it overheat.

Here's Crowz' excellent reference on this:
PA Soft 1.4 | Crowz Nest

I still have not done this myself, but will as soon as I get programming access.

[Russianblue]

I believe you and I think alike OldSkewel.

In reading your posts, i ran across Crowznest and read his whole site. That dude is really nonchalant about his genius. I'm an I.T. pro and getting this stuff set up is wicked tricky. i am actually working on it now. I mentioned this temp gauge fix to my buddy earlier today believe it or not!

I have thought about buying the bcoders.com version simply because of the all in one installer. It's still a little bit unclear to me what i am able to code via a kdcan cable and which cables you can trust...even though they ALL basically have FTDI chipsets and come from the same chinese factory in metallic silver or blue...with every last vendor claiming superior quality...and prices ranging from $6 to over $100!

[wpoll]

The dots on a dial or in a row are an often used method for dating castings. On the first day of each new week or month the operator takes a punch and "updates" the die....



This example looks like late in June 1969 - close to the moon landing!

Thanks goodness techniques have come a long way since then...



Dot-peened QR code - laser etching is also popular.

The moon still eludes us though.....

[oldskewel]

Here are pics of my pump, as discussed above in post #5
Short answer is I think the "4" seen clearly there means it was built in 2004.

[Russianblue]

so there's a CHANCE....albeit somewhat small, that I can see that date without draining the coolant! that'd be awesome. thanks for the photos.

[kmm111]

Originally Posted by Russianblue

I just bought a 2nd e53 with low miles (71k) and am intent on addressing the cooling system. However, it very well may have been done by the previous owner.

So here is my question. You know how BMW always has the little date codes on all its parts? do you know WHERE the date code typically is on the water pump? If the pump was manufactured in, say, 2012, and this is a 2005, and assuming it lasted, say, 50k miles, i think it'd be reasonable to believe that the pump on the car is fairly new. i mean, the car had a Genuine BMW air filter when I bought it, which leads me to believe that it was dealer serviced (that and the pristine condition of everything else).

it'll suck if i get the whole thing apart and figure out the water pump was manufactured a year ago, at which point the car had DOCUMENTED mileage of only 65k miles. The owner before me drove almost exactly 5k miles per year and got the car inspected within the same 2 week window for freaking 13 years according to the Carfax.

The carfax should tell you if it’s been dealer serviced or not, as each service visit should be listed. If it’s all the same dealer you can call them and ask for the service records.