Thermostat - Page 2

Daka · #1 04-02-2014, 04:00 PM

The car(truck?) seems to be operating 100%, warms up to needle straight up. It almost never sees the highway, as it's my wifes daily driver...

TiAgX5 · #2 04-02-2014, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daka

The car(truck?) seems to be operating 100%, warms up to needle straight up. It almost never sees the highway, as it's my wifes daily driver...

If it gets to normal operating temp in a short amount of time (5 to 10 mins) and gauge stays at 12 o'clock during hwy operation, the shop has no idea what they're talking about.

Ashaman074 · #3 04-02-2014, 04:49 PM

I recently had the same code; interestingly enough just before it happened I had noticed it was warming up a bit slower than normal.

I cleared it, and it hasn't happened since - since it fails "open" I am not particularly worried about it, and will probably just replace it during a planned job including coolant & water pump change as I get closer to 100,000 miles.

Seems a fairly easy job, dealer quoted an outrageous price though.

motordavid · #4 04-02-2014, 07:51 PM

^^^ +1...

If it is as the OP says, I might do/have a good Indy shop do a coolant flush and fill, and give the cooling sys components a look.

It might be nothing or it might be 'something', and if it is the CEO's dd, I would rather have her trust the car and happy/content, than not.

If the OP doesn't like/trust his current Indy, there are others to choose from, in his area.
GL, mD

SlickGT1 · #5 04-02-2014, 08:15 PM

Oh fyi. When my Tstat died. I had a check engine. Somehow forgot that you had nothing. Thats the check engine that made me buy a scanner. Yea i doubt your tstat is dead.

Daka · #6 04-02-2014, 10:14 PM

I'm thinking I'll let it go for a while and see what happens, she's never more than 10 minutes from the house....and I'll make sure she keeps an eye on the temp gauge.
Probably with the next service I'll have the coolant changed...(it's now only at 68,000 miles, not a lot for an 06)

g300d · #7 04-03-2014, 12:33 AM

Doing a bit of research, as mentioned by others the thermostat mostly fails by keeping the engine TOO cool.

Do you have the high instrument cluster and unlocked the OBC? I would monitor the engine temps via test 7 (or 9, I cant recall exactly which ATM).

As per various BMW forums the M54 runs at around mid to high 90's. Failed 'stats cause temps to be consistently at the low to high 80's from what people have reported.

Sometimes the classic symptoms of failed thermostats like long warmup or temp needle below middle dont show.

A lot of people do report poor gas mileage as a common symptom though. Not that it'll sip fuel like a Prius, but there is reportedly a noticeable diff.

Acidphase · #8 04-03-2014, 12:47 AM

If he's in Florida and it's stuck open I doubt it would ever take that long to heat up.. The car will normally always run fine with a faulty thermostat UNLESS it's stuck closed that's more of a problem because of overheating.

In general though normally thermostats are very easy to replace , on some cars you just have to make sure to get all of the old gasket off to have a nice smooth surface for the new one. If not leaks will develop.
I'm pretty sure I located mine just by a glance without even looking it up online , if it is where I think it is it's not that hard to get to. (whenever I get a new car I look for these sort of things it's a common thing to go)

Someone mentioned:
New Water pump after 100k? This is normal routine maintenance????

TiAgX5 · #9 04-03-2014, 01:01 AM

BMW waterpumps don't use a surface gasket that needs to be scraped off, they seal with an o-ring seated in a groove, that "tight slip fits" into the engine block waterpump bore.

Acidphase · #10 04-03-2014, 10:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiAgX5

BMW waterpumps don't use a surface gasket that needs to be scraped off, they seal with an o-ring seated in a groove, that "tight slip fits" into the engine block waterpump bore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by g300d

Yup OP the waterpump on these motors is easy to get to.

Pretty much at the top front of the block.

I wasn't referring to the water pump gasket , I was clearly talking about the thermostat gasket

My question/inquiry still stands unanswered though. Replacing a water pump is standard maintenance around 100k miles?
That's somewhat discouraging for a german engineered machine lol