2007 Water Pump Replacement. Overheating and no coolant loss

[lt_texan]

Hello everyone. I searched on this and couldn't find anything.

My wife calls and says her X5 is overheated, it shut down, come get me. Luckily, she is a mile or so away in a residential area.

What happened was the engine temp amber light came on. Then the red light came on maybe a couple minutes later, and she pulled over as the engine put itself into major limp mode.

I expected to see a puddle of antifreeze (based on some of the posts here) but did not. She sat about 20 minutes before I got there.

Under the hood, things didn't seem incredibly hot, so I got some towels and CAREFULLY opened the coolant reservoir a bit, noting a small amount of pressure released.

Coolant is between the min and max lines. So I added a bit to top it off. No leaks, good.

So I thought maybe the electric fan is not working. Fired her up and the fan came on, good.

Shut her down.

Residential all the way home so might as well give it a go and see if the light comes back on.

About half way it did, and I pulled over and let her cool off. Two more tries with about 15 minutes cool down got me in my driveway.

So, I'm thinking thermostat stuck shut. (Figured I might find a thread on that that on this list, but nada)

Any advice on what the problem could be before I call up BMW to have the non-warranty X5 taken to the shop?

Yes I'm handy and expected to be ordering a radiator right now, not scratching my head.



Replacing a thermostat or a faulty sensor would be welcomed advice.

Thanks in advance all....