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  #1  
Old 04-26-2013, 09:20 PM
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DIY for electric water pump replacement?

Water pump is toast and I'm praying the engine is ok after my DW drove it till overheat shutdown.

Anyone know of a DIY for replacing the electric water pump on an 08 3.0si? Otherwise I'm buying the service manual.

Thx
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  #2  
Old 04-30-2013, 11:08 AM
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OK, FWIW....for the next guy looking to do this DIY. I will be attempting it this week. I have found two good sources of info:

1) DIY for a 330i but very similar process for the E70 from what I can tell:
DIY: 2006 330i Water Pump and Thermostat Replacement - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

2) Posting here about a user experience replacing the water pump on an E70
http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...nt-loss-2.html

Once I am done I will update. I hope to have the parts tomorrow so....wish me luck.
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  #3  
Old 04-30-2013, 10:19 PM
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Step 1 - Raise the truck
Step 2 - Drain "lifetime" coolant.
Step 3 - remove electric fan assembly

So far, steps 1, 2 & 3 are complete. It took a couple of hours for this and frankly, there is very little room to get around the t-stat and water pump. Not looking forward to tomorrow.....
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  #4  
Old 05-01-2013, 11:56 PM
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Thanks keep us posted. I've replaced the water pump on the E46 a few times. it was pretty easy.
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  #5  
Old 05-02-2013, 10:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordshin808 View Post
Thanks keep us posted. I've replaced the water pump on the E46 a few times. it was pretty easy.
Thanks. I've worked on E30's and E36's plenty of times but never expected to have to work on E70.....this soon any way.

None the less, between kid's baseball games and life in general, last night I got the thermostat and water pump removed. The new pump is in position with one hose hooked up and one to go. I'm hoping to have some time to get it wrapped up and back on the road today.
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  #6  
Old 05-03-2013, 08:43 AM
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So the job is finished! In all it took about 7 hours for me to do and the X runs like new now.

A few take aways for anyone considering to do this job.

- Be prepared to get dirty and be ready to get antifreeze everywhere, even on you. Even with strategically placed buckets, you can't prevent it. You can try to minimize it by stuffing paper towels in the hoses. Also be prepared to get nicks and bruises. There is alot of stuff in your way doing this job plus it is a very confined space...my forearms are still sore.
- Getting the X up in the air was more complicated than I thought. Use a normal pump style jack at the front jack point under the engine area (as shown in the manual) to get it lifted. Quick note here, be sure that you remove at least the plastic "skid plate" before lifting. Otherwise, when you have it lifted at that jack point you will have to lower the jack to get the plastic plate out. Then you can use the jack pads on the left and right for jack stands. There are really only 3 lift points in the front and if you try to jack it up on the sides, you will not have any place to position the jack stands (you see what I mean when you get into it).
- You will want to remove the pass side tire so make sure you loosen the studs before you get it in the air.
- I can comfirm that you do not need to remove the radiator but you do in fact need to remove the electric fan. When you remove the fan, just below the rad hose on the driver side, there is a piece that folds back into the fan assembly. It will be hard to fold back. I didn't understand how it worked so I ended up just disconnecting the the top rad hose and slide it out.
- You need to remove the metal brace/shroud that goes across the front of the engine bay. It is only held on by 4 bolts but you need to disconnect the small return hose on the rad expansion tank to be able to move them out of the way to remove the brace.
- I would recommend buying the service manual if nothing else, I referred to it several times to see the orientation of the hoses during reassembly. The manual that I bought was terrible in that it didn't show clearly a start to finish DIY for water pump but it was a useful reference otherwise. Ie. It did not take you through the entire procedure of removing the skid plates, elect fan, or anything else. It just assumes you are already there and need to R&R the water pump.
- Having short and long VE12 sockets was useful.
- You will need to use a long extension and universal joint to get at some of the bolts as descriobed in the above mentioned posts.
- The hose clamp bolts are a mixture of 6mm and 7mm sockets (I think). A long handled, flat head screwdriver is extremely valuable here too...at least 16" long.
- Pay attention to how the wiring harness is routed and where the metal clips that hold it are located. I had to remove the pump once to reroute the line because I wasn't sure.
- The front most radiator hose is difficult to push on and clip in. I used vise grips to pull up one side and used a long socket extension with leverage from the frame, I put the square head of the extension on one of the nubs on the rad hose to to force it on.
- Make sure you connect the top hose of the water pump before you bolt it up otherwise the hose it too short and will get jammed out of place once bolted in.
- When in doubt that you can't get to one of the hose clamps, do not under estimate coming through the wheel well.
- You might as well change the oil while you are here. If you find yourself needing to change the water pump then most likely you either got the warnings that the engine temp is increasing or an Overheat. BMW has gotten smarter over the years....If this happened in an E30/E36 then you most likely needed to replace a head gasket and had coolant mixed in your oil. The X is smarter than that and knows that we are stupid and will drive it until the engine blows up. So yes, it shuts down before that can happen but I guess there is still a chance that a head gasket blew (or worse). Since the X doesn't have a dipstick to look at the oil consistency, it's already up in the air and you are laying under it anyway so you might as well change it and look at it as it's coming out. Luckily for me, all was ok.

This is my submission to the forum, I hope that it helps the next backyard hack mechanic like me. I've worked on older BMW's for years and when we bought the X I never in a million years saw myself laying under a $60k car repairing it. Up front warning....if you buy an X be sure to buy the extended warranty. This job ended up costing me just about $500 and 7 hours of labor with almost a week downtime before I could get to it. If I had the foresight to buy the extended warranty, I would have definitely used it here.

Good luck to you, when you think you can't do it...take a break and come back to it. Keep pressing on and you will get it done.

Thanks and props to both guys who contributed the stuff in the links above. This job would have been 100 times more difficult without them. To me this is what this forum is all about.
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  #7  
Old 06-03-2013, 02:24 PM
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Thanks for the info! Good to know this info is here when the time comes to replace mine.
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  #8  
Old 06-03-2013, 08:11 PM
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Thank you for taking the time to share what you have done. it is appreciated.

I have told my entire family that when an overheat situation occurs to stop the car period. My wife's A8 began to overheat and she parked it where she was. A replacement T-stat ( not an easy job) and no issues or worries as it never really got hot.
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  #9  
Old 07-17-2013, 02:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ohiobimmer View Post
So the job is finished! In all it took about 7 hours for me to do and the X runs like new now.

A few take aways for anyone considering to do this job.

- Be prepared to get dirty and be ready to get antifreeze everywhere, even on you. Even with strategically placed buckets, you can't prevent it. You can try to minimize it by stuffing paper towels in the hoses. Also be prepared to get nicks and bruises. There is alot of stuff in your way doing this job plus it is a very confined space...my forearms are still sore.
- Getting the X up in the air was more complicated than I thought. Use a normal pump style jack at the front jack point under the engine area (as shown in the manual) to get it lifted. Quick note here, be sure that you remove at least the plastic "skid plate" before lifting. Otherwise, when you have it lifted at that jack point you will have to lower the jack to get the plastic plate out. Then you can use the jack pads on the left and right for jack stands. There are really only 3 lift points in the front and if you try to jack it up on the sides, you will not have any place to position the jack stands (you see what I mean when you get into it).
- You will want to remove the pass side tire so make sure you loosen the studs before you get it in the air.
- I can comfirm that you do not need to remove the radiator but you do in fact need to remove the electric fan. When you remove the fan, just below the rad hose on the driver side, there is a piece that folds back into the fan assembly. It will be hard to fold back. I didn't understand how it worked so I ended up just disconnecting the the top rad hose and slide it out.
- You need to remove the metal brace/shroud that goes across the front of the engine bay. It is only held on by 4 bolts but you need to disconnect the small return hose on the rad expansion tank to be able to move them out of the way to remove the brace.
- I would recommend buying the service manual if nothing else, I referred to it several times to see the orientation of the hoses during reassembly. The manual that I bought was terrible in that it didn't show clearly a start to finish DIY for water pump but it was a useful reference otherwise. Ie. It did not take you through the entire procedure of removing the skid plates, elect fan, or anything else. It just assumes you are already there and need to R&R the water pump.
- Having short and long VE12 sockets was useful.
- You will need to use a long extension and universal joint to get at some of the bolts as descriobed in the above mentioned posts.
- The hose clamp bolts are a mixture of 6mm and 7mm sockets (I think). A long handled, flat head screwdriver is extremely valuable here too...at least 16" long.
- Pay attention to how the wiring harness is routed and where the metal clips that hold it are located. I had to remove the pump once to reroute the line because I wasn't sure.
- The front most radiator hose is difficult to push on and clip in. I used vise grips to pull up one side and used a long socket extension with leverage from the frame, I put the square head of the extension on one of the nubs on the rad hose to to force it on.
- Make sure you connect the top hose of the water pump before you bolt it up otherwise the hose it too short and will get jammed out of place once bolted in.
- When in doubt that you can't get to one of the hose clamps, do not under estimate coming through the wheel well.
- You might as well change the oil while you are here. If you find yourself needing to change the water pump then most likely you either got the warnings that the engine temp is increasing or an Overheat. BMW has gotten smarter over the years....If this happened in an E30/E36 then you most likely needed to replace a head gasket and had coolant mixed in your oil. The X is smarter than that and knows that we are stupid and will drive it until the engine blows up. So yes, it shuts down before that can happen but I guess there is still a chance that a head gasket blew (or worse). Since the X doesn't have a dipstick to look at the oil consistency, it's already up in the air and you are laying under it anyway so you might as well change it and look at it as it's coming out. Luckily for me, all was ok.

This is my submission to the forum, I hope that it helps the next backyard hack mechanic like me. I've worked on older BMW's for years and when we bought the X I never in a million years saw myself laying under a $60k car repairing it. Up front warning....if you buy an X be sure to buy the extended warranty. This job ended up costing me just about $500 and 7 hours of labor with almost a week downtime before I could get to it. If I had the foresight to buy the extended warranty, I would have definitely used it here.

Good luck to you, when you think you can't do it...take a break and come back to it. Keep pressing on and you will get it done.

Thanks and props to both guys who contributed the stuff in the links above. This job would have been 100 times more difficult without them. To me this is what this forum is all about.
Thanks for the write up. I will try to take this all in consideration when I attempt my repair in the next couple of days.

Also if you have any other tips. please let me know.. I will try to take pixs of my install to go along with the details you gave.

Thanks wish me luck
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  #10  
Old 07-17-2013, 02:24 PM
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Guys who's replacing the water pump, what mileage was on your car when the water pump failed?
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