Strange Cold Weather Behavior
 

I live in the mountains near Park City Utah and Salt Lake. It has been very cold. On 4 occasions on 4 different days when the dash thermometer is reading 15 or 16 degrees F... I have had the following situation.

As I leave my house and as I approach the distance from home where normal operating temperature should be happening- the heater is not putting out any warm air and the engine temperature gauge pops over to full hot and the SES light comes on.

The first time this happened, after some adult language, I was shocked and shut down immediately- checked all fluids and everything was normal. No leaks, no low fluids. Restarted and the gauge returned to normal... meaning just off the blue zone, and the heater began to output warm air. After a few more miles the heater was going full blast, normal, and the SES light went out.

For several days we had a heat wave... must have been 25F or so... no funny behavior in the car at all- at least not in the area mentioned above.

Have been really busy and have not had a chance to take it in for code reading.

Any answers, thoughts, conjectures?

Thx.

Bob

Most likely culprit is a thermostat problem.

Depending upon the mileage on your X, you might be due for a new water pump and thermostat anyways, they should be changed at 70k-100k miles.

How much are the thermostats and water pumps for the X?

These are 4.4 liter prices:
pump is $130-150
Thermostat (comes with new housing) is $80.

Both are available just about anywhere that sells BMW parts.

Nice..good to know..thanks!