water pump, serp belt & what else?
 

water pump blew up about a mile from the house last night. i coasted into the driveway with no power steering and the coolant gauge approaching redline. made it JUST in time.

anyway, i'm ordering a new pump and serp belt and metal water pump pulley. Thermostat was JUST changed.

question: are the tensioner pulleys and/or assemblies high-priority replacement items @ 130k? are they a known weak spot?

a list of parts or any advice would be great! thanks.

i did find this which is very helpful.

To me I was worried about the expansion tank and upper radiator hoses (the one that carries hot coolant into the radiator from the engine).

So far I am still on original radiator, flush coolant every two years regiment.

the hydraulic one is just a couple different bolts if I recall correctly. i'd replace tensioners and idler pulley as well at your mileage, if you are already doing the belts, for peace of mind. they are probably 100 extra if that.

ECS Tuning sells the hydraulic tensioner kit, check them out to get the part numbers if you need it, I don't have them off hand unfortunately.

I agree with HPIA4v2. Your expansion tank took a pretty good stress load if you pegged the temperature gauge, and I'd consider replacing every cooling system hose as well. It's cheap insurance against an untimely leak next time you're at 6000 RPM. Don't forget to check your mechanical fan clutch too.

2002 X5 3.0 237,000 miles
2004 325i 106,000 miles

i got the water pump off last night. LOL! ball bearings literally fell out of the front of it. the pulley was broken, the serp belt was wedged into one of the pulleys and had a big gash in it. that said, tensioners and pulleys seem to be in fine shape. i think i'm gonna hold off on those.

one good thing about a roasted water pump? you don't have to drain coolant, which happens to be perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves.

If your serpentine belt went, you should take a close look at the fan, to check for damage to the blades. From personal experience, I would also recommend replacing the fan clutch, unless you know it's been replaced recently.

If you're really feeling enterprising, go ahead and replace the oil filter housing gasket, since it's going to leak on you any day now, replace the oil separator valve and its associated hoses, any and all vacuum lines, and replace the valve cover gasket. At the age of your 3.0, any or all of these will need replacement soon if not already.

Welcome to Xoutpost! :thumbup:

Valve cover and oil filter housing gaskets were replaced at 100k. VC was leaking like a sieve. probably have a little while longer on those. I replaced 1 OSV hose somewhat recently. I'll have to get my 'mechanic energy' up to a bit to tackle those other two OSV hoses and the valve itself. need to do some research on vac lines. haven't seen them while in there.

Regarding vacuum lines, do some research over on Bimmerfest, in the E39 forum. Lots of good information there on the M54. I had to replace the vacuum line from the secondary air pump valve to the electric valve mounted on the back of the intake manifold, because when I replaced the valve cover gasket, I pinched the line that runs around the back of the engine. The rubber used in those vacuum lines doesn't last very long, and it'll eventually crumble and give you a nice leak you'll wish you didn't have.

Just my $.02 worth...

excellent advice. thank you!

I replaced my idler and tension pulleys just for the hell of it when I did water pump job. They are way cheap (I think the AC belt one was all of $7 or something.)

Otherwise, nope. Just belts. Slam dunk easy job.