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Quote:

Originally Posted by jfoj (Post 1070485)

The 4.8l water pump does not last much more than about 70k miles. The seal starts to seep with the crazy engine temps BMW has this engine run.

My pump started with a slight knocking noise. i think the bearing cage breaks and then the bearings become loose and the race becomes pitted. I started the engine one day before I had a 2500 mile round trip I had to take and heard the noise and just said "crap". Tried to get a water pump from the dealer, they did not have it is stock.

I chanced the trip, pump became noisier and noisier on the trip, but I hoped and crossed my fingers once the engine RPM was up over 2000 RPM that the bearings would redistribute themselves and the pump would last.

I made my trip without a grenade on the front of the engine!

I went ahead and installed the BimmerFix Products | BMW Coolant Pipe Repair System coolant stent pipe while I had the water pump off.

I also cheated and did not remove the lower pulley from the crank balancer. The bottom bolt was a PITA and tight, but if you have "normal" size hands and fingers and some patience, you should be able to get by without removing the lower pulley.

I also switched over to a Hamburgtech 90C thermostat and have been running this for the past year without problems.

Well said...
Is there a change to make it work at lower temperatures?
By programming or by hardware like mod bulbs?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DERKOMMISSAR (Post 1072238)

Well said...
Is there a change to make it work at lower temperatures?
By programming or by hardware like mod bulbs?

I have been running a HamburgTech 90C thermostat in my 4.8l for over a year now with no major negative effects that I have seen. The only problem with the 90C thermostat is the threshold for a P0128 code is pretty close. You may get an occasional p0128 which you can clear and manage if needed.

If the thermostat main spring gets weak, then the temp will drop below a decent threshold so it is wise to continue to monitor the engine coolant temperature. You may find that you need to replace the 90C thermostat more often than a standard temp thermostat as the main spring weakens over time.

I have an UltraGauge I run on my E70 permanently and I set threshold alarms, but a low temperature threshold alarm is not something the UltraGauge can properly support that I have tried. Maybe I should try it and see what happens, I have assumed the low temp threshold Alarm may not work so well. I do however, have a display that has the engine temperature and charging Voltage along with some other parameters constantly displayed.

But the KEY problem that the 4.8l seems to have is notifying the driver there is a charging problem. Either there is something wrong with my E70, there are different vehicle software versions or BMW dropped the ball BIG TIME on notifying the driver if the alternator is not charging. So I use/need my UltraGauge to monitor and alarm if there is a charging system problem. My alternator regulator was flaky and I had to manage a intermittent charging problem for about 6 weeks until the temps were high enough for me to pull the alternator and replace the Voltage regulator.

The UltraGauge will automatically sleep and if it does not wake up on start up, this usually means the Alternator is not charging. You can reach under the dash and unplug and replug the OBDII connection and manually restart the UltraGauge if it does not wake up and then you can verify if the vehicle is not charging.