water pump is toast indeed - luckily your vehicle died in a residential area. Mine went out doing 85 on the left lane in a heavily congested speeding highway. The damn X gave me enough time to pull over to the right breakdown lane and then kaput - dead.

No damage to the vehicle, never got hot - just heavy damage to my wallet. 1000 bux later, its back on the road - new pump, thermostat and 1 gallon of coolant.

Newbe question. Do you "need" a lift for this? Can jackets suffice? Or do you dive in from top?

Manual is on its way

Dan

Had exactly same thing happen ocasionally on my Corolla. Sudden overheating, but no coolant loss. On other ocasions, the air would all of a sudden start blowing cold.

Figured it would be either thermostat or water pump. Since thermostat is much cheaper and easier to replace, went ahead with it. No problems since.

I've had a couple of guys say a lift isn't needed, I would use jack stands not just a jack to safely keep the X in the air during removal and instillation of the new parts.

Also don't forget a jug of fresh coolant in your parts list! It's always a pain to have to drain and refill with the proper mixture of coolant when you forget to pick it up the first time.

Also I've tossed the needed parts in a custom cart for your to check out if you'd like, it can be viewed HERE.

http://c1552172.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/123723_x300.jpghttp://c1552172.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/161489_x300.jpg

Jack stands. Yes!

Hi guys quick question when draining the coolant for this job is there two drain plugs or one on the e70. I have a 2009 4.8 and have the same symptoms. I wanted to change the coolant at the same time.

So I bought a pirate service manual off ebay and it does not have the full procedure for water pump and t-stat R&R. Or at least with my VIN it doesn't.

I'm going to give it a go with the belly pan off and from the top removing the fan and shroud.

Will attempt without removing the radiator.

Here goes!

Okay,

Step 1 - Raise the truck
Jack using the front centre jacking point
Support with jack stands at the two front tire changing jacking points.

Step 2 - Drain "lifetime" coolant.
Remove belly pan. Or whatever the BMW vernacular for it is ;)
Remove engine brace plate. Disposable aluminum bolts? No blue paint, but they sure look the part.
Remove reservoir cap.
Unscrew blue plug bottom left of radiator, let dangle.
Catch a bunch of coolant in a strategically placed pan.
Remove the inlet water hose on the water pump (it's under the a/c compressor pointing to the rear). I got the clamp off with a 1/4 drive 6mm ratchet.
Try to catch some coolant with your (now safely emptied) pan.
Clean up the unbelievable mess with lots of cheap kitty litter.

Step 3 - remove electric fan assembly
Remove the two bolts on each side of the brace.
Unsnap the hood release cable from the 3(?) clamps on the brace.
Work the left side of the brace up and move to the left so that the right side clears the a/c hoses, then lift the right side and slide out to the right.
Unplug the electrical connector on the right side of the shroud.
Press in the lock on one side (you can see how the one by the plug works as it is not hidden by the rad hose like the right hand side one).
Lift each side enough to clear it out of the lock.
The "ear" on the left of the shroud folds back and into the shroud so it clears the radiator hose.
Lift/work the fan assembly out.

Step 4 - remove thermostat assembly
(This is where my BMW service manual has no documentation, so it might be hit or miss until I get there.)
Loosen the t-stat end of the water pump inlet hose and remove (6mm wrench accessed from the rear after to other unsuccessful tries from the bottom front and attacking from above.)
Release holds from the radiator to t-stat housing and remove - a little working back and forth and then they slide off.
Unplug the t-stat housing power connection and move out of the way.

That's where I am now. Really wanted the water pump and t-stat housing to be on the garage floor today, but then I messed around yesterday and most of today trying to get the service manual to spit out the procedure.

Next step, I'll remove the other hoses on the t-stat housing and then it looks like two smaller screws hold the t-stat housing to the water pump. Hopefully this will get the t-stat out of the way so I can access the upper water pump bolt.

Oh well.

Got the thermostat housing and water pump out. Wasn't so bad. An hour or 1 1/2 hours tops.

Couple pics along the way...

Up a bit on stands just to get some room.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP1.jpg

The bolts off of the engine reinforcement plate. I reused these. Put a tiny bit of aluminum anti-sieze on them (cause it looked like there was some residual amount on them already.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP2.jpg

Looking at the water pum (VDO on it) and the black plastic housing of the thermostat. From between the radiator and the "pack and pinion cross member." Not much room. The removal of the brace plate exposes from the rear.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP3.jpg

Another angle
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP4.jpg

Water pump from the rear after the inlet hose is removed. WP outlet hose still on (this comes off by moving the water pump off the hose, not the hose off the pump). And a thermostat hose off staring at you on the right.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP5.jpg

Success! T-stat no longer in its natural habitat.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP6.jpg

Bit more room in there now. That WP is snugged right up against the A/C compressor. You cannot see the top bolt. The bottom 2 are easy.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP7.jpg

Here's how I got the top WP bolt. Elbow and then extensions through the frame to the ratchet in the wheel well!
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP8.jpg

Another angle.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP9.jpg

From the rear, here you can see the missing water pump and the outlet hose still in place. It connects to a metal pipe. No movement there. Just twist the pump off the hose.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP91.jpg

Remove the wire connector and the cables from the hold downs and "maneuver" the wp out the front, twisting and turning, twisting and turning, until you get the mounting face up against the radiator and raise it out. No radiator removal necessary!
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP92.jpg

There she goes!
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP93.jpg

Water pump on the bench!
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP94.jpg

And a pick of how the t-stat attaches.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP95.jpg

That's it for now.

Parts arrive hopefully tomorrow.

It all came out okay.

Hope it doesn't take much longer to get the new parts in.

Parts from ECS arrived today. So I left work at 5pm (to avoid the Occupy Wall Street March) and come home to slap 'em in.

First time ever my wife was excited to see car parts delivered! (Her car.)

Uh-oh. The water pump that delivered has the electrical connector at the pump housing and the delivered pump has it at the end of the motor housing.

The TIS shows the pump "as delivered" by ECS, not like the one I pulled off my X5.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP01.jpg

I managed to re-route the wiring harness - just barely. It is very close to the a/c compressor pulley and I tied it down to keep it away.

Put everything back together. Reverse of disassembly. Be careful to position the hose clamps so they are easier to get to.

Also, reused the o-ringed hoses. All hoses in great shape.

Get her off the jack stands.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP02.jpg

Pour in a gallon of anti-freeze and a gallon of distilled water. It took just a tiny bit more, luckily I had another partial gallon of anti-freeze and I had bought 2 gallons of distilled water. Leave the cap off.

Hook up battery charger. I put mine on 10 amps.

Key in. Press start without pressing the brake. (That turns on the ignition.) Turn the temp up to max on the heater. Fan on low.

Then floor the gas for 10 seconds.

Release and you can hear the water pump start. Runs for 12 minute.

Here's the water cycling.
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP03.jpg

And don't forget to close the hood!
http://members.rennlist.org/lt_texan/X5WP04.jpg

And I started assembly at 6:30 (that means when I carried the box-o-parts to the garage. Got called in for dinner. Finished everything at 9. Really took my time. (This was my first work ever on a BMW.)

On a scale of 1 to 10. I'd score it "challenging!"

Oh and putting on the o-ring radiator hose to thermostat was a pain. Radiator side was okay. But it was hard to get good leverage on the t-stat side - made me want to check in my "man card." ;)

Thanks to ECS for GREAT SERVICE!!!!!!!

I like to do all the work on my cars that I care about. Nice to know there are good vendors out there like the ones I enjoy with my 928!

Thanks everyone.