3.0d not getting up to temperature

[b20wht]

A few months back I thought the thermostat was possibly faulty on my 2004 3.0d as it seemed to take ages to get up to normal running temp (about 90c and smack on halfway on the temp gauge) so I replaced the stat with one from euro car parts and nothing changed so obviously the original bmw stat wasn't at fault.  After about 2 months I noticed the car wasn't going over a quarter on the gauge so thought the new stat had gone faulty and so I re-fitted the original bmw stat and it still wont go over a quarter on the gauge. Looked at the hidden digital gauge on the dash and that confirms the car is running at about 55c. The only way it will go higher is by holding the viscos fan but once I let go of it the temp go's back down to about 55c.

Any ideas what the problem is guys?

[shadrack]

is the viscous fan permently locked in?
also the bmw stat and the ecp stat could be knackered, the non bmw cheap stats could be faulty, also some variant of bmws have a second stat on the egr it is even cheaper at around £20+

[b20wht]

I can stop the fan while the engine is running so think that's fine.

It could be possible both stats are faulty but as the bmw one was fine when I removed it and now its running the same temp as the ecp one it seems highly unlikely to me.

I did read something about another stat, but couldn't find much info on it tbh. Would/could that stat stop the engine getting up to temperature if its for the egr?

[shadrack]

i read about it somewhere, i know people with diesel e60 5 series change two so pressumably the x5 has 2?

[X5Sport]

Only cars approved to EU4 appear have the second stat in the EGR system.  I think that it's to do with pollution controls which the E53 never had as it was only ever EU3 approved.

Our 2005 E46 3.0d vert does have two because it was made to EU4 being a 'new' model in 2005.  It's also why no auto was ever offered on that variant - it wasn't clean enough with one fitted - so manual only.

[storminmike]

What about the Auxillary water pump?

See my facelift problem resolved

http://xdrivers.co.uk/forum/index.php/t ... l#msg89418


oh....and there's only 1 stat on my facelift.....definately non on the metal pipe to my egr

[b20wht]

Mmmm just read your thread and does sound like my symptoms, I know my electric pump works as I can turn it on manually with the heater/pedal trick but maybe it's not working when it should do? Next question is how the hell do I check for that? And does anyone know when it should be on, straight from cold start or after some running time?

[fenj66]

Whats the heater /pedal trick?  With the ignition on you should get a jet of water flowing if you remove the radiator cap. Thats the electric pump working. It should run all the time.
It failing is one reason for the webasto heater cutting out after a few minutes because its overheated.

[b20wht]

Ok I will have to check that then, I didn't realise it worked with just the ignition turned on! I did the heater/pedal trick to bleed the system and thought that's what activated the pump lol. Put the heater on the hottest setting with the ignition on and have the heater fan blowing on the lowest setting then hold the accelerator pedal down for 10 seconds and the pump activates..... or so I thought but it probably just worked with the ignition on all along haha  :-[ So thinking about it, maybe I've not got all the air out the system???