Water Pump, Thermostat, Pusher Fan, Coolant & Regas

[AW8]

As title some at Bristol may have been aware car had a coolant leak& also a failed pusher fan.

Well tomorrow it goes to indy for pressure test with view to water pump needing replacement, thermostat change as cost effective preventative work & resultant coolant change. Considered doing this then saw the d.i.y. guide & decided in absence of special tools to pay someone competent to do the work. In any case it would need a pressure test before & after & I cant do that.

As well as this the aux pusher fan is dead. I was going to do this myself d.i.y. but faced with the joy of having to pay for the aforementioned as above I felt bitter getting all that sorted only to not be able to use the a/c in hot weather &/or static/slow traffic also aware a bad pusher fan can cause current drain & I have this too. Also make sense to get a/c re-gassed as I wouldn't be happy paying out for al above only to have poor a/c. I don't think mine has been checked re-done since new & car is approaching 10 years old with over 100k on clock.

Fitting a/c pusher fans isn't rocket science though a PITA as it's a case of loosening whole front bumper. The fan alone is listing at £380 so if paying for all the above work plus the new fan I would feel bitter if I had to crawl under the car cursing. If I had been able to source a used one for up to maybe £150 then I would have fitted it myself. These can fail at 65k but sadly none available - One cheeky breaker offered me one for £275 from a car with 98k on odometer ! .......I declined & told him he was taking the mickey. In trying to source a decent used pusher fan I tried all usual routes with many hours spent over many days making multi calls, sending emails & using online parts finder searches but fruits of my labour yielded nothing

The above booked in for tomorrow, then before long it will be new discs & pads.......I will, however, do those myself. Z3 still needs a new sump but currently can't find a sensibly price salvage one of those either

[pvr]

Let me know if you need a drive and a supervisor to help you with that

[X5Sport]

I did the regas myself with a kit from Halfrauds. Cost £50 but it did the job. Mine had lost approx 40% in 5 years. It's well worth the check, and Halfrauds will do the gassing for you if needs be. Takes less than 5 mins. If you don't use all the gas in the cylinder on one car you have spare for another

SWMBO's E46 was also low and was redone. I remembered reading that most systems lose 10-15% per year, so a check every couple of years is defo worth it, especially when you factor in the price of a replacement compressor!!

[AW8]

If it had been done in say last 3 years or so I would have definitely gone for a d.i.y. a/c top up. Pretty sure mine hasn't been touched since new as I have every invoice for the car which has now done over 100k. Tomorrow I will check that the indy will perform a full leak test, evacuation & complete regas otherwise I will take it to a suitable a/c expert.

[AW8]

[quote=""pvr""]Let me know if you need a drive and a supervisor to help you with that [/quote]

Thanks .........are we talking about the disc/pads on the X5, the sump on the Z3 or the X5 pusher fan

[pvr]

Anything clean, don't want the oil mess from your Z on my drive

[Sanj]

None of the above (or below) - just my detailing you promised me!

The grief I got at the last meet! Where were you!

[AW8]

[quote=""pvr""]Anything clean, don't want the oil mess from your Z on my drive [/quote]

I think thats more than fair - especially as your driveway so spotless - Thanks for the offer

[AW8]

Well have decided to bite bullet & continue to let indy do the push fan.

If I have to pay £380 for a fan I certainly don't want the hassle of taking off bumper to fit it. I would still need to take it back to get headlamp alignment checked & a/c sorted. A bit of a pathetic excuse but I am sticking with it.

Discs/Pads later in the year & after the Z3 sorted.......May yet take you up on kind offer pvr. If nothing else then so I can check on your ever developing tractor skills

[Denis O]

[quote=""X5Sport""]I did the regas myself with a kit from Halfrauds. Cost £50 but it did the job. Mine had lost approx 40% in 5 years. It's well worth the check, and Halfrauds will do the gassing for you if needs be. Takes less than 5 mins. If you don't use all the gas in the cylinder on one car you have spare for another

SWMBO's E46 was also low and was redone. I remembered reading that most systems lose 10-15% per year, so a check every couple of years is defo worth it, especially when you factor in the price of a replacement compressor!![/quote]

Air con systems, even when run continuously to keep them in good condition, will lose up to 10% of their gas per year so I consider mine to be a service item every 5 years.

As for who does it I would always use BOSCH centres. The machines they use are branded BOSCH so they ought to know how to use them. I'd certainly prefer those guys to Kwikfit or similar. Last one I had done was the X5 in Ashford BOSCH centre and it was £50 and takes about an hour. Plug it in, switch it on and it does the whole job from start to finish.

I'm interested to know how the Halfrauds system does it in 5 minutes

[AW8]

The indy I am using today subs out the a/c regass work states they do a leak test, full evacuation & re-gas for £65 plus vat so £78. Hypothetically I would imagine such service's may be available for cheaper from service providers & maybe for those paying cash

[Denis O]

That's what the BOSCH machine does. It's automatic from start to finish and then gives a printout to show how mych gas was taken out and put back. Also checks for vacumn (leaks). £50 was inc VAT and all pucker.

http://www.boschcarservice.co.uk/

[AW8]

Bargain price that.......Oh well I am in the thick of it cost wise now & thus saving £28 less travel costs & hassle probably won't make much difference to grand scheme of things.

Spoke to indy today. Yes it needs exchange pump, stat is my call as preventative work & overdue fan plus a/c discussed above. Tired belts being changed too & bottom hose/pipework unless looking mighty fine.

Not expecting much change from £1,200 from this lot.

[IanP]

After my experience recently with a blown hose, I would be doing all of the front hoses while the radiator is off.

[AW8]

Parts, (all BMW except G48 Comma coolant & unbranded refrigerant).

Aux/pusher/condenser fan.
Exchanged water pump.
Thermostat.
Gaskets/seals.
Coolant.
New hoses including top & bottom.
Drive belt.
A/C Belt.
Refrigerant

Reasonable labour for all the above.....£374.10, balance for parts & vat brings bill to £1,306.73


For similar money I could have bought a tidy & historied E38 735i & still had change to source new brakes for my X5.