My friend's 2003 540i has been recently loosing coolant. First indication of a leak I could see was coolant spray around the A/C compressor, the lower coolant hoses and on the Pax side of the radiator / fan shroud.
This led me to believe the coolant expansion tank was leaking which they do eventually. I observed the car for a week, it needed the coolant to be topped up almost every 48 hours.
I worked on the car Sunday and replaced the coolant tank, while doing this I noticed that the lower radiator hose that plugs in under the radiator (also plugs in to the auto-transmission cooler) was frayed badly. There seemed to be a little bit of coolant spray / dried marks there too. I replaced that hose as well.
Got this done and buttoned up the car, bled it.... had to do this a couple of times to get it right and make sure it was actually done right. Send my buddy home with the car and we monitored the temperature via the KMTP test from the unlocked cluster. Driving temperatures were 103° - 108/110° in traffic. All seemed to be well.
I also had the car idle for over 30 minutes before we set off to make sure it wasn't overheating, that the bleeding had been done right and that there were no more leaks.
Monday afternoon, my buddy gets the CHECK COOLANT message on the cluster again. After letting the car cool off, he said he had to top it off again - about a 1/2 cup full.
My suspicion at this point is the Valley Pan - possibly failed VP gasket. However, I did examine his VP and there were no obvious signs of a leak. From past experience, it was only the VP that knew could cause a coolant leak this quick, or possibly the rear coolant accumulator gaskets. However, there was always the tell tale sign of coolant streaks to show this.
Anyone have any other unique coolant loss experiences? I'd like to explore some other things before I tear off the Intake Manifold to replace the VP. If I have to do that, I will be replacing a lot of other parts like gaskets, coolant hoses, O rings, accumulator gaskets, etc.
I will be grabbing a pressure tester this weekend to also do a pressure test to see if I can identify the leak. These cars run at around 15 - 20 psi of pressure?
This led me to believe the coolant expansion tank was leaking which they do eventually. I observed the car for a week, it needed the coolant to be topped up almost every 48 hours.
I worked on the car Sunday and replaced the coolant tank, while doing this I noticed that the lower radiator hose that plugs in under the radiator (also plugs in to the auto-transmission cooler) was frayed badly. There seemed to be a little bit of coolant spray / dried marks there too. I replaced that hose as well.
Got this done and buttoned up the car, bled it.... had to do this a couple of times to get it right and make sure it was actually done right. Send my buddy home with the car and we monitored the temperature via the KMTP test from the unlocked cluster. Driving temperatures were 103° - 108/110° in traffic. All seemed to be well.
I also had the car idle for over 30 minutes before we set off to make sure it wasn't overheating, that the bleeding had been done right and that there were no more leaks.
Monday afternoon, my buddy gets the CHECK COOLANT message on the cluster again. After letting the car cool off, he said he had to top it off again - about a 1/2 cup full.
My suspicion at this point is the Valley Pan - possibly failed VP gasket. However, I did examine his VP and there were no obvious signs of a leak. From past experience, it was only the VP that knew could cause a coolant leak this quick, or possibly the rear coolant accumulator gaskets. However, there was always the tell tale sign of coolant streaks to show this.
Anyone have any other unique coolant loss experiences? I'd like to explore some other things before I tear off the Intake Manifold to replace the VP. If I have to do that, I will be replacing a lot of other parts like gaskets, coolant hoses, O rings, accumulator gaskets, etc.
I will be grabbing a pressure tester this weekend to also do a pressure test to see if I can identify the leak. These cars run at around 15 - 20 psi of pressure?
2003 540i Loosing Coolant - No apparent spot
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