M52 Water pump pulley bolts

Dave,

I don't have an auxiliary pump under my radiator. Hmmmm?

I do have some form of a pump under my heater valves which is what I was running in an effort to minimise air locks on draining and re-filling the system when I drained my battery.  Do you have a pump under your heater valves in addition to the pump under your radiator?

Andrew

Yup you are right. The bit in the Haynes Comic Book is for M52TU and M54 engines with the first bit being on the M52 engine.  I was being forgetful earlier on!  I thought you had a 520i with a 2.2 litre 170 bhp engine but not if it is built in 1998!

Brain now in gear!

The picture above, is that during tightening or loosening procedure?  I had the tools swapped about during loosening and yanked them both up wards with success.  I actually put more effort in pulling up on the pulley holding tool and held the spanner still in my left hand.  The pulley holding tool has the longer lever so was easier to use.

In your photo, bottom left just below the right hand end of the rad hose you see an electrical connector.  The aforementioned book of parodies refers to this as an AUC Sensor (and tells you to remove it from the cowling before removal) but it does not tell you what it is for or what it does. Any ideas anyone?

Andrew

Dave E wrote: Good point whitey, I will take this photo to Robertt Stern in the first instance then go on from there to BMW UK if necessary. Dave E E39 M52

That will be the housing from a M54 engine.  How did you find taking on and off the clip on hose connections?

I was reading the Haynes Comic book the other night about the job I had done on Saturday.  Believe me the Haynes Comic Book made more sense AFTER I had done the work myself.  The job looks a lot more complicated on the M54 blocks than it was on my M52 block.  What is your opinion on that Dave.  You have to faff about with the expansion tank, the auxiliary pump under the rad and there looks like there is less room to work in due to the double vanos unit?  Hmm.  I do fancy a 530i next which would be an M54 engine but that M52 lump I have was nice and easy to work on.

Andrew

Dave E wrote: Good point whitey, I will take this photo to Robertt Stern in the first instance then go on from there to BMW UK if necessary.  Dave E E39 M52

Let me know how you get on. To be honest theres a couple of points on e39's that BMW should recognise as drop offs. The other that springs to mind is the dashboard pixels! Mine had a new dash at just on 3 years old in April 2003. I noticed the other day that one of the digits in the trip mileage is now missing a couple of pixels. Thats 2 years 9 months and only 16000 miles!! Surely that's not acceptable either?

Trevor

My stats gone in my e39 as well. Surely BMW must recognise that they've manufactured a crap part and give some sort of gratuity payment. I've heard of so many M52 lumps this year with the same problem. 

I'll get round to changing it soon as it needs to be sold.

My fan was tightened up to the following torque -

"yup that feels about right torque"!

What is the point giving you a torque setting on a nut which you can't actually measure it using any available to buy torque wrenches?

Does that mean we should hang a 4 kg weight from the end of a 1 m long spanner to get the 40Nm torque.  I think not.

Andrew

No you are spot on Dave. 

When I first got my E39 17 months ago, I could tell where I would be on my journey by looking at the temp gauge.  By the end of my estate it would be out of the blue and then by the junction with the main road it would be a certain position and then I knew exactly where on the dual carriageway it would at the 12 o'clock position.  This happened regardless of the time of year.

When I saw my temp gauge do something different, I knew my stat was on the way out.  And sure enough on removing the old stat on Saturday, it had leaked wax and was more than on it's way out.

I reckon my problems started at the end of October when I heard gurgling noises from deep in the dash, which will have been an air lock in the heater matrix.  This wasn't helped or was indeed caused by the fact that air could get in and coolant could get out from the thermostat housing. I noticed this leak at the end of November.  I then didn't loose to much coolant during December but kept a close eye on it.

Referring back to earlier posts.  It does absolutely pay to have the right tool for the job.  When both me and my dad struggled last weekend hitting it with a 2lbs lump hammer, my dad was saying that we should not have to hit a Precision (German) Engineered Car with a club hammer!  - Correct tool next weekend - 5 mins later - fan off!

Andrew