| Author |
Message |
ChrisJ
Guest
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 Posted:
Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:23 pm Post subject:
E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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Anyone have any ideas. On an E39 520, I pulled over recently after
having driven about 45mins. I left the engine running with the AC on,
while I was waiting for about 30mins. I suddenly noticed that the car
temp guage had gone into the red. I immediately switched off the
engine.
I left the car for about an hour to cool then came back and checked the
coolant level and it seemed fine and I also saw the fan turning when I
restarted the engine then,which left me puzzled.
I decided to limp back home, but as I was driving back, the temp guage
never hit red again but practically teased me all the way back by
moving between normal (middle) to abnormal (~3/4 but not red though),
the thing was it was doing it in sudden spikes. First it would drop to
normal, then a while of driving, it would after a moment suddenly spike
to 3/4 of the guage but not red.
What I found confusing is that after a few hours later, it simply
returned to normal when I drove the car and now just seems to be at
normal temp even though I have used the car for long 40mile journey,
the guage now seems to only go to the normal position. Although I
haven't used the AC then and I'm using the heater anyways.
Anyone know what the problem could be as I'm quite confused. I don't
think a car overheats while idling and fixes itself, even though I know
that the E39 are prone to intermittent faults which come and go as they
please. Any ideas??
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Bill
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:04 pm Post subject:
Re: E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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Check for a coolant leak, pinhole sized. The coolant level is low, but not
enough
to get hot real fast. I had the same problem and at idle for more than 2
minutes
would hit the red zone. There was a big air bubble in the system, 1 liter
big.
Luckily I caught it in time.
Bill
Mississippi
"ChrisJ" <welcomeback@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1130754210.659991.147720@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Anyone have any ideas. On an E39 520, I pulled over recently after
having driven about 45mins. I left the engine running with the AC on,
while I was waiting for about 30mins. I suddenly noticed that the car
temp guage had gone into the red. I immediately switched off the
engine.
I left the car for about an hour to cool then came back and checked the
coolant level and it seemed fine and I also saw the fan turning when I
restarted the engine then,which left me puzzled.
I decided to limp back home, but as I was driving back, the temp guage
never hit red again but practically teased me all the way back by
moving between normal (middle) to abnormal (~3/4 but not red though),
the thing was it was doing it in sudden spikes. First it would drop to
normal, then a while of driving, it would after a moment suddenly spike
to 3/4 of the guage but not red.
What I found confusing is that after a few hours later, it simply
returned to normal when I drove the car and now just seems to be at
normal temp even though I have used the car for long 40mile journey,
the guage now seems to only go to the normal position. Although I
haven't used the AC then and I'm using the heater anyways.
Anyone know what the problem could be as I'm quite confused. I don't
think a car overheats while idling and fixes itself, even though I know
that the E39 are prone to intermittent faults which come and go as they
please. Any ideas??
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John Burns
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:35 pm Post subject:
Re: E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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| Quote: | I decided to limp back home, but as I was driving back, the temp guage
never hit red again but practically teased me all the way back by
moving between normal (middle) to abnormal (~3/4 but not red though),
the thing was it was doing it in sudden spikes. First it would drop to
normal, then a while of driving, it would after a moment suddenly spike
to 3/4 of the guage but not red.
|
My V8 did that first time i used the heater in anger this autumn. I
rebled the cooling system and it's been fine since.
--
Who needs a life when you've got Unix? :-)
Email: john@unixnerd.demon.co.uk, John G.Burns B.Eng, Bonny Scotland
Web : http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk - The Ultimate BMW Homepage!
Need Sun or HP Unix kit? http://www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk/unix.html
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Floyd Rogers
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject:
Re: E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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"ChrisJ" <welcomeback@gmail.com> wrote
| Quote: | I decided to limp back home, but as I was driving back, the temp guage
never hit red again but practically teased me all the way back by
moving between normal (middle) to abnormal (~3/4 but not red though),
the thing was it was doing it in sudden spikes. First it would drop to
normal, then a while of driving, it would after a moment suddenly spike
to 3/4 of the guage but not red.
What I found confusing is that after a few hours later, it simply
returned to normal when I drove the car and now just seems to be at
normal temp even though I have used the car for long 40mile journey,
the guage now seems to only go to the normal position. Although I
haven't used the AC then and I'm using the heater anyways.
|
Likely there were bubbles/air in the cooling system that eventually
(especially after using the heater) escaped the motor (to the reservoir).
If the car overheated with the a/c on, I'd be sure to check the electric
fan and it's relay. Certainly a system pressure test to detect a leak
is in order, too.
FloydR |
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Jack
Guest
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| Posted:
Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:14 pm Post subject:
Re: E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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I think you may have a bad gauge. My e30 temperatue gauge developed a
similar behavior some time ago. I went nuts trying to figure it out for a
while but finally solved the problem by replacing the gauge with one out of
a cluster that I got on Ebay. The symptom that convinced me that it was the
gauge was that I discovered that sometimes when it was in the red I could
get it back into the normal range by giving the instrument cluster a sharp
rap with my knuckle. I have heard of other people repairing their
instrument clusters by resoldering the connections on the printed circuit
board.
"ChrisJ" <welcomeback@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1130754210.659991.147720@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: | Anyone have any ideas. On an E39 520, I pulled over recently after
having driven about 45mins. I left the engine running with the AC on,
while I was waiting for about 30mins. I suddenly noticed that the car
temp guage had gone into the red. I immediately switched off the
engine.
I left the car for about an hour to cool then came back and checked the
coolant level and it seemed fine and I also saw the fan turning when I
restarted the engine then,which left me puzzled.
I decided to limp back home, but as I was driving back, the temp guage
never hit red again but practically teased me all the way back by
moving between normal (middle) to abnormal (~3/4 but not red though),
the thing was it was doing it in sudden spikes. First it would drop to
normal, then a while of driving, it would after a moment suddenly spike
to 3/4 of the guage but not red.
What I found confusing is that after a few hours later, it simply
returned to normal when I drove the car and now just seems to be at
normal temp even though I have used the car for long 40mile journey,
the guage now seems to only go to the normal position. Although I
haven't used the AC then and I'm using the heater anyways.
Anyone know what the problem could be as I'm quite confused. I don't
think a car overheats while idling and fixes itself, even though I know
that the E39 are prone to intermittent faults which come and go as they
please. Any ideas??
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Max
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:57 am Post subject:
Re: E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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Your thermostat is likely giving up. You might need to replace also
the aux fan clutch and maybe the water pump. |
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Max
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 02, 2005 8:57 am Post subject:
Re: E39 Overheated briefly, help.. |
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Your thermostat is likely giving up. You might need to replace also
the aux fan clutch and maybe the water pump. |
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