Bought it at 200k miles or so, previous owner is a family friend, entire cooling system was done at ~190k miles (when he thought his wife would keep it.)
the coolant is disappearing. Like, none at all in the overflow tank after a week of daily driving...
Oil is disappearing too (1 quart every 1k miles.)
No coolant in the oil. Oil disappearance is supposedly "normal for these cars"...
Any suggestions? Can I get a uv light and find the leak?
| | close to ls or coyote swapping it.. Wife LOVES the car. just need it to stop eating coolant.
edit: bah, meant to say "loosing coolant in the thread title"... whoops.
Head gasket and you are burning both?
Power is good (as far as we can tell), no CEL, and it has not overheated.
The disappearing coolant is the concerning bit.
Some WOT fly-by's in a closed parking lot to check for smoke presence? If you were burning THAT much oil AND coolant... you'd see it in one form or another. Smoke, drips, underhood splashing...
That is what's driving me crazy.
nothing under the car. No drips, no puddles. It's close to a half quart if not a quart of fluid everytime...
probably the typical BMW oil filter housing gasket leak and coolant expansion tank leak
tank, radiator, and all hoses were replaced <15k miles ago and less than a year.
This guy was so thorough while he had the motor out to replace the leaking rear seal he replaced the torque converter (they occasionally break). It has brand new michelins on all four corners. I did need to do the brakes a month ago but they were pretty worn.
I also had to do the DISA at the same time...
I'll look into the filter housing leak. No evidence of oil leaking near there.
dye won't hurt for sure. That'd be my next step. I'd still be super leery about the oil disappearing too. The M5x series motors do like to consume oil, but usually not anywhere near that degree.
Somehow googling on the oil filter leak leak got me more stuff to look up for the coolant...
Going to try go through the list.
Pressure test the cooling system when cold. Make sure it is topped off and that there is no air in the system. Remove plugs and then apply pressure to the cooling system. Wait a while and then go looking for leaks. Dependingt on how fast it leaks down you may have to add more pressure. In short keep an eye on it at first and apply pressure as needed then go looking for the issue. If you don't find anything spin the motor over with the starter and see if any coolant comes out of one or more cylinders. If you have a bore scope it could be useful as well.
One strange/maddening place for a coolant leak is the "water distribution pipe" which is right under the reservoir and regulates coolant flow to the transmission cooler. The vertical part of the pipe goes into the smaller hole on the bottom of the tank. There is no clip to hold it in place. The reservoir just hangs on a pintle, and is mostly held in place by the hoses it connects to. This means it can twist in place over time/with bumps, which lets the pipe back out of the reservoir just enough that the grommet inside is unseated. Coolant only goes through the pipe at cold start, when engine coolant is used to help the transmission warm up. There is no flow once the trans is up to temp. At startup a bit of coolant squirts out, and little by little it is enough for the reservoir to empty.
I just spent like 3 weeks figuring this out. I did the cooling system in April, and all was well until September when suddenly the coolant warning light popped on. refresh. I would drive the car around, then look for the leaks. I could see coolant on the belly-pan, but NOT where it was coming from. The hoses had splash on them, but the ends were dry. What I thought was splash on the pipe was really the leak...
Here's the pipe mentioned in my last post. There is no o-ring on the pipe itself, its inside the reservoir fitting.
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=EV53-USA-03_2001_E46_BMW_330i&diagId=17_0141#17111707817
NEALSMO
UltraDork
11/7/16 4:32 p.m.
The oil consumption could be the PCV assembly. Here's an easy but non scientific way to check it-
youtube
I've seen plenty of those motors that have no leaks, proper crankcase pressure, and good valve stem seals burn a quart every 1K too.
I would be more concerned about the coolant leak. Most likely a headgasket or cracked head would show up as a misfire cold and then smooth out as the coolant is burned out of the affected cylinder.
Agreed on how the head gasket would show itself. Since you're loosing coolant but not overheating I'm thinking a leak.
As far as the oil loss, the CCV is a known issue. I had a similar problem and solved it with a relatively simple modification, documented in a very long thread on Bimmerforums: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?1629018-Oil-consumption-after-CCV-replacement
Check out the cap on the radiator or expansion tank (can't remember which). My E36 had one that would spray a fine mist that you would only see at night with a light.
