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[Kevin212]

While pulling a 2 tonne car trailer I accelerated hard to pass a van. The box down shifted, the revs shot up, and the manoevre was completed. 200 yards further on the temp gauge went into the red and the overheating light came on. A quick check showed that the header tank had dumped about 1/2 a litre of coolant. No signs of oil in the water, or pressurising the header tank.

Now the engine runs hot - about 100 deg. and I have to run with the heater full on to maintain this temp.

Any ideas as to the fault, other than a blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head?

Has anyone had this problem?

Thanx.

[Welung666]

Any sign of coolant under the front end of the engine? Might possibly be the water pump thrown the impellar off.

[Seth]

My first instinct would be to remove/check the water pump too.
Known failure on these.
 

[Kevin212]

Thanx for quick reply. It's too dark to go out and check, but will do so tomorrow & let you know. Checking past posts it seems that the water pump shedding it's rotor is a common fault on this and other BMW engines.

Having said this I  drove another 60 miles with no further coolant loss.

Any idea of best source and price of replacement?

[Seth]

From memory, Partco do a pump with a metal impeller for around the 45 quid mark.
 

[Kevin212]

Thanx OB. Will try them.

[Welung666]

Shop around for pumps, they can be picked up for as low as £30 if you can get trade price but make sure they have the metal impeller and not the plastic shite ones

[Omegatoy]

Thanx for quick reply. It's too dark to go out and check, but will do so tomorrow & let you know. Checking past posts it seems that the water pump shedding it's rotor is a common fault on this and other BMW engines.

Having said this I  drove another 60 miles with no further coolant loss.

Any idea of best source and price of replacement?

dont sound like a thermostat if it drove a further 60 miles without over heatin? more like a blocked or furred up rad, however thermo is a good place to start cos it means you have to drain the system, if thermostat has a fault it will probably be blades worn down assuming its a plastic impellor, while there i would use a good strong rad flush as well  as new pump and thermostat

[Evo]

I think in these situations it is hard to determine whether a fault is caused by the water pump, radiator or thermostat. A few weeks back someone reported not being able to drive a mile at low speed without overheating .... & it turned out to be his pump which had a totally broken plastic impellor.

So that suggests your pump is at least partially functional. My money would be be on the thermostat not opening fully. But if your pump has never been replaced then I would replace both items as a second step.

First step is to check that your aux drive belt is ok and correctly tensioned.

[Kevin212]

Thanx Evo, and to all of you for your excellent advice.

Given Christmas etc, I won't be able to anything until the new year but thanks to your comments I can sleep easy knowing it is fixable.

Have a good Christmas, and drive safely - out Omegas are precious!!

Kevin

[TheBoy]

Do you know what previous oil servicing has been like?