[alpwhite46]

Just got mine back
CANADIAN DOLLARS:
Water pump: $845 (warranty covers)
Tstat: $225
Coolant flush: $80
Labor $90 x 3 hours: $270 (warranty covers)

Total: $1,420 before tax
Tax 13%: 1,604.60 ALL IN

[epiphone3]

Originally Posted by alpwhite46

Nah, same shit waterpump is a waterpump.

How much with labor?

I'd have to go into my records to get the exact amount, but water pump and thermostat were replaced and it was about $1600 CAD all in.

[oVeRdOsE.]

Here what I paid :

- VDO water pump : 370$ cad
- oem thermostat : 121 $ cad
- BMW OEM collant : 40$ cad
- distilled water : 4$ cad
- 4to 4.5 h labor : 15$ beer.
- 40$ cad customs (parts)

about 590$ , +5% taxes . Total : about 615$

[CloudX]

I had to have mine replaced at around 85k. I had the CPO warranty though. Kind of a bummer. Seems like the newer BMWs aren't as tough as the older ones.

[marc x]

I had to replace my water pump also. I took me two days using sun light. I didn't have a check engine light but scanning It showed water pump shut off due to blockage. I diagnosed the water pump due to the other code showing water pump propeller speed deviation.

It happened as soon as I pulled my car out from the body shop. I towed it home. I am happy it didn't happen during a trip!

I am at 209k. The toughest part of the job was lining up the bolt holes at the pump and thermostat and then you have to move the steering box a little and it sucks putting that back into its place. After everything, you have to bleed the system and if moved the steering box, you must readjust the steering angle in ITSA.

$313 Import Direct pump from Oreillys, shop price.

[hardparker]

I noticed my water pump hose touches and is slightly deformed by the steering rack. Is the hose upside down or backwards? Does anyone have a picture for comparison?

I did the water pump myself, with a buddy, at the same time as my PS2. I just noticed this when doing the brakes and I'm thinking it's not quite right.

[E90705]

Originally Posted by hardparker

I noticed my water pump hose touches and is slightly deformed by the steering rack. Is the hose upside down or backwards? Does anyone have a picture for comparison?

I did the water pump myself, with a buddy, at the same time as my PS2. I just noticed this when doing the brakes and I'm thinking it's not quite right.

Maybe this might help. Hose still attached to Tstat, not a good pic but may help.

[X3Bimmer]

Was waiting on this to rear it's ugly head: Water pump, thermostat and hose replaced on '13 X3 35i at 89K for $1598.45 by BMW Dealership. Engine overheating warning light came on once for wife who then freaked out. Now she has her X3 back the next day with no further worries...

[X3-Man]

A bit similar to other posts — except that it's only happened ONCE in a week: Five miles from home — which is 70 miles from the nearest BMW shop (that's a big part of the question) — a display warning for overheating came on yellow, and automatically limited speed. I pulled over right away, just as the warning went to red. No CEL, and temp on the gauge was normal or below. I waited to cool things down, went home and found no OBD codes on a scan, and I've had no reoccurrence of the problem, even in a 30-mile drive that pushed things a bit in both RPMs and speed (and still no codes).
My question of what to do is a bit complicated by the fact that I bought the 2011 X3 used from a Honda dealer just 1 month ago, and that dealer is also 70 miles away. They say they will look at the car as part of a (stretched) one-month used car warranty, but a) I'm not sure they're the right people to look at a BMW; b) the problem seems to have disappeared for the time being; and c) if it has disappeared, and is just waiting for a longer drive, am I risking way too much by driving it 70 miles to the city?
Everything I've been reading so far suggests this is likely a call for a new water pump and thermostat, but I'm puzzled why it hasn't shown up again (and how I'm going to convince the dealer that the problem was ever there, and that they should be covering the cost of a fix that they can't see.
Thoughts? Any experience of one-time electrical issues, etc., that might make this just an error in the warning? Ot do I just need the pump replaced regardless?

[Wgosma]

Look on YouTube for the video that shows how to unlock the instrument cluster to access the 'hidden menu'....with that you can have the coolant fluid temp displayed in deg C continuously while you drive- be very cautious driving the car- these inline 6 motors can be ruined if overheated even for 1-2 minutes.

I'm pretty new to these cars with electric pump so not sure if a fault code is triggered when coolant temp spikes- if a hard fault is set that can be read by diagnostic computer. This would be the first check any mechanic would perform.
Intermittent problems like this can be tough to diagnose regardless of who is attempting it.

edit: here's the video-

The unlock 'code' is the number represented by the sum of the LAST 5 digits of your car's VIN number. e.g. VIN 41128 = 16
Good luck/Bill

[FranzX3M]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

Here what I paid :

- VDO water pump : 370$ cad
- oem thermostat : 121 $ cad
- BMW OEM collant : 40$ cad
- distilled water : 4$ cad
- 4to 4.5 h labor : 15$ beer.
- 40$ cad customs (parts)

about 590$ , +5% taxes . Total : about 615$

Where did you source those parts?

[Draab2006]

Just did mine, preemptively. No problems up til now, 73K on the clock. The process actually wasn't TOO bad, I did it with Rhino Ramps and basic tools. The one thing that got me...embarrassingly enough...was the lower radiator hose popped off during my test-drive after the fact. I hadn't properly seated the metal clip back down, and the pressure shot it off the rad. I got the "add coolant" warning, and assumed it just was due to the system purging air during my test-drive (I did the purge process per the directions beforehand) and kept driving. It wasn't until the oil temp gauge indicated just over 250 degrees F and started to creep up toward 130 C on the "hidden menu" that I realized something was really wrong. Pulled over, clipped the hose back on, filled the coolant BACK up, and all has been well since.

Bottom line; I'd say if you're mildly confident with hand tools, this job is very dooable for the DYI'er.

All told, I paid ECS Tuning $566 for the pump, gallon of coolant, new OEM spark plugs, air filter, full oil-change kit, and spark plug socket.

[Wgosma]

Draab: thanks for the info. Couple of questions:

About how much time start to completion?

Did you only raise the front on the ramps?

If you care to share...what's your age? (I'm a 67 y/o and good at diy but this job seems difficult/awkward work for old guy based on other reports)

Thanks/Bill

[oVeRdOsE.]

Originally Posted by Wgosma

Draab: thanks for the info. Couple of questions:

About how much time start to completion?

Did you only raise the front on the ramps?

If you care to share...what's your age? (I'm a 67 y/o and good at diy but this job seems difficult/awkward work for old guy based on other reports)

Thanks/Bill

I know its a question to draab, but like ive poster a few page back, it looks easier doing the job from the top.

I did not use ramps.

4 hours to do the pump itself, +1 h to prepare your stuff and wash everything at the end.

[Wgosma]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

I know its a question to draab, but like ive poster a few page back, it looks easier doing the job from the top.

I did not use ramps.

4 hours to do the pump itself, +1 h to prepare your stuff and wash everything at the end.

Thanks. Which model motor in your car?

[oVeRdOsE.]

Originally Posted by Wgosma

Thanks. Which model motor in your car?

6cyl 3.0l twinscroll N55

[Draab2006]

Wgosma,

My time is a bit skewed because I did spark plugs also, but all told I spent about 3 hours over two days on the project. I didn't exactly rush, but I didn't slack off either.

I did only raise the front on ramps, and I personally spent quite a bit of time under the car to complete the job. As Overdose said, it can be done from the top but I just did what seemed to make sense to me. Once the intercooler and fan shroud are out of the way, there's a good bit of space in front of the pump itself to work with.

And finally, I am 30 years old, and definitely had some sore hips from rolling around on the concrete for that long.

I'd recommend a head lamp if you have one, it made staring down the hose clamps on the pump quite a bit easier while one had is holding the pump, and the other is guiding the socket onto the hose clamp itself.

[Wgosma]

Thanks. I've got N52 motor (no turbo)- I'm going to check RealOEM as perhaps my pump is different model. I don't see much posted about pumps on N52 failing at the relatively low 50K mike mark. Perhaps I can safely defer PM to 90-100K mile mark.

I have access to a lift, if I DIY that seems better route than ramps for older guy like me😉

[oVeRdOsE.]

Originally Posted by Wgosma

Thanks. I've got N52 motor (no turbo)- I'm going to check RealOEM as perhaps my pump is different model. I don't see much posted about pumps on N52 failing at the relatively low 50K mike mark. Perhaps I can safely defer PM to 90-100K mile mark.

I have access to a lift, if I DIY that seems better route than ramps for older guy like me��

About the same difficulty on the N52.

See e90 n52 failure rate, its about the same .
You wont find much info on F25 N52.

[Wgosma]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

About the same difficulty on the N52.

See e90 n52 failure rate, its about the same .
You wont find much info on F25 N52.

Thanks. I found a couple of rather lengthy threads on the E90 water pump issue, one on this site and another on BimmerFest. There were 'survey's done asking for mileage at failure, BUT it seems on both boards the survey was simply 'E90' model cars, so the results are a mixture of N52 & N54/55 if I have the motor models correct.

Below is from BimmerFest thread, one guy apparently attempted to summarize results.

I will say in reading quite a number, tho not every post, I read several comments stating significantly longer life of the pumps in the cars w/N52 motors vs. turbo N55's. Then again, maybe that's just my confirmation bias since I've got the N52 ...???

The pumps for the N55's are made by Siemens/VDO, and they have a plastic housing on the hydraulic (fluid handling) side. The pumps for the N52 are made by Pierburg and have a metal housing. But hard to make any definitive conclusions, most of the failures I've read about seem to be the with the electric motor, not the impeller/pump part of the assembly.

Then there are the odd outliers...like one guy's near new G01 who's pump went kaput at 5K miles! There is no definitive predicting on this stuff.

Bill

(below from BimmerFest E90 forum)



06-30-2018, 09:32 AM
beberle beberle is offline
Registered User
Location: Atlanta

Thanks Tuna! I did a lot of searching and still didn’t find that post.

I’ve done some # crunching based on those results for future reference:

- Overall failure rate of 650 E90s: 32%
- Failure rate w less than 90k miles: 31%
-Less than 60k miles: 10%
- Failure rate w/ more than 90k: 35%
- past 90k is getting non-linear
- 90-105k: 25%
- 105-120: 33%
- 120k+: 52%

- 87 of 650 E90s have original pump past 90k: 13%
- 13 E90s w/ more than 120k have original pumps: 2%

[________]

I bought my E90 N52 with 50k miles and the pump had already failed and been replaced.

It's well documented the pumps fail on any of these engines at the same rate.

[oVeRdOsE.]

fyi, I've opened the N55 water pump. Many part that can fail.