MTranter00

Hi everyone, so I was coming back from a football match yesterday and I was stuck in traffic for about an hour stop start. All of a sudden overheating message came up followed by loss of power (foot to the floor just to pull away). I pulled over let it cool but only made it another mile or so before it went again.

I had the AA come out and look at it and they couldn’t find a problem. Checked the coolant and water pump both fine and working. The fan fuses were checked and all fine. Revved the engine standing to see if we could get it to do it again and nothing. Fans and radiator engaged like normal. Ragged it around a large car park getting it hot and still absolutely fine. I drove it the 115 miles home with no issues. Engine oil is topped up and fine as it was serviced only 1500 miles ago.

any ideas what could have caused the overheating issue before I spend a fortune at a specialist?

all help is greatly appreciated I’ve not owned the car long and love it to bits.

twh

Read the ODB code and see what's there.

Sounds like classic water pump is dying. Many times the water pump just dies straight away. You get the red iDrive warning and just enough warning and engine power to make it to the side of the road. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the water pump is dying and not dead, and you get the yellow iDrive warning to drive gently. On two N52 cars, I've replaced 3 water pumps. Two iDrive dead ones and one iDrive yellow one. Even the two red ones, I let the car cool down and still drove it home. One red warning was a couple blocks away from the house and another a couple miles away.

Now, long shot...perhaps there is something wonky with the water pump connector or fuse. That might be worth a look.

MTranter00

thanks for getting back so quick.

ive used my friends Carly reader and the code I’ve got is 2efe which looks like fan however the AA mechanic yesterday said it was working fine. Any tips on testing it? I gave it a quick 5km drive to get it warmer but the fan wasn’t on when I stopped again

thanks again

donpb

You could have a dying thermostat and / or water pump.

BMW cooling fans do not need to stay on all the time like some cars.

.

seanjordan20

If temps are warmer where you are you can run the car for 17 mins and the fan should kick on. Make sure the a/c is off. Your code is pointing to a bad fan. The mechanic could be wrong especially if the a/c was running when he looked. I would trust what my car is telling me before trusting a mechanic that doesn't specialize in foreign cars. Your code tells you everything but there's tests you can do before replacing the fan. If you had a proper scan tool you could run the tests from there but Carly won't get you further than where you are now.