Engine Overheating Warning - Limp Mode

[SharpAndCunning]

Morning Everyone,

2014 BMW X1 35i.

On the way to work today, I got a yellow warning that the engine was running hot and to drive carefully. This was, on the highway, I was cruising along fine for 45 minutes. Oil temp gauge normal. Maybe even a little bit on the cold side. But it's 29* out, at 80mph on the highway, I didn't think anything of it.

Before I could pull over ( 1 mile to exit) the red warning appeared and the car went into limp mode. I could hear the fans running hard,

I'm guessing this is the dreaded water pump. I don't have an code scanner at the moment.

I will say, yesterday, I noticed the heater was blowing cold randomly. It was right after I turned the heat down from HIGH to like 78*. I I didn't think much of it. But now, it's probably connected.

With this being a known problem, is there one of those warranties on this similar to the footwell module? I think I remember getting a letter about the thermostat, but I can't remember.

My car only has 56,000 miles..... I know they tend to fail, and I've seen some on the X3 reported at 35k, but damn. :/

[e36addict]

Yes, it's your water pump that has failed and no, unfortunately there is no sort of warranty extension on that part.

[SharpAndCunning]

Originally Posted by e36addict

Yes, it's your water pump that has failed and no, unfortunately there is no sort of warranty extension on that part.

There's not any kind of temperature sensor or anything that could cause this?

I'm guessing I should have the car towed? When it's idling, I can hear the fans kick on for 3-4 seconds and then shut right off.

I would guess if the thermostat failed, it wouldn't be doing that...


I tried two auto parts stores to scan for codes, but neither came up with anything.

[SharpAndCunning]

Also,

Has anyone replaced them with an aftermarket, other than VDO (who makes the OEM one), and had better luck?


I really don't want do this every 60k miles... I mean damn, a set of tires can last that long and a water pump doesn't!?

[SharpAndCunning]

Well, I might have bigger issues than I thought. I had the car towed home, and the coolant reservoir is pretty low. There appears to be some dried coolant around the cap.

I'm going to take the skid plate off in a few minutes and investigate.

I never got a low coolant warning, which seems really strange to me. There's no obvious signs of a leak...


edit* : So I was watching this video (because I had a hell of a time getting the top E Torx bolt out)

and the sound the electric pump makes when he's bleeding the system ( AT 17:00) is the sound I hear my pump make. It sounds like it spins up pretty fast, then slows down pretty quick. Then does it again 20/30 seconds later. Not sure if that's normal, or if the pumps in these cars run all the time, and speed up/slow down when they need to. It sounds like my OEM pump is at least running occasionally, so maybe it's not as bad as I was thinking. I'm hoping there's something obvious wrong with it, and that I didn't spend $500 for a new pump and thermostat prematurely, ha.

If anyone is watching, I'll update tomorrow, with photo's.