[MoneySB]

So I finally got the infamous water pump failure at 110k on the odometer, thought I'd share my story. Not surprised either since it was the original factory water pump!

So I was on the way to work on the highway and my heater suddenly started blowing ice cold air and I could hear the fan at the front of the car getting real loud, almost sounded like a plane engine. At this point I kind of knew what was coming since I read/watched a lot of videos on the water pump failures in E92's.

About 20 seconds after that I got the yellow light "Engine overheating! Drive moderately!". At this point I was certain the water pump was done so I started to change lanes to get over to the right, I was in the second lane from the left (4 lanes on the highway). I also noticed the oil temperature rising very very fast and my car went into limp mode with almost no power when pressing the gas pedal.

Then literally 10 seconds after the yellow light I got the red engine light "Engine overheated! Pull over and shut off the engine." or something along those words. I pull over to the shoulder and waited about 5 minutes for the car to cool down, the oil temperature also started to go down but very very slowly.

After this I continued to drive to work but very conservatively, didn't go over the speed of 40, hazards on and driving the in most right lane to avoid causing traffic in case I need to pull over again because the oil temperature would rise every time I would press the gas pedal for 5 seconds.

I miraculously made it to work. After work I had the car towed to my warranty/indy shop and had them replace the water pump (3rd party/aftermarket warranty btw).

All in all, not the most pleasant experience but I thought I'd share my story to show others what happens before the pump fails. There is literally NO WARNING whatsoever, from cold air blowing to being stranded on the side of the highway all happened under 1 minute.

[JeanCa]

Had a similar experience on my n55. Got into limp mode and had to stop on the side of the road until the car cooled off. But the difference is that it happened at 65K miles. So yours lasted quite a bit.

[MoneySB]

Originally Posted by JeanCa

Had a similar experience on my n55. Got into limp mode and had to stop on the side of the road until the car cooled off. But the difference is that it happened at 65K miles. So yours lasted quite a bit.

Ahh bummer but that’s actually about the same as mine, I meant 112k Kilometres** on the odometer, that’s almost 65k miles of my math is correct

[only1harry]

That's BMW for you. How much does it cost to replace the water pump? Do they normally install new or a rebuilt?

I am at 46k with my '11 335i, so I 'll be having that beautiful experience not too long from now. I am afraid something else will break so I don't drive it much. Only when the weather is nice Maybe that's why the original battery lasted 7 years. Replaced it today.. But I had the turbo charge pipe blow up on me at 42k mi. The plastic coolant POS tank crack at 44k, blown/leaky shocks at 38k, blown tension rod bushings at 35k, some other cracked bushings, glazed/bad rotors at 33k mi.. cracked valve cover at 32k, bad lower U-Joint (steering) at 30k, on and on and on... Most of that after the warranty, and now it feels like a tie rod or ball joint is going

[MoneySB]

Originally Posted by only1harry

That's BMW for you. How much does it cost to replace the water pump? Do they normally install new or a rebuilt?

I am at 46k with my '11 335i, so I 'll be having that beautiful experience not too long from now. I am afraid something else will break so I don't drive it much. Only when the weather is nice Maybe that's why the original battery lasted 7 years. Replaced it today.. But I had the turbo charge pipe blow up on me at 42k mi. The plastic coolant POS tank crack at 44k, blown/leaky shocks at 38k, blown tension rod bushings at 35k, some other cracked bushings, glazed/bad rotors at 33k mi.. cracked valve cover at 32k, bad lower U-Joint (steering) at 30k, on and on and on... Most of that after the warranty, and now it feels like a tie rod or ball joint is going

The original bill (before warranty) was around $1200. The water pump itself was $725 CAD so I’m guessing it was brand new OEM because they go for the same price. I’ll see if I can get the part numbers from the invoice.

Labour was 3 hours at the rate of $125 an hour which is $375 CAD. Lubrico warranty covered the water pump + labour for it.

What they didn’t cover was the thermostat, 3 bolts and coolant. So I had to pay $220 for the thermostat, $60 for coolant, $5 for the bolts and half an hour labour for the thermostat, so I had to pay roughly $450, whereas the bill would’ve been at least $1500 if I had no warranty and had to pay out of pocket which would’ve killed my wallet and sanity.

Oh man just looking at the list of stuff that went wrong for you after warranty makes me get anxiety my original factory battery lasted quite a while too, I replaced it 2 weeks ago because it was making my electronics tweak really bad and the cranks were getting unbearably rough in the -30 degrees temperatures here in Canada. Would all that stuff have been covered if you were still in warranty tho? CPO?

[catcher22]

yep. classic.

[MoneySB]

Just to add on to the story, I also had a weird issue with the oil level indicator in the iDrive. It would show 1 mark less than 'max' and after a few minutes it would show this:

This happened a day or two before my water pump failed. Could be somehow related?

[only1harry]

Now that's scary if the system can't measure the oil in the engine. There is no other way to check it.

You should start a new thread. This one is for the water pump which is pretty common. I don't think the "measurement inactive" error for the oil is common. Good luck!

[akk]

I had a very similar situation, but since I'm a noob and don't have idrive to tell me to pull over, I drove in limp mode with red temp light on for about 8 kms. Oil temp gauge showed around 130 degrees temp the whole time. Could I have broken something in my car? Not driving it cause I'm waiting for my shop to get the water pump and thermostat in...

[MoneySB]

Originally Posted by akk

I had a very similar situation, but since I'm a noob and don't have idrive to tell me to pull over, I drove in limp mode with red temp light on for about 8 kms. Oil temp gauge showed around 130 degrees temp the whole time. Could I have broken something in my car? Not driving it cause I'm waiting for my shop to get the water pump and thermostat in...

You might have... I drove mine to work slowly but it was around -20 degrees Celsius that time and my temps stayed pretty low. If your temperature was way above operating temperature you could have blown your head gasket. Ask the shop when you take it in

[juld0zer]

Originally Posted by MoneySB

Just to add on to the story, I also had a weird issue with the oil level indicator in the iDrive. It would show 1 mark less than 'max' and after a few minutes it would show this:

This happened a day or two before my water pump failed. Could be somehow related?

The oil level sensor and water pump communicate on the same bus.

[SKETTI]

Okay, so we are new to the BMW world. We have a '13 E92. While she is driving it, it will be fine then it will throw up the engine temp Drive moderately code then, almost immediately go into engine overheat limp mode. She can shut it off for literally a few seconds and then drive it again. Ours almost seems like a time issue because it will do it again in about 20 minutes. Regardless of how fast or slow you drive. Interestingly enough the oil temp gauge barely moves when the engine temp warning comes on. So I went and got a Bluetooth OBD reader and watched the temp as we were driving. It was running in the 185-190F range then instantly shot up well into the 200's F. I literally shut it off and waited maybe a minute and it had dropped back to 190 and stayed right in the 1900-200 range. Could this be a sensor problem or is it the water pump kicking in and out?

[FlyingBuckeye3]

Originally Posted by SKETTI

Okay, so we are new to the BMW world. We have a '13 E92. While she is driving it, it will be fine then it will throw up the engine temp Drive moderately code then, almost immediately go into engine overheat limp mode. She can shut it off for literally a few seconds and then drive it again. Ours almost seems like a time issue because it will do it again in about 20 minutes. Regardless of how fast or slow you drive. Interestingly enough the oil temp gauge barely moves when the engine temp warning comes on. So I went and got a Bluetooth OBD reader and watched the temp as we were driving. It was running in the 185-190F range then instantly shot up well into the 200's F. I literally shut it off and waited maybe a minute and it had dropped back to 190 and stayed right in the 1900-200 range. Could this be a sensor problem or is it the water pump kicking in and out?

My guess is the water pump is going out as my car did something similar, but the only way you can know for sure is to pull codes. I could drive my car around 1 hour before it would overheat, got the message to drive moderately and no more than a minute or two later I would get the overheat message. I could also pull over, let the car cool for a few minutes and get back on the road for another 20-30 minutes. My engine oil temperature never went above 250 degrees either.

Hope this helps!

[chrsimage]

Originally Posted by MoneySB

Just to add on to the story, I also had a weird issue with the oil level indicator in the iDrive. It would show 1 mark less than 'max' and after a few minutes it would show this:

This happened a day or two before my water pump failed. Could be somehow related?

Damn it. I literally starting having this problem today, and now the water pump stays on for about 30 seconds after I turn the car off. Question, did replacing the water pump resolve the oil level indicator issue?