Discussion
Hi guys,
I need to top-up the coolant slightly on my N52 engine 3 series. Trying to make sure that I use the right stuff, I ordered a bottle of "official" BMW coolant.
It says on the bottle that you should dilute with water.
Can I just use tap water for this, or should I be using distilled water or something fancy?
Thanks,
Steve.
I need to top-up the coolant slightly on my N52 engine 3 series. Trying to make sure that I use the right stuff, I ordered a bottle of "official" BMW coolant.
It says on the bottle that you should dilute with water.
Can I just use tap water for this, or should I be using distilled water or something fancy?
Thanks,
Steve.
Thanks guys - how about tap water that's been through a water softener? I probably only need to mix up 500ml (if that) - just a top-up.
Not sure why its lost coolant in the first place - thats the next job ... no apparent leaks anywhere, it's lost less than 500ml over the course of a year, so a fairly slow leak, if there is one.
Not sure why its lost coolant in the first place - thats the next job ... no apparent leaks anywhere, it's lost less than 500ml over the course of a year, so a fairly slow leak, if there is one.
Edited by stevesuk on Friday 3rd November 15:19
I ask the Indie that does mine to give me a 25 litre drum of spare each time they re-do the radiator on my E39. Once I'm needing to top it off more than once every 1000 miles, or just under two years since it was replaced, I book it in for a warrantied replacement on the radiator, and just pay for the workshop time.
Does that help?
Does that help?
stevesuk said:
Not sure why its lost coolant in the first place - thats the next job ... no apparent leaks anywhere, it's lost less than 500ml over the course of a year, so a fairly slow leak, if there is one.
On my old E91 that symptom was a head gasket failure, when the car was just under three years old, so I was lucky and got it done under warranty. That was an LCI 58 plate 320D. Lowtimer said:
On my old E91 that symptom was a head gasket failure, when the car was just under three years old, so I was lucky and got it done under warranty. That was an LCI 58 plate 320D.
This was one of my worries... although I guess the 2.5 petrol is a rather different design to the 4 pot diesel? There's no contamination in the expansion tank. Lack of other knowledge, I wonder if there's a very small leak somewhere - so small that the evidence is evaporating away immediately.Our lads 525i had a habit of losing coolant to the extent that the previous owner spent a fortune at the garage, and still it lost coolant. He gave up and our lad bought it for £300, yup three hundred quid. It was the heater matrix that was losing the coolant so poured in some rad weld type stuff and 18 months later 10,000 miles, he is still commuting in it, no problems.
crankedup said:
Our lads 525i had a habit of losing coolant to the extent that the previous owner spent a fortune at the garage, and still it lost coolant. He gave up and our lad bought it for £300, yup three hundred quid. It was the heater matrix that was losing the coolant so poured in some rad weld type stuff and 18 months later 10,000 miles, he is still commuting in it, no problems.
Since it's losing coolant at a rate of some what less than half a litre a year, if it stays at that level I'll just keep topping it up every few months for the time being It's a 12 year old car next month, so I guess its just one of those things. crankedup said:
helix402 said:
Tap water is fine. It’s what BMW dealers mix coolant with.
Depends upon where you live and the ‘hardness’ of the tap water. Our tap water is very hard and I would never use it to top up car radiators. Hard water leads to scaling problems
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