E39 cooling fan

[micron750]

Guys our E39 went into the red yesterday the fan didn't seem to be working,i turned off the car waited about 5 mins restarted and the fan came on its done this twice now any ideas on a fix??

[Pickled Piper]

it's a viscous coupled fan as opposed to an electric one. Could be a failed viscous coupling.

pp

[Fox-]

micron750 said:

Guys our E39 went into the red yesterday the fan didn't seem to be working,i turned off the car waited about 5 mins restarted and the fan came on its done this twice now any ideas on a fix??

Which fan are you talking about? There are two on the E39.

[fluffnik]

Much of the E39 cooling system has an effective 60k life - it's likely wise to replace the pump, thermostat and radiator too if they're over ~45k old...

[dcb]

fluffnik said:

Much of the E39 cooling system has an effective 60k life - it's likely wise to replace the pump, thermostat and radiator too if they're over ~45k old...

I dunno about 60K miles, I think it's
more about age than mileage.

Mine got to 115K and ten years before it broke.

My mates's 540 got to about a dozen years and 140K before
going pop.

[Fox-]

dcb said:

I dunno about 60K miles, I think it's
more about age than mileage.

Mine got to 115K and ten years before it broke.

My mates's 540 got to about a dozen years and 140K before
going pop.

I think it's age as well but I think its closer to 5-6 years old! My cooling system imploded at 5 years old, and a couple of friends with 530i's both lost the cooling system at 6 years old.

[nottyash]

Ive bought a 2001 525 with 75k on, just had £1100 spend at BMW as the water pp went pop. Still has a hole in the radiater shroud.

[micron750]

Been a ferking nightmare the secondary fan wasn't always going round...don't ask me!! it seems the water pump was leaking so the electric fan was cutting in due to an airlock luckly we caught it before it damaged the head so replaced the water pump and thermostat bled the system, all seems well i think we've been extremly lucky.

[Waynester]

Recently had a similar problem, turned out to be a broken bleed valve, its only plastic and had snapped half way down the thread.
I had the garage check everything else cooling related & all no problem. Thats on a 14 y/o E39 with 111,000 miles...all original.

[Waynester]

Recently had a similar problem, turned out to be a broken bleed valve, its only plastic and had snapped half way down the thread.
I had the garage check everything else cooling related & all no problem. Thats on a 14 y/o E39 with 111,000 miles...all original.

[MoonMonkey]

Guys, I went to see a really nice 52 plate 530i Sport today. Full BMW history, 4 green lights, 100k miles etc etc. However, after firing her up the viscous fan coupling was very noisy and you could see the play in the coupling. Now although there were no obvious coolant leaks the coolant level did look a tad low when cold.

The car is at a local trader and he has offered to get it put right but is it a case of running for the hills due to the other potential problems there could be...??

I'm due to speak with him on Wed for an update.

[E24man]

If you ever see the temp rising unduly on a modern car get the air-conditioning switched ON as the fans are very powerful and will get some cooling back into the radiator.

HTH