Cooling Problem & unknown item inline with heater hose....HELP

[jmr898]

My car is a 95 525i .....tonight my girl is driving the car and she calls me up she said as soon as she made a turn she heard a loud POP..then tons of steam from under the hood....she pulled over and turn the car of and called to yell at me...hahha...anyways i get there and notice the the upper radiator hose had broke away from the radiatior taking with it about a 1/2 inch of the radiatior where the house clamps onto....well after looking at it, there still was enough left on the radiator to reclamp the hose back on and fill with water and drive it home to repair the correct way....mostly new radiator.....anyways I get about 3 miles donw the road after fiixing that and putting coolent back in the system that was lost.....anyway all of a sudden the "Coolent Temp" pops up and the temp gauge read in the middle.....i quickly turned on the heat blower and then the needle fell to the left as if the cars was ice cold..... then about 15 sec later it spiked and pegged the Red.....i pulled over asap.....the car ran no longer then 45 sec after the "coolent temp" popped up......anyways there was steam comming from the firewall over on drivers side but it was so dark could not tell where on earth...i figured just my luck that maybe a heater hose poped a leak too at the same time.......what my luck...............anyways lucky for roadside towing from USAA for free ..when i got the car back to my garage and i was able to look more detailed.... i could see deep down that something was dripping .....over on drivers side firewall......Botom line i traced it down to a small item bolted down with 3 10mm nuts that has a few heater hose going into it and 2 electrical plugs with what looks like a cylinder shaped unit and two smaller cylinder shaped electric soilnoids .....the larger unit that has a heater hose comming out one end once i unbolted it and turned it over thinking it's one heather hose by a clamp leaking i come to find that there is a small hold on the bottom of this larger cylinder shaped item that looks as it's supose to have a hole there, and looking inside that tiny hole there seems to be a sliver item that moves a but, maybe some kind of piston shaped item ...not to sure........I must say I have more then basic knowledge around cars and I used to work on Hondas/Toyotas for almost 9 years and i have never seen this item before.......What is it because coolent is comming out that hole.......i have no idea what to call it or whats its purpose....i am guessing it has something to do with the climate control being that you can regulate the heat a little more precise then say a honda....

HElp I need my car back....I can send a pic to anyone that knows this car of what i am talking about.... becuase my coolent is leaking from there

THanks anyone

my direct e-mail is JohnR@mris.com

[BillionPa]

sounds like the heater valve..... 2 solenoids bolted with 3 10mm nuts on rubber dampers, with wires going to a plug a few inches toward the center of the car.

http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=HD53&mospid=47404&btnr=64_0114&hg=64&fg=18

part #15

[Paul in NZ]

and the cylindrical item is the auxillary coolant pump,its circulates the coolant through the heater,its why the heater works almost as soon as the coolant has any heat in it.

[jmr898]

what do you think about bypassing the item untill i get a replacement, does it affect anything other then just getting heat into the cabin faster?

[Anthony (M5 in Calgary)]

what do you think about bypassing the item untill i get a replacement, does it affect anything other then just getting heat into the cabin faster?

If the aux pump is leaking, take it out of the circuit. Remove hose 2 (actually much shorter than shown on the link) and fit hose 3 directly to the heater valve assy. Hose numbers come from the realoem page linked earlier.

[632 Regal]

it was a PITA when mine busted, hoses were too short to reconnect so I had to use a 1/2 piece of copper tubing and plug the 3rd with a spark plug (Champion)
If the aux pump is leaking, take it out of the circuit. Remove hose 2 (actually much shorter than shown on the link) and fit hose 3 directly to the heater valve assy. Hose numbers come from the realoem page linked earlier.

[Anthony (M5 in Calgary)]

it was a PITA when mine busted, hoses were too short to reconnect so I had to use a 1/2 piece of copper tubing and plug the 3rd with a spark plug (Champion)

Don't know about V8s, but on a 535 the hose from the engine feeding the pump easily transfers to the inlet of the heater valve assy. The short "C" shaped piece from the pump to the valve is left off. The way the pump and hoses fit it's evident they added the pump after noting output problems with the heater.

[winfred]

all of the e34s i've seen have the same heater valve/aux pump set up, the nose breaks off the pump when they get old


Don't know about V8s,