Overheating :(

Well I've had 6+ years with nothing more than a blown tyre so I've not done too badly. (now 102k miles)

On the way home the car bonged with a temperature warning (this was after 3 miles or so) and the gauge was just nudging the start of the red. Pulled over waited about 20 minutes and restarted with the cabin temp now set to max (was on min). Now the temperature gauge is exactly half way and didn't move until I turned the engine off at home (5-10 mintues) later.

The top hose to the rad was hot when the engine was over temp.

I could get coolant out of the bleed screw on the radiator no problem.

It's an M50 so after some reading it seems that the most likely suspect is a broken plastic water pump. ( http://www.bmwe34.net/Wiki/tiki-inde...ge=Overheating )

Any suggestions ? I suspect the easiest way forward is to replace the water pump first and see what happens.

Is the fan clutch ok?

Probably right about the plastic impeller breaking. It usually breakes into large pieces and most can be recovered with a pair of long fingers. My only suggtestion would be to backflush the system to get all of the pieces out.

Wool