Hey pamo I glanced at the comments but I didn’t see anyone else mention this; the expansion tank can have a crack in it that only starts to leak when the cooling system has full pressure at temp. Maybe get the car to temp and pressurized and then take a peek at the tank?
12:09 hahahaha - love it 😊 last time I muttered those words because of carpet wetness was a clutch slave leak that turned the foam underlay to mush, shortly thereafter I took a box cutter to the carpet and that’s the day a race car was born 😌
Just the wet interior sucks let alone the coolant leak. I know from the carpet in my z3 quite how much water those carpets can absorb before you notice. Good luck sorting it out.
Hey big guy, hoping it’s not the head gasket. I’m glad you’re taking care of the wet carpet as I have a quite rusty 328is here in the states from the same issue. Hoping for the best!
Those expansion tank caps have a nasty habit of getting tight as you do them up without actually being seated. I usually loosen then tighten a couple of times to make sure. A suggestion for a method to find the leak (if it is one): degrease and fully dry the engine bay. Stick a sheet of clean cardboard underneath. Run it until it's nice and hot then maybe even give it a bit of throttle for a while. Look for the evidence below
I had wet carpets in the same fashion as you, for me water was coming from the rubber that seals the heater hoses going to the matrix at the firewall- try either replacing it or filling the area with silicone. hope it helps!
Hvac pipes and the orings.... Could also be a crack in the coolant flange that connects said pipes to the hoses that goes to the heater valve. I have had terrible experiences with bulkhead leaks into my cars
Yeah mate for the water you need another hvac SEAL. Mine was a dual climate system with the three pipes too like yours. P. N. 64118390433 www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133520916954
Hi Pamo, coolant system is a nightmare I spend 6 weekends trying to diagnose an overheating issue which was caused by airlock(tell you more in a min). I noticed on your expansion tank you don't have a coolant level sensor plugged in, I didn't either and noticed I had a small leak from that plastic nut(resolved that with plugin in a coolant level sensor). I also once had a pin sized hole on the pipe that goes to the heater matrix from the block and it wasn't till it got bigger that I was able to detect it. Have a good looks when the car is hot and engine Back to airlock issues, I actually though my cylinder head was away. I was so annoyed I was close to selling the car but it was fine I bought the CO2 Leak Tester Cylinder Head Gasket Tester Professional Car Leak Detector .The Draper 09544 Coolant Vacuum Refill Kit(You need an air compressor to use this tool) All I can say is im only ever using the tool to fill the e36 with coolant.Avoid airlock nightmares! Water in footwell structural issue coming from outside?
the test will not allways show u that the head gasket is blown. my lasy 325i had a w simmilar problems. First of. The head was curved so much that 3 and 4 piston was white because of burning coolant. But it smoked a lot. The hg tester showed nothing because it was no exhaust gass in the coolant system. it only sucked the water. Second problem. My radiator cap was broken and the car could build up a coolant pressure and every 50 km afer i put out the car the coolant leaked frome the coolant tank (on connecting with the radiator down below). This one was easy fix. 5 euro. Good luck man :)
I had a rad from ECP and the top of the expansion tank was terribly made. Like yours once pressure built up on a spirited run the cap would leak. That did leave a white stain though. I had to tighten the cap with mole grips once I realised
Have you considered that your coolant loss could just be the silicone hoses? Silicone leeches water at high temperature and a drop in coolant level is quite common when running silicone coolant hoses. I realise you may have thought about this already and decided the amount of loss is too great compared to your run time, but from what you described, it seems pheasible; especially as E36 engine bays get bastard hot.
Worst case scenario you got a crack in the block! needs to be hot maybe running to see that leak! Are you sure you didn't run it lean once and it just came out the overflow from overheating? Also did you retorque the head after bedding it in coz your right, it could be the head gasket.
"For a start she doesn't overheat." Come to Dubai. =D On a side note, the video is really wobbly/trippy/jiggly... Kinda made me dizzy watching this one, just a heads up..
@@ManSeeksCivic - noOOOOO don't apologize, just giving a heads up - dunno if it was the camera or what. Strange for something that can record 4k is what I was getting at..
It isn't good with motion. I don't regularly move around with it too much. The original footage has been stabilised in post but it's still rubbish. Natalie was not a happy bunny when I gave her the raw footage. I should know better by now.
Hey pamo I glanced at the comments but I didn’t see anyone else mention this; the expansion tank can have a crack in it that only starts to leak when the cooling system has full pressure at temp. Maybe get the car to temp and pressurized and then take a peek at the tank?
12:09 hahahaha - love it 😊 last time I muttered those words because of carpet wetness was a clutch slave leak that turned the foam underlay to mush, shortly thereafter I took a box cutter to the carpet and that’s the day a race car was born 😌
Oh the beauty of frustration 😂
Just the wet interior sucks let alone the coolant leak. I know from the carpet in my z3 quite how much water those carpets can absorb before you notice. Good luck sorting it out.
Hey big guy, hoping it’s not the head gasket. I’m glad you’re taking care of the wet carpet as I have a quite rusty 328is here in the states from the same issue. Hoping for the best!
Those expansion tank caps have a nasty habit of getting tight as you do them up without actually being seated. I usually loosen then tighten a couple of times to make sure. A suggestion for a method to find the leak (if it is one): degrease and fully dry the engine bay. Stick a sheet of clean cardboard underneath. Run it until it's nice and hot then maybe even give it a bit of throttle for a while. Look for the evidence below
I had wet carpets in the same fashion as you, for me water was coming from the rubber that seals the heater hoses going to the matrix at the firewall- try either replacing it or filling the area with silicone. hope it helps!
Get a coolant pressure tester mate!! Check sunroof drain tubes for water intrusion leaks. Good luck 🤞
Hvac pipes and the orings.... Could also be a crack in the coolant flange that connects said pipes to the hoses that goes to the heater valve. I have had terrible experiences with bulkhead leaks into my cars
Yeah mate for the water you need another hvac SEAL. Mine was a dual climate system with the three pipes too like yours. P. N. 64118390433
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133520916954
Hi Pamo, coolant system is a nightmare I spend 6 weekends trying to diagnose an overheating issue which was caused by airlock(tell you more in a min).
I noticed on your expansion tank you don't have a coolant level sensor plugged in, I didn't either and noticed I had a small leak from that plastic nut(resolved that with plugin in a coolant level sensor).
I also once had a pin sized hole on the pipe that goes to the heater matrix from the block and it wasn't till it got bigger that I was able to detect it. Have a good looks when the car is hot and engine
Back to airlock issues, I actually though my cylinder head was away. I was so annoyed I was close to selling the car but it was fine I bought the CO2 Leak Tester Cylinder Head Gasket Tester Professional Car Leak Detector
.The Draper 09544 Coolant Vacuum Refill Kit(You need an air compressor to use this tool) All I can say is im only ever using the tool to fill the e36 with coolant.Avoid airlock nightmares!
Water in footwell structural issue coming from outside?
Thanks for the pointers 👍
the test will not allways show u that the head gasket is blown. my lasy 325i had a w simmilar problems. First of. The head was curved so much that 3 and 4 piston was white because of burning coolant. But it smoked a lot. The hg tester showed nothing because it was no exhaust gass in the coolant system. it only sucked the water. Second problem. My radiator cap was broken and the car could build up a coolant pressure and every 50 km afer i put out the car the coolant leaked frome the coolant tank (on connecting with the radiator down below). This one was easy fix. 5 euro. Good luck man :)
I had a rad from ECP and the top of the expansion tank was terribly made. Like yours once pressure built up on a spirited run the cap would leak. That did leave a white stain though. I had to tighten the cap with mole grips once I realised
I hope it’s nothing serious. On the other hand, iron block is handy if you have to re torque head bolts regularly :)
Mine looks like its leaked from the HG under the exhaust manifold. Loosing similar amount of coolant but passed sniff test
Have you considered that your coolant loss could just be the silicone hoses? Silicone leeches water at high temperature and a drop in coolant level is quite common when running silicone coolant hoses. I realise you may have thought about this already and decided the amount of loss is too great compared to your run time, but from what you described, it seems pheasible; especially as E36 engine bays get bastard hot.
I didn't know this so thank you for the insight. It looses very little. I'll hope for a simple resolution.
You got this bro, let your positive karma empower you!
Worst case scenario you got a crack in the block! needs to be hot maybe running to see that leak! Are you sure you didn't run it lean once and it just came out the overflow from overheating? Also did you retorque the head after bedding it in coz your right, it could be the head gasket.
You would smell even one drop of coolant if it was leaking into the inside of the car
"For a start she doesn't overheat."
Come to Dubai. =D
On a side note, the video is really wobbly/trippy/jiggly... Kinda made me dizzy watching this one, just a heads up..
It's was shite filming by yours truly. Sorry.
@@ManSeeksCivic - noOOOOO don't apologize, just giving a heads up - dunno if it was the camera or what. Strange for something that can record 4k is what I was getting at..
It isn't good with motion. I don't regularly move around with it too much. The original footage has been stabilised in post but it's still rubbish. Natalie was not a happy bunny when I gave her the raw footage. I should know better by now.