Driving home on Wednesday I heard a noise getting on the freeway… making my way home with everything normal and trying to avoid the flooded roads, I get home with no issues on the dash board or over heating. Once stopped the puddle starts to form under the car… I put a finger into the Liquid puddle to find out it is coolant. i open the hood and peer into the engine compartment to find the shroud and the fan in a million pieces and black plastic chunks everywhere… The radiator now peeing out the coolant where two fan blades had pierced the metal fins of the radiator. How did I make it home? How was this explosion of the fan blade not a belt breaker, coolant emptying event?

The world may never know but I had enough coolant int he car to maintain temp and once i stopped the car, the event of cooling may have allowed metal to shrink just enough to let the remaining fluid to ooze out.

My wife says that once this car is back on the road I have to go buy a used truck if I plan on driving through flood waters… I guess I could really use a truck, but I want one I can work on and not too new and too nice, it is a truck so I will be using it accordingly.

The fan blades that are missing on the thing that kinda looks like a fan.

Finished prepping the engine for the new parts.

Old thermostat out and removal of the original water pump.

New belts will be the easy part of this project. Left is the new tension pulley wheel and  

Old radiator and miscellaneous parts that will be replaced.

New radiator!

Gaskets will be replaced as well, I real like that Ace True value carries rubber gaskets, both metric and standard.

Still amazed that the fan clutch assembly did not fail.

Old water pump and old hoses, still don’t know how they didn’t get punctured, even the water pump pulley wheel was damaged (cracked housing) by a fan blade.

Hello again alternator! I just replaced this guy about three months ago!

Parts and level sensor awaiting install. Going to get up early Saturday morning and put all the parts in!

For a 17 year old car… this Bimmer still looks new!

Lots of water, as it is still hot in the garage here in Green Valley. 85 Today.

Above (and below), this part is the new expansion tank and in the plastic bag the brand new shroud.

 

I am sure it will all go together faster than removal as I have made sure to prep and clean… just waiting for the final delivery of the last few parts… they say it will be delivered by 9PM! Gotta love Prime! Most parts I bought for this project were from Pelican Parts specializing in BMW,  VW and Benz… with a ton of Porsche parts too.

More photos and details once I get the parts!